After severe problems with a machine from Evesham, which resulted in me rejecting it as 'unfit for purpose' under the Sale and Supply of Goods Act, I ordered a new machine from Scan, based on their 3XS range, spec as follows:
Asus P5W64 WS Professional i975X, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
700W Tagan U35 Easycon PCI Express, SLi, Molex, EPS 12V, 80% eff.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 S775, 2.67Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache
Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium Super Aero Flower Cooler
4Gb (4X1Gb) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator, PC8500, 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15
256MB Sapphire Radeon X1950GT, PCI-E(x16), Mem 1200MHz GDDR3, GPU 500MHz, 36 Pipes, RoHS
2 x 80 Gb Samsung HD080HJ SpinPoint P80, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ
2 x 750Gb Seagate ST375064AS Barracuda 7200RMP, SATA2, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, NCQ
Mitsumi FA404M 1.44 Black FDD+Int USB2 7 in 1 Card Reader (SM/MMC/SD/CF/MD/MS) Fits in 3.5" FDD Bay
2 x NEC AD7170S-0B 18x DVD±RW/RAM black internal
Creative Audigy soundcard
Microsoft Windows XP PRO Edition SP2b (Release 2)
23" Viewsonic VP231WB Thinedge Widescreen DVI/VGA (1920x1200)
However, I am beginning to feel jinxed...
The new machine has, the past couple of mornings, taken about 2 seconds between pressing the power switch and any activity occurring, eg LEDs, fans or disks spinning up. After that first, physically, cold boot, the system responds normally. There are no signs of problems when the machine is running, and further 'cold' boots don't have that pause.
I gave Scan a buzz, they asked me to update the BIOS, but I found I'm already on the latest version. I called again, they asked me to run Memtest in probe mode, it immediately locked up. I called again, and was asked to run it in normal mode (apparently, it can't run in probe mode with the 975 chipset,. As I was talking to the same person throughout, why did he ask me to run it in probe mode in the first place?), it ran and the memory passed.
I called Scan again, I was told it might be a dry joint on the motherboard, or it might be the power supply. I was also told that this motherboard was slow to boot, and they would change it if I wanted them to (so why supply it?). I then pointed out that I had changed the fan settings from silent to performance, and asked if this could have an effect. I was told it might.
So, several hours later, I haven't found anything wrong with the machine, and I am left wondering whether this is a quirk or an early warning of problems to come. I suspect the former, but it would be nice to have the feeling that Scan knew what they were doing - and I don't have that.
Any thoughts gratefully received.
Asus P5W64 WS Professional i975X, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
700W Tagan U35 Easycon PCI Express, SLi, Molex, EPS 12V, 80% eff.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 S775, 2.67Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache
Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium Super Aero Flower Cooler
4Gb (4X1Gb) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator, PC8500, 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15
256MB Sapphire Radeon X1950GT, PCI-E(x16), Mem 1200MHz GDDR3, GPU 500MHz, 36 Pipes, RoHS
2 x 80 Gb Samsung HD080HJ SpinPoint P80, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ
2 x 750Gb Seagate ST375064AS Barracuda 7200RMP, SATA2, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, NCQ
Mitsumi FA404M 1.44 Black FDD+Int USB2 7 in 1 Card Reader (SM/MMC/SD/CF/MD/MS) Fits in 3.5" FDD Bay
2 x NEC AD7170S-0B 18x DVD±RW/RAM black internal
Creative Audigy soundcard
Microsoft Windows XP PRO Edition SP2b (Release 2)
23" Viewsonic VP231WB Thinedge Widescreen DVI/VGA (1920x1200)
However, I am beginning to feel jinxed...
The new machine has, the past couple of mornings, taken about 2 seconds between pressing the power switch and any activity occurring, eg LEDs, fans or disks spinning up. After that first, physically, cold boot, the system responds normally. There are no signs of problems when the machine is running, and further 'cold' boots don't have that pause.
I gave Scan a buzz, they asked me to update the BIOS, but I found I'm already on the latest version. I called again, they asked me to run Memtest in probe mode, it immediately locked up. I called again, and was asked to run it in normal mode (apparently, it can't run in probe mode with the 975 chipset,. As I was talking to the same person throughout, why did he ask me to run it in probe mode in the first place?), it ran and the memory passed.
I called Scan again, I was told it might be a dry joint on the motherboard, or it might be the power supply. I was also told that this motherboard was slow to boot, and they would change it if I wanted them to (so why supply it?). I then pointed out that I had changed the fan settings from silent to performance, and asked if this could have an effect. I was told it might.
So, several hours later, I haven't found anything wrong with the machine, and I am left wondering whether this is a quirk or an early warning of problems to come. I suspect the former, but it would be nice to have the feeling that Scan knew what they were doing - and I don't have that.
Any thoughts gratefully received.
