Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Hi folks,

I have an old acer with a V56LA motherboard which recently started
having intermittent failures. I am not sure if this began to occur after a
tornado tore off part of my house or not, but I live in a rural area, where
lighting damage is common.

Anyway the system runs was running Windows ME, the intermittent failures
made me assume the the problems was a virus. Then after ALL simple methods
of software recovery have been tried.
Simple, including full resinstall of ANY windows system. They install but
all eventually fail with some error that appears to be virtual memory or an
IRQ problem.

The BIOS settings are a possible culprit although I have read about
everything I can find on the net about this particular computer. That being
an Acer 1252, or DS.AB539.002 if you like the specifics. One thing you
should require when buying a new computer is a list and the uses of all BIOS
settings and jumpers :-).

I saw some failures relating to clock, checksum etc... for the BIOS,
replaced the CR2032 and they went away, although the BIOS on this system is
questionable.

Anyway, I took the hard drive out of the system and stuffed it in
another box and it loaded and seems to run 98 OK, but the hardware config is
grossly different.

Actually, this system is not really worth fooling with anymore. I just
needed to vent and will use it as an anchor :-).

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:ent481tpi2blsrei5ultq1t292gc0c7ohd@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 11 May 2005 15:56:00 -0500, "BGreene"
> <barryg@highstream.net> wrote:
>
> >Hi folks,
> >
> > I have an old acer with a V56LA motherboard
> <snip>
> > Actually, this system is not really worth fooling with anymore. I
just
> >needed to vent and will use it as an anchor :-).
>
>
> Good call, those were quite poor relative to contemporary
> alternatives even when new.

Please explain?

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:if4581teupfi7v11anpbj6phil52kb09k2@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 11 May 2005 17:57:32 -0500, "BGreene"
> <barryg@highstream.net> wrote:
>
>
> >> Good call, those were quite poor relative to contemporary
> >> alternatives even when new.
> >
> >Please explain?
> >
>
> Linear regulators
> Non-upgradeable onboard PCI video with EDO memory
> Still used SIMMs when most were moving to DIMMs.
> Non-upgradeable 256K L2 cache
> Rear IO sockets requiring proprietary case?
> ALI chipset
>
> Overall a system built on such a platform was MUCH slower
> using same CPU & memory than something like an Intel HX, TX,
> maybe even VX, plus the poor upgradability as a whole.


I certainly cannot disagree with any of your points :-). Since I received
the system for free, I cannot complain. It has done its job of running as
a Windows/ME test system quite well.

Long, long time ago when I wrote device drivers... I wasn't this stupid
:-).

barry