CyberPower built computer interior

Having had my computer for close to 4 years, I decided that the summer time was a good time to replace it. I wanted the new one to have the latest Intel 6-core CPU, 12 GB RAM, and 64-bit Windows 7. While searching for options and trying to make build or buy decisions I came across a great deal on the HP site. They had a computer with everything I wanted and with a $400 instant rebate. The price of the computer came lower than the parts I could purchase. So, I bought one. Mistake number 1! Shipping was a disaster, I specifically wanted to receive it after a certain date as I would be out of town and not be able to receive the product. The sales person assured me that they were not that ahead of schedule. So, I believed him. Mistake number 2.

After an adventurous delivery to a neighbor’s house, I picked it up after returning home. That was a chore with the large and heavy package; I ended up using a luggage cart and took it upstairs a little at a time. It was a diminutive computer in their HPE series. It seemed to work fine, but at one point I needed tech support. Then, things started getting really bad. I will spare you the details but summarize the experience by quoting the support person. He said as a response to my questions almost repeatedly “I cannot tell you that,” or “search our Web site.” Two hours later, I was talking to a case manager at HP corporate level and after reporting everything I told him that I had obtained an RMA and the computer was on its way back. The customer service totally destroyed the sale.

The search continued and I decided to buy the parts and build it myself as I had been doing for the last 20+ years. NewEgg.com was my choice for parts and I built a shopping list from the case to the CPU cooler and everything necessary. Then I stumbled upon CyberPower.com somehow, I don’t quite know why I went there. I noticed that they were offering computers using exactly the same components for a little more than the parts cost. I decided to save some time for myself and ordered the computer from them. It took about 2 weeks but I got exactly what I expected, with full documentation unlike the HP computer. The workmanship was, and still is top notch. Take a look at the photograph (click to enlarge) of the interior of the box, it looks almost empty!

I had a question and called their tech support line. Within 5 minutes I was talking to Hien, a very knowledgeable person who pinpointed the problem and after a nice chat I told him that the CPU heat sink seemed non standard. He asked for a photo which I mailed to him. Within 30 minutes, he called me back (read again: he called me back!) to apologize for the incorrect cooler and a new one was on its way. After that, I spoke with Hien a couple of more times on other questions, again, within minutes my problems were solved and questions answered. I am now a satisfied customer of CyberPower.com and will certainly recommend them for your serious consideration. The computer works like a charm and support answers the phone and my questions.

No more HP for me, you should think twice too!

Configuration:

Intel Core- i7 980 Extreme 6-core CPU
12 GB Corsair Dominator RAM
GigaByte GA-X58A-UD3R
CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced Mid-Tower Gaming Case
ATI Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card
Corsair 750 Watts CMPSU-750TX Power Supply
1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Western Digital)
24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional (64-bit Edition)
3-Year Limited Warranty Plus Life-Time Technical Support

That, of course, was not an acceptable solution and I started investigating. First, I removed many external connections, USB drives, etc. That did not help. Then I removed the two new sticks of memory. Everything went back to normal. I could shut down in the evening and start it with no problems in the morning. When I swapped the old pair of sticks with the new set, problems started again. I made a couple of calls to Corsair, they guided me to testing the memory sticks using a freely available program. During these  tests, i determined that one of the sticks was not fully cooperating. During my conversations with Corsair tech support and additional reading on their Web site, I learned that running four sticks of memory may put more stress on the motherboard.

I contacted Corsair for an RMA for the new pair of memory sticks, within an hour I had all the instructions to send them back. I packaged the memory and mailed it back to Corsair. In a few days, I called and spoke with a customer service rep and asked if I could swap four 1GB sticks for two 2GB sticks. This, they call “advanced replacement”. She told me that they would do that but I had to send in the other two sticks of memory. Obviously that was not a solution as I would be without a computer for quite some time. Then she offered another solution, I could give my credit card number and if I did not return the two 1GB sticks they would charge my card for the new set they would send to me. No problem, I gave my card number.

Yesterday, I reeceived the pair of 2GB memory sticks, installed them and turned off the computer at night. This morning, I am very happy to report that my computer started with no problems at all. I am a happy camper. I will now pack the old pair and ship it back to Corsair to eliminate the charge. This has been a very pleasant support experience for me, thanks Corsair.

]]> http://www.keptlight.com/2008/12/extra-memory-for-my-desktop-update/feed/ 0 http://www.keptlight.com/2008/08/scanner-does-not-work-code-19/ http://www.keptlight.com/2008/08/scanner-does-not-work-code-19/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:50:10 +0000 A. Cemal Ekin http://www.keptlight.com/blog/?p=216 I have had two scanners connected to my computer for many years, a Canon FS4000 film scanner and an Epson 2450 flat bed, with no problems with either one. About a month or so ago I wanted to copy a piece of paper and found out that my trusty Epson did not work. I unistalled the driver and isntalled it several times with no success. I would go through the install process, the computer would recognize the scanner by its brand and model, then it would present me with a message:

There was a problem installing this hardware.
Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged (Code 19)

My search efforts gave me no help and I disconnected the Epson and connected it to my wife’s computer with no problems.

A few days ago, I needed to scan a slide for a friend and I found out that my Canon FS4000 did not work either. I went through the uninstall-install driver routine with no success. Finally I connected the scanner to my notebook and did the scanning there. But, I knew there was something strange. Two scanners, connected directly to the computer, on the backpanel where there are no possible low power issues stopped working.

After scanning the slide, I disconnected the slide scanner from the notebook and on a whim plugged it to the front USP port on my desktop. To my utter surprise, the scanner driver installed and it started working. Either through a bizarre coincidence I lost two USB ports on the back, or part of the USB system of Windows XP failed.

More search on Google. Still no help, but some hints. Code 19 means that there is a registry problem and this is due, most likely, the device being defined twice. There were some instructions on how to fix a similar problem for a CD or DVD-ROM drive, but they did not correspond to imaging devices in the registry. If only I could find a way of deleting these devices which, for some reason refused to uninstall. I wrote to support forums, friends, …  no help.

Then, I remembered reading about a program called USBDeview from http://www.nirsoft.net and I downloaded and installed it. Sure enough, it displayed all the devices that my computer ever knew, USB flash drives, USB hard drives, cameras, etc. were all listed. After one mishap due to my carelessness (see below) I was able to delete all instances of the Canon and the Epson devices with a few keystrokes. After that, I plugged the Canon, lo and behold, the driver installed and it started humming.

A word of CAUTION here. Be very careful what you delete from the list you see when the program starts. I accidentally deleted my Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and was up the creek. Too swift and not too smart! Go slowly, think twice, then think again before deleting. Nothing you delete is totally lost, but you could find yourself without a keyboard and a mouse, not a comfortable feeling. I started the computer from a power down and the mouse and the keyboard started working again.

]]> http://www.keptlight.com/2008/08/scanner-does-not-work-code-19/feed/ 0 http://www.keptlight.com/2008/08/extra-memory-for-my-desktop/ http://www.keptlight.com/2008/08/extra-memory-for-my-desktop/#comments Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:11:40 +0000 A. Cemal Ekin http://www.keptlight.com/blog/?p=178 (After reading this, you may also want to read the update that I posted.)

This morning I added extra 2GB of RAM to bring the total memory to 4GB total. I made sure that I purchased the same type of memory as the originals, Corsair TWIN2X2048 from NewEgg.com. NewEgg is a great place to buy stuff, they really care about their customers. I have a story to prove it.

After installing the memory I did a Google search on whther further steps were necessary. The properties of my computer showed the total memory as 3.25GB, but I wanted to make sure. Good thing I did. There is a file in the root directory of the boot drive, typically drive C:, called boot.ini. It instructs Windows XP on special steps of features to enable during the boot time. There appears to be two relevant soft switces that may need to be added, they are /PAE and /3GB. They are simply added to the end of a line in the boot.ine file. So, my boot.ini line looked like the following, your boot.ini file may be different:

Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /PAE /3GB

The parts in red are what I added based on my readings on Microsoft and other Web sites. There does not seem to be one correct answer that fits all, so I added these switches in different combinations and checked how much RAM the system reported when I went to the properties of My Computer, and how much RAM Photoshop reported. The amount of RAM reported by the system remained at 3.25GB with each combination, /PAE alone, /3GB alone, both present. Oh, if you add both switches /PAE needs to come first, as I read on one of the sites.

When I checked the amount of memory Photoshop reported, there was a definite change. The table below shows the reported RAM by the system and by Photoshop.

In the end, I left the line as shown above with /PAE and /3GB switches on.

There is another matter, the setting in the BIOS. I built my computer using an ASUS P5K WS motherboard and an Intel QX6700 CPU. One of the settings in the BIOS is called “Memory Remapping” and it can be enabled or disabled. Based on what I had read on various Web sites, I tried that feature turned on or off with no effect on the available memory. So, I left it the way it was and it is now enabled.

The addition of memory made a noticeable difference, not only in Photoshop but all the programs seem to load faster. I can comfortably run Lightroom 2.0 and Photoshop CS3 both of which start up rather rapidly. I bought the memory for $80 with a $30 rebate. I think this will be $50 well spent.

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