Saturday, January 03, 2004

MemTest86 Benchmarks

Just some benchmark values from the machines I've been running MemTest86 on.

First box is a Pentium III 550Mhz with (I believe) PC100 memory (MemTest86 reports it as a 568Mhz CPU). L1 cache (32Kb) speed is 5567 MB/s, L2 cache (128K) speed is 2523 Mb/s, and main memory clocks in at 198 MB/s.

Second box is my Athlon XP 2600+ with GeIL DDR-333 (PC2700) ram in a 2x512Mb configuration. CPU speed is reported as 2088Mhz, L1 cache (128Kb) speed is 12808 Mb/s and main memory speed is 1182 MB/s. This is the box with what I believe was the bad memory stick, so I've got both sticks in and I'm going to run tests overnight. (Found errors after 1 hour, pulled the "good" module and left the suspected "bad" module in. Memory speed is now reported as 734 MB/s since the DDR isn't active. A single test-pass of 512Mb, using the default set of tests, takes around 30-35 minutes on this machine.)

BTW, MemTest86 is a sweet little program. If your machine can boot from CD-ROM (most can if they were made in the last few years), there's an ISO that you can download and create a bootable CD. Pop the CD in, power-up and MemTest86 will automatically start running the default tests. I ended up using an 8cm mini-CD since the ISO is only 16Mb or so. Only disadvantage of the tiny size is that I can't use it in a side-ways mounted CD-ROM drive (no clips to hold it in place, tray has to be horizontal). Also, once MemTest86 starts, you can remove the CD-ROM and go boot it in another PC.

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 9:52 PM

Friday, January 02, 2004

Happy New Year

Game machine is back up and running (takes forever to patch a virgin WinXP Pro system).

Picked up SimCity 4's Rush Hour expansion pack early this week and have been pretty much playing it non-stop for the past 2 days. I need to order another 512Mb of memory though, TaskMgr says that I've peaked at 640Mb. Actually, I have a stick of memory here, but I'm pretty sure it's bad... gonna go get and test it out.

Also re-installing all of my software, gotta find the cheat codes for MoH:AA again... then I think I'll give that a whirl for a bit (tired of SC4 atm).

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 10:52 PM

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

Bleh, my windows 2000 server won't come back up after a restart. Using a Promise SuperTrak SX6000 card in a RAID5 configuration. Prior to shutdown, a lot of services were hung and the System process was running a good bit of CPU. Gave it an hour and pulled the switch. Now when it boots up, it goes through the F8 text-mode status bar, flips to graphical status with the Win2000 logo and then blue screeens (BSOD) with "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE".

Microsoft article: Stop 0x0000007B or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

I am able to boot the setup CD and get to the Recovery Console command line. BOOT.INI file looks normal, all the files and folders seem to be intact (doing a quick DIR command).

Ran CHKDSK at the C:\ prompt (no arguments), after a bit, CHKDSK reports "found one ore more errors on the volume". So it's possible that disk corruption is causing the boot error.

Ran CHKDSK a second time (no arguments), volume reports as clean... so I ran it a third time with the "CHKDSK /P" option to force a re-check. Re-check reports clean, so I'm going to try a reboot and see if the system comes back up.

does his Peewee Herman happy-dance

System took a while to get up and running, sat at the graphical Win2000 screen for a long while (few minutes) before finally switching to the login screen. Lost my user profile on the machine, so every time I logged in, I got the default user profile again.

Encrypted files were hosed though... guess the encryption key was stored in the corrupted profile... so on top of numerous other issues that were piling on top, I grabbed a new snapshot of the data and then rebuilt the box. (Had to restore all EFS-protected files from backups.)

(now I get to start on rebuilding my WinXP game machine... something glitched the sound, no amount of removing / re-installing / swapping in other sound cards makes a difference... got SimCity4 Rush Hour expansion to play as well as Call of Duty sitting here taunting me... just wish I had the Antec case so I could kill two birds with one stone)

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 6:03 PM

Monday, December 29, 2003

419 Scam Spam

Hey... I got a 419 scam spam! (These are always fun to read, not! Mostly posting it here so that it shows up in the search engines so that people see that it's a SCAM.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBJ: Please read and respond ASAP.
FROM: MR DAN PATRICK

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO.

REPLY TO EMAIL ADDRESS: danp2004@rediffmail.com
Dear Friend,

SEEKING YOUR IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE.
Please Permit me to make your acquaintance in so
informal a manner. This is necessitated by my urgent
need to reach a dependable and trust wordy foreign
partner. This request may seem strange and
unsolicited but I will crave your indulgence and pray
that you view it seriously. My name is MR DAN PATRICK
of the Democratic Republic of Congo and One of the
close aides to the former President of the Democratic
Republic of Congo LAURENT KABILA of blessed
memory, may his soul rest in peace.

Due to the military campaign of LAURENT KABILA to
force out the rebels in my country, I and some of my
colleagues were instructed by Late President Kabila
to go abroad to purchase arms and ammunition worth of
Twenty Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States
Dollars only (US$20,500,000.00) to fight the rebel
group. But when President Kabila was killed in a
bloody shoot-out by one of his aide a day before we
were schedule to travel out of Congo, We immediately
decided to divert the fund into a private security
company here in Congo for safe keeping. The security
of the said amount is presently being threatened here
following the arrest and seizure of properties of Col.
Rasheidi Karesava (One of the aides to Laurent Kabila)
a tribesman, and some other Military Personnel from
our same tribe, by the new President of the Democratic
Republic of Congo, the son of late President Laurent
Kabila, Joseph Kabila.

In view of this, we need a reliable and trustworthy
foreign partner who can assist us to move this money
out of my country as the beneficiary.
WE have sufficient ''CONTACTS'' to move the fund under
Diplomatic Cover to a security company in the europe
in your name. This is to ensure that the Diplomatic
Baggage is marked ''CONFIDENTIAL'' and it will not
pass through normal custom/airport screening and
clearance.

Our inability to move this money out of Congo all
This while lies on our lack of trust on our supposed
good friends (western countries) who suddenly became
hostile to those of us who worked with the late
President Kabila, immediately after his son took
office. Though we have neither seen nor met each
other, the information We gathered from an associate
who has worked in your country has encouraged and
convinced us that with your sincere assistance, this
transaction will be properly handled with modesty
and honesty to a huge success within two weeks. The
said money is a state fund and therefore requires a
total confidentiality.

Thus, if you are willing to assist us move this fund
out of Congo, you can contact me through my email
address above with your telephone, fax number and
personal information to enable us discuss the
modalities and what will be your share
(percentage) for assisting us.

I must use this opportunity and medium to implore You
to exercise the utmost indulgence to keep this Matter
extraordinarily confidential, Whatever your Decision,
while I await your prompt response. Thank you and
GodBless.

Best Regards


DAN PATRICK .
NOTE:Respond using this box please (danp2004@rediffmail.com)

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posted by Wuphon's Reach at 3:12 PM