puzzled

There was an error code of "8.6." on the BIOS display. The code means "assert PWM for CPU core voltage". WTF does that mean? There was also the distinct smell of burning electronics the last time I tried to power up. It also shuts itself off 20 seconds after power up.

I can't even get the red BIOS screen to show now.:confused:

I flashed to the earliest available BIOS because there were parts that remained the same when I reflashed & were not over-written. I want to be sure any corruption isn't in the parts that weren't over-written. Now the BIOS will not come up. I've rebooted 5-6 times, saw the red BIOS screen for .5 a second once. Haven't been able to get it to come up again. It now looks like when I do a reset of the jumper for a few minutes the BIOS does its .5 second appearance, & then nothing. I'm going to try it one more time. I just reset the jumper. Waited 5 minutes, swapped positions, the fired it up while hitting delete. It wouldn't show the BIOS screen this time. I'm going to let it sit for 30-60 minutes this time during the reset, before moving the jumper back.

I got it back some time ago & was able to set up the replacement unit. It's working fine, with no leakage. The turn around was fast on the replacement. Great customer service.

I downloaded the BIOS again, transfered to floppy, & loaded it again. It is still acting exactly like it did before. So there's been no change.

I'm running the latest BIOS revision. I've reset the jumper a few times. Same results. All of my manual settings in the BIOS are still there. I have it set to 250x14 & it remains that way in the BIOS even after killing the power to exit. CPUZ or A64info read 200x15 in XP.

If the BIOS can't communicate with the CPU, could the CPU be faulty?

What causes a BIOS to read one thing in the BIOS, & another thing when using CPUZ & A64info? After setting the BIOS, I can't F10 or "Y" out of the BIOS. I need to hit the reset switch or kill the power. When I go back in to the BIOS, my manual settings are still there, but the readings from CPUZ & A64info are different, (after mandatory power kill), after I reboot in to XP. Is the BIOS corrupt?

I was finally able to ship it yesterday. I keep some weird hours, so I'm not able to get things done as fast as I'd like sometimes. I kept the package ready to ship in my trunk until I was able to get it to a UPS Store during business hours. The 1st two attempts I missed by a few minutes. On the 3rd shot I made it with 10 minutes to spare. It's finally on its way to Calgary. Shipping was $50. I don't know on what scale this registers as a hassle for me or not. I have 2 of these units, 1 that's worked fine from day 1, & the other that has cost time, money, & customs paperwork to ship back. It would be easier if a call tag could be issued. .

OK. Will look into that. Thanks.

Being an absolute newbie, I have no idea what to do with all that. I did however try a trial version of Xandros Pro 4.1 yesterday. Drum roll please It immediately recognized the NVIDIA chipset & the RAID array!! So, I was able to install the OS to an array. Now the only thing left is to find out if the video cards are in SLI or not. Any suggestions on how to discover this?

I decided to go with an Abit AM2 board after DFI customer support was non-existent with a 939 board in warranty. I can't remember how many emails I sent them, but I can tell you zero were replied to. If you ever have a problem, just throw the board in the trash. It'll save you a lot of time.

You're right about the installer. It's also the same problem that is present on Gentoo 2007.0. I was looking in to the RAID feature of the installer, & came up with a curious option. It allows you to load the OS on to one HD, & then copy it to the second HD to create the RAID array. I thought that might be the solution. I disconnected the NVIDIA RAID option in the BIOS, & then tried to load the OS to a single HD. The installer crashed again. I then tried to load Gentoo, but the installer on that distro doesn't have the RAID feature. The installer also crashed on that distro. It looks like Anaconda is buggy. I'm going to disconnect one HD, & then do some research in to formatting the other HD manually. Hopefully I can format the one HD, & then the installer will allow me to use the feature to create a RAID array from the first HD.

I managed to figure out how to copy & paste the error report. I have no idea what any of this means. Traceback (most recent call last): File "/opt/anaconda/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 950, in handleRenderCallback self.currentWindow.renderCallback() File "/opt/anaconda/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/progress_gui.py", line 250, in renderCallback self.intf.icw.nextClicked() File "/opt/anaconda/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 867, in nextClicked self.dispatch.gotoNext() File "/opt/anaconda/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 140, in gotoNext self.moveStep() File "/opt/anaconda/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 208, in moveStep rc = apply(func, self.bindArgs(args)) File "/opt/anaconda/usr/lib/anaconda/packages.py", line 103, in turnOnFilesystems thefsset.createLogicalVolumes(instPath) File "/opt/anaconda/usr/lib/anaconda/fsset.py", line 1477, in createLogicalVolumes entry.device.setupDevice(chroot) File "/opt/anaconda/usr/lib/anaconda/fsset.py", line 2080, in setupDevice raise SystemError, "pvcreate failed for %s" % (volume,) SystemError: pvcreate failed for

I'm really surprised to find there isn't a distro that combines what Fedora offers (partitioning for RAID during set up), & what Mint offers (video card usability from CD). Fedora loads the NV SATA driver, & then sees the (2) 80GB HD's as (1) 160 GB HD. It then goes to a scrambled screen on reboot after loading the OS. The video drivers aren't adequate. On the other hand, Mint sees (2) 80 GB HD's, but will only load the OS to one of them. It doesn't do RAID set up, but it can load the proper video drivers after reboot when loading the OS. I wonder when someone will combine both features to CD/DVD?