Memory chip question

[RF]

My thanks to you all for your comments

Thanks Philo for your comments on the memory chips.

----- Original Message -----
From: "kony" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware
Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 10:43 PM
Subject: Re: Memory chip question

In any fan with a sleeve bearing you should periodically
lube it, not waiting for signs of failure before doing so.
It is unfortunate this needs to be done sometimes, but
that's just the way it is unless you preemptively replace
the fan with one of better quality.

Hi Kony:

I missed a sentence in the above effort. The Spire box indicates: "No risk
of damage to other components," "Reduces processor temperature," "Extends
processor life."
There was NO INFO whatever about a sleeve bearing or lubrication and the fan
is guaranteed for 5 years!!!!. What was I supposed to think?

After the fan cooled down I lubed it and it ran as it did previously but
that doesn't fix the rest of the box. Some damage was done and I am still
trying to find out where it is. Any suggestions for a diagnostic test?

Software problem, reinstall the software that file is a part
of. Might be application, might be whole OS.

The HD is currently in my old Intel box and I just completed the Win2K SP4
update. Now I have a question about returning this drive to the much newer
box that
gave the dxapi.sys error message shown above. Is it likely to accept it? To
put the question in another way, if I install an OS on an HD, will another
box accept that HD or what changes need to be made to the software? -
boot.ini is easy. Are there any other changes to be made to a Win2K drive to
get it accepted in this newer box. I have a vague recollection that a drive
is initially formatted (anywhere) and then installed in the computer for
loading the OS. I'll have a try today.

You didn't give enough info for us to know exactly what they
are. Briefly, if it fits in the memory slot it is safe to
put in in that slot and see if the system recognizes the
memory, if it shows the capacity it should (or with high
density memory, sometimes an older system will only show 1/2
the capacity but you could accept that and use the memory
for that gain instead of spending more money on something so
old), and if it runs stable.

Towards the latter concern, after installing any new memory
or changing memory configuration, run memtest86+ for several
hours before booting to the OS so as to minimize chances of
corrupting files.

Beyond that, generally speaking an old Intel board with a
386MB memory limit is a board that can only use low density
memory (at full capacity) and runs at 66MHz memory bus
speed, so any PC100 memory will work to some extent so long
as it tests stable.

However, if your present modern system is acting up and the
backup is that old, it could make more sense to just save
the time and trouble and upgrade to something more modern.
If saving money is the goal then keep an eye out for deals,
you can have something fairly affordable if you buy when
parts are on sale or rebated. For example, a PSU for $20
after rebate, a $50 motherboard, $40 CPU, 2GB of memory for
$15 after rebate. It would be over a dozen times faster for
under $150... and no matter how much you'd like, the old
system will eventually die of old age, nothing lasts
forever.

Thanks for your great effort here and I understand your view on this. This
old box has been the most reliable by far that I have ever had. I could even
forget about the memory chips because they are much less important. I know
the issue of cost and my time but my major problem now is the newer box and
I guess I put too much emphasis on this old one.

Now I'll get back to the newer box and the issues of finding the problems
and restoring the hard drive. Will report on my effort soon.

Thanks again.

 

[RF]

OK

Post back with the results.

I am a firm believer in keeping the old equipment going as long as possible.

I still setup a lot of P-II and P-III machines for people
and they are still quite useful.

Thanks Philo. This old board is an Intel AL440LX and is surprisingly fast.
The fan is
barely audible and, on the whole I am very satisfied with this as a backup
box - I need to
work on the memory chips though - later.
I have now removed both of the drives that were in the newer box after the
fan problem
started. I could not get either drive to start - had those dxapi.sys
complaints - and now
both drives are in the old box. I reinstalled Win2K on the C drive and it
runs fine in the
old box.

The D drive has a Win2K installation and has lots of progs installed and I
sure don't want
to reinstall all again, so I'm moving carefully. After I installed the C
drive, the CDR was the D: drive and after I added the second drive, the
letters of the partitions went up from the original D, E, F, G to E, F and
G, H. I needed the first partition at D, so I used the Disk Manager to shift
the letters around - I put the CDR to the very end.

The C drive boots fine but the D drive has a problem. "Win2K could not start
because of a
computer disk hardware problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk.
Check boot
path and the boot hardware." The D drive has the usual collection of files
boot.ini,
config.sys, ntldr etc, The Boot.ini reads:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional"
/fastdetect

I had this boot file on both C and D drives and, after removing it from the
D drive, I
could not select the second drive on the screen. I guess I am missing
something here.

Suggestions appreciated.

TIA

 

[RF]

Thanks Philo. This old board is an Intel AL440LX and is surprisingly
fast.
The fan is barely audible and, on the whole I am very satisfied with this
as a backup box - I need to
work on the memory chips though - later.
I have now removed both of the drives that were in the newer box after the
fan problem started. I could not get either drive to start - had those
dxapi.sys
complaints - and now both drives are in the old box. I reinstalled Win2K
on the C drive and it runs fine in the
old box.

The D drive has a Win2K installation and has lots of progs installed and I
sure don't want
to reinstall all again, so I'm moving carefully. After I installed the C
drive, the CDR was the D: drive and after I added the second drive, the
letters of the partitions went up from the original D, E, F, G to E, F and
G, H. I needed the first partition at D, so I used the Disk Manager to
shift
the letters around - I put the CDR to the very end.

The C drive boots fine but the D drive has a problem. "Win2K could not
start
because of a
computer disk hardware problem. Could not read from the selected boot
disk.
Check boot
path and the boot hardware." The D drive has the usual collection of files
boot.ini,
config.sys, ntldr etc, The Boot.ini reads:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect

I had this boot file on both C and D drives and, after removing it from
the
D drive, I
could not select the second drive on the screen. I guess I am missing
something here.

Suggestions appreciated.

TIA

Hi,

It looks like your boot.ini may be wrong. If they are IDE disks, the
operative parameter in boot.ini is "rdisk". So your boot.ini is referencing
the same disk, same partition, in both entries, or being confused by the
entry after "disk".

If your second W2k install is on the slave drive, it should be referenced as
"rdisk(1)" and "disk" should be 0. For IDE systems, "disk" is always 0,
"multi" refers to the controller, or IDE channel, and rdisk refers to the
physical disk.

You can *ususally* swap disks between systems if the processor and
motherboard have the same architecture. If the mobo differs, e.g, one was
ACPI, the other APM, you can *sometimes* simply change the HAL in Device
Manager and everything will work. But if you are going from, say, an AMD
system to an Intel system, you'll probably have to do a repair install.

But first thing is to make sure the drive and partition entries in boot.ini
refer to the disk and partition that your second W2k is on. It sounds like
it's the first partition on the second drive. Check to see if the drive is
the slave on the IDE primary channel or the master (or only drive) on the
secondary channel, make sure it is jumpered correctly, then edit boot.ini
accordingly in Notepad. And see what happens .

If slave on primary channel, multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(whichever it
is, starting at 1 not 0).
If master on IDE 2, multi(1)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(whichever)

Oh, and only one boot.ini will be used, the one on the active partition on
the first disk, which in your case looks like it is the C: drive. if
another copy is on another partition, it will be ignored. So check to make
sure the correct partition is marked active.

Good luck.

Thanks MF.

I am now just coming back again to the issue of the two drives. Briefly,
this is the situation now.

Initially I had two hard drives, say C and D. The win2k installation on
the C drive became corrupted because of some defect in the drive, so I
deleted that installation and used the disk for minor storage after
repair. The D drive continued to work fine. Next I bought a new drive
and replaced the removed C with it. I tried to use the ERD floppy to get
D installation to fire up but alas, no success. The LKG, etc. went
nowhere too. It appears that an ERD not only has repair info about the
OS in question but the rest of the computer too.

Help appreciated.

Thanks again.