Some computers are allergic to RAM, I swear.

[keyb_gr]

Yes, it's the infamous Precision 380 workstation again.

Total list of casualties so far:

• Samsung 512 meg DDR2 stick #1.
• nVidia Quadro FX4400 - obvious memory defect. (Man, we should have sold that one while it still worked. It's a BEAST of a card.)
• Samsung 512 meg DDR2 stick #2.

I discovered the last one when installing the new graphics card, as I couldn't get a new ForceWare version onto the system uncorrupted. (Wish me luck for that, this GF 8400GS is so new a hardware revision - device ID 10C3 - that even the supplied 255.10 driver didn't know it. Very smart, EVGA. I hope 275.33 will work with Win2k. Otherwise we'd have to go for plan B, find an old 8500GT that is accepted by 169.61. At least the system will now enter BIOS setup immediately when asked at bootup, which it never did after the BIOS update when the Quadro was still in place.)

Now all the dead memory was manufactured by Samsung, and as the parts presumably were original to this machine or another one like it, they all date to the first half of 2005 (week 20 for the DDR2, week 4 for the GDDR3). All BGA, too, though the faults seem semiconductor related. A coincidence? I don't know.

This stupid system isn't even used all that much, and it's down in the basement, where ambient temps rarely go over 18°C. The FX4400 sure heated up things though - it blows its warm air back into the case instead of straight outside as modern ones do. I bet the system draws about 100W less on the mains side now...

[Mr. Perfect]

Win2k.

 
*twitch*

[HaveANiceDay]

*twitch*

Don't. It could be WinME!

[The Solutor]

I discovered the last one when installing the new graphics card, as I couldn't get a new ForceWare version onto the system uncorrupted. (Wish me luck for that, this GF 8400GS is so new a hardware revision - device ID 10C3 - that even the supplied 255.10 driver didn't know it. Very smart, EVGA. I hope 275.33 will work with Win2k. Otherwise we'd have to go for plan B, find an old 8500GT that is accepted by 169.61. At least the system will now enter BIOS setup immediately when asked at bootup, which it never did after the BIOS update when the Quadro was still in place.)

Just edit the inf and add the needed PCI VID and PID, or better edit the rows from a similar vga to avoid mistakes.

[keyb_gr]

Update: There was no way in hell I could make the card work with Win2k. Turns out this "8400GS" uses a newfangled GT218 core (a 40 nm job first seen in 2009) and has a lot more to do with a Geforce G210, in fact EVGA also sells an identical-looking 210 with same clock rates. Remember, kids: 8400GS with DDR3 = G210. Hence the old driver only hiccupped badly when persuaded to accept the card, and the new one does not run on 2000 at all. (And hey, 2000 never was a bad OS, it's just a little long in the tooth now.)

In the end my dad invested into an OEM copy of XP Pro SP3 (~20€). There was no way I could persuade that to do an upgrade install (grr), so while I could manually integrate the old user profile and several important things have already been set up (graphics, chipset, onboard sound, network, printer drivers, editor, search tool, archiver, browser), there's a bunch of software that's waiting to be reinstalled. Surprisingly enough, activation worked painlessly after entering the CD key from the supplied license.

But yes, the graphics card works beautifully. Hibernation also is a lot quicker.

Recently, I measured power consumption of the machine unter 2000. I did have RMclock installed, though it didn't seen to make much of a difference. Idle 100 W, fully loaded 150 W, plus monitor (BenQ FP992) 34 W. Does that seem OK for a system with a 3.2 GHz Prescott (P4 640 - 2 meg L2, N0 step)?

[woody]

Dunno about the consumption question, but I sport a G210, just because it was the smallest and most power-saving video at the time.

[bluecar5556]

BGA and lead-free solder has to be some of the worst inventions pertaining to computers in recent times.  05-06' xbox 360's can burn in ****!  Just poking fun at your computer's issues and venting, carry on.

[woody]

What's better than BGA then?

[bluecar5556]

What's better than BGA then?

An actual socket with gold pins.  BGA cannot "stretch" as readily to compensate for the thermal dynamics from hot to cold to hot.  Techically, it's healthier for the computer to leave it ON in that sense.

[keyb_gr]

BGA and lead-free solder has to be some of the worst inventions pertaining to computers in recent times.

See Thinkpad board baking and all that jazz. BGAs themselves can't be that bad though, Intel chipsets used them since the 440BX and I'm not aware of any major issues. In fact, I'm using a BX board right now.

HD acceleration is pretty neat (MPC-HC required, VLC supports DxVA 2.0 only so far). System load with those DVB-S2 recordings dropped to about 20% from >100%, for AVC1 encoded 720p stuff from the interwebs it's about a factor of 2.

[The Solutor]

See Thinkpad board baking and all that jazz. BGAs themselves can't be that bad though, Intel chipsets used them since the 440BX and I'm not aware of any major issues. In fact, I'm using a BX board right now.

BGA itself is bad only because excludes the chip replacement unless a costly equipement is a vailable, but as you said is more than a proven technology.

The evil is BGA+Solder free alloys+ not great expertize about them.

The XBOX suffered an huge 33% of faulty boards, a lot of nvidia based laptop and VGAs too.

Likely the news alloys are being improved now and the soldering experitse too.

[bluecar5556]

My conclusion on why the xbox 360 failed so miserably is not because of one, two but THREE deadly combinations that sealed the demise of the 2005-2006 models.  The mainboard was not bolted down flat due to the two center stand-off's being 1MM higher than the rest on the corners.  During the manufacturing process, they did not apply enough heat when seating the BGA CPU and GPU, evident from the sold solder joints.  Since lead-free solder has a higher melting point, this only alleviated the issue.

Now back to BGA.  BGA, when done properly by using enough heat, bolted down flush or in a way to keep thermal flexing to a minimum, it can be very reliable.  Chips having a socket with pins are able to expand and contract from the thermal-dynamics of turning it on and off more readily.  Socketed chips are more forgiving and actually allow upgrading, after all, computer's use rare finite resources and making them non-upgradable is only filling up land fills faster.  I'm also not very fond of markets cutting cost to the point where processors and chips are easily removed, to requiring a hot air re-work station to achieve the same task.

Lead-free solder is being forced on the public by not allowing it to be used on products in past few years or so.  It is inferior to leaded solder in many ways such as being less mailable (this is more than likely why BGA is at a disadvantage when it comes to stretching when used with lead-free solder) and has a higher melting point.  Leaded solder is easier to work with when soldering then the latter.  I could go on but my point is why get rid of something that works?   Just don't let your kids take your electronics apart, handle them, or allow them to put it in their mouths.  Leaded paint from China kid's toys might have started the whole anti-lead hysteria, I mean seriously?  LEADED paint on kid's toys?  Again, why get rid of something that works?  

My point is there are no advantages for the customer but only for the manufacturers cutting costs and I absolutely despise corporate conglomerate dictatorships buying out other corporate conglomerate's solely because someone can make a part a few cents cheaper.  This world is propetually wasting finite resources on this Earth that took billions of years to create just to end up in land fills only years later, all for the mighty "dollar" that is only worth the ink and paper it's printed on.  Someone stop me, I could go on and on but you get the idea?

It's quite comical watching people playing the board game monopoly, thinking it's "just a game" but I see more resemblance between that game and reality than anything else fathomable.

[woody]

Now back to BGA.  Chips having a socket with pins ...

Speaking from SI perspective, any better ideas than BGA?

[bluecar5556]

Speaking from SI perspective, any better ideas than BGA?

If there were, wouldn't they be using the cheaper alternative instead?

You know what I like better than BGA?  Windows ME, I kid I kid!