Microway Screamer problems

Several days ago I booted my Microway Screamer after long period of time. I tried to install Debian Linux. However, I got some virtual memory error during installation. After that I couldn't install anything. I was always getting "Proccessor detected single bit ECC error in Bcache" error.

I think it might be memory or processor problem. I'll try to test memory on my old Socket 7 motherboard (if it will boot with them). It will be difficult to get replacement for them because I need 4 sticks of SIMM 70 ns ECC parity memory modules. If it is CPU than it won't be easy too. However I have one CPU (however, it can be in not working condition). It is a pity because I didn't use this computer as much as I wanted.

Intel i860 in my collection

I was looking for a one Intel i860 CPU for a quite long time. Everytime I was unlucky to get it :D. Finally I got one recently but its surface was covered by an old glue. I removed it somehow with a knife :) and cpu looks quite normal now (there are some small scratches but it was inevitable probably). As always you can find photos in my CPU collection. I also added some new PA-RISC CPUs (two 8700 and one 8200) earlier.

PQI now works with Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4

As you might remember, I had lot of problems with assembling my Core i7 system. One of the main reasons appeared PQI DDR3-1066U memory. They were incompatible with Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 motherboard. I wrote Gigabyte about it back then. I don't know if they really considered this issue because of me, however, this RAM is working with the motherboard now. I tried them with current F6c BIOS. I don't know from which version they are compatible, but they weren't working with F3 BIOS for sure. As result I have 6GB of RAM now :).

Current status

I have not written anything for a long time. A current period is tough for me because of my studies. So, I have quite a little time to play around with my hardware. However, I am still have some projects and news. My some CPUs which I bought long time ago just arriving now :). I guess that I'll not post any new photos until June.

My VIA VT-310DP board is working again :). It is now powered with PicoPSU. It does not fit entirely into ATX power connector because of one big capacitor near it, however, the system boots without any problems. I am planning to make a small NAS server from it. Because of this I bought D-Link DIR-655 Gigabit router. It works already at home. Yet again, I haven't done any tests. I don't know which OS I'll use for my server, however, last night I installed NetBSD with ftp install (where is no CD-ROM, so it was the most easiest way). OS resides on 16 GB Patriot Xporter XT Boost USB flash drive. Hard drives will be used only for storage, however, I still waiting for them (famous Seagate's with bad firmware, but I got them quite cheap, so I'm taking the risk). Whether I'll use or not NetBSD depends on how successfully I'll manage to make my tasks on it (sharing, back-up, network, print server, RAID). Thats all for now.

Problems, linux, collection

My graphics card was broken again for about two weeks. It was changed with the new one (same model). I hope this time it will work more successfully.
I installed Fedora Linux 10 yesterday. Anaconda failed to boot in graphics mode. So I needed to install fedora in a text mode (it was the same with my via board). It is not a big problem to overcome, especially in fedora where you have yum and fedorafaq.org. However, for those people who dislike console it can be a reason to stop. Fedora looks nice and boots visually more faster than previous versions (as far as I know it was one of the main features in this version). I'll try to play with it later.
I have some new CPUs in my collection (several PA-RISC, dual PowerPC board, XBox ES cpus and others), however, I'll probably wait for all items to arrive before making any photos. It may take some time. I am going to stop buying them for half year at least (I need to save money).

Finally everything works

As you know I have bought new Intel Core i7 system. The first blog item about it was more than a month ago. However, the purchase didn't go very smoothly. System didn't boot and we found the reason only several days before the Christmas. It was a memory fault which hadn't been compatible with the motherboard. However, after I assembled the system with new RAM, it appeared that my PSUs are not enough for this system. My video card showed artifacts after several minutes. Because of this, until now I have used PCI video card which slowed down performance. I bought a new 600W PSU only yesterday. Everything went ok and finally I have my new computer in full configuration:
Intel Core i7 920
Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4
3GB(KVR1066D3E7+KVR1066D3N7K2/2G) DDR3 1066 MHz Kingston RAM (triple channel)
MSI R4830-T2D512-OC graphics card (Radeon 4830 512 MB)
FORTRON EPSILON 600W (80PLUS) PSU
Codegen M601-CA ATX case.

HDDs and DVD-RW are from my earlier mini-itx system.

DEC PDP-11 J-11 arrived

I have received my DEC PDP-11 J-11 CPU today. It is really big (for DIP package) and beautiful CPU. Photo shows comparison between DEC PDP-11 J-11 and AMD P8085-2. As always, you can watch my photos here.