It would mean I have to take out my videocard. So probably better wait with that until later when I am disassembling the CPU cooler anyway.

The other fun thing about the BIOS being in default state was that SATA was set to start in IDE mode, on both systems. It used to be AHCI.
Switching to AHCI gives an unbootable Windows. Don't try to do the data restore either as it won't work. After 45 minutes it balked on this system telling it couldn't fix Windows. I set BIOS back to IDE, booted into Windows, looked up the problem, set two settings in the registry, saved, rebooted, set BIOS to AHCI, saved, rebooted and am in Windows in AHCI mode.

The other system now recognizes its 8GB of RAM. It's running in single-channel mode, but that's better than having just 4GB in dual-channel mode.
There too I sat through the data restore, cannot do, reset IDE, reboot Windows, set the registry up, reboot, set AHCI, reboot and yay.

So that leaves this ailing system. For now I'll leave it on, costs less energy than having to bent under the desk, power down PSU, remove cord, press CMOS button, add cord, power up PSU, start system, sit through the BIOS to set everything up (including AHCI!!!), boot into Windows. .

The i5-3470s have arrived. So powering down for a rigorous rebuild. If I am not heard from again.... ;-)

If I am not heard from again.... ;-)

We'll send you some sticks, a canister of smoke fluid, and a blanket.

LOL... well, still alive. three reboots further, one to clear the 800x600 screen, one to install some mystical drivers (it wouldn't tell me what for) and one to clear some svchost process using 15GB of RAM. Running IntelBurnTest now, so far temps haven't gone above 58C, so I applied the thermal compound correctly.

Haven't powered down yet... That's next on my list. But I don't feel like I fixed the problem I had. I did replace the CMOS battery.
Asrock said to test the memory sticks one by one and in other slots. I can always do that, tomorrow. I've done enough heavy lifting with this case today.

Already had a shock, as when I tried to reassemble the water cooler, the back plate with the fastening pins on, had fallen down, following gravity. I was in the process of taking the whole motherboard out, when I thought of unhatching the other side of the case. Hey presto, I could reach the back plate from here. Put a (cardboard) medicine box under it to lift it up and quickly screwed the water cooler back on. Pffff.

Will go do some gaming first now. Powering down is always an option, but I'm done yelling at hardware. Tomorrow's another day. :)

My last post reminded me of a story from years ago, but I thought I'd better not tell it until you'd come out the other side.

I was minding my own business on one side of the room, when I heard a 'pop' sound from the other side of the room. Turning round, I was in time to see a perfect 18" mushroom cloud rising from the middle of what would nowadays be an open PC case lying on the floor, and my schoolmate rocking back on his heels away from it.

Back in the late 1960s, the case actually contained an amateur radio transmitter, 'amateur' in the sense that he was building it from components. Back in those days, radio transmitters - especially on school budgets - used thermionic valves and very high voltages. Our biggest set used anode voltages of 1,000V or more, powered by rotary converters from 12V batteries - it was army surplus kit like

Used by the British Army, this is a WS-52 set less accessories. (L-R) Receiver, common power supply and transmitter. The dark, mail-box shape atop the WS-52 was a post war modification which contained a new dynamotor because the original 1200v dynamotors were not reliable due inadequate HV insulation. It was cheaper to install a piggy back unit rather to retrofit a new one. At the top right is an antenna tuner. (Photo courtesy Wireless for the Warrior, http://www.jproc.ca/marconi/no52_set.html)

We didn't have the dynamotor safety modification, so ours were the originals in the central narrow section, between the squarer receiver and transmitter sections.

The one my friend was building would have been much lower power, but still had enough oomph to blow a very pretty mushroom.

Is that your way of telling me my system could've gone up in a poof of magic smoke? ;-)
But it seems to be fixed. Just powered down and restarted 10 minutes later, it immediately went through BIOS and start up.

The last thing I changed in the BIOS was the Advanced > South Bridge Configuration > Deep Sleep setting, put it on Disabled. And while immediately after that it still had some trouble booting, now I had none. Thanks for everything y'all crossed, it seems to have helped. :-)

edit: I'll go test some Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The last time I played it, it had some trouble with my i5-2500K as that was just above minimum entry level. The 3470 would be doing nicely in the middle segment. Let's whack everything on Ultra. :)

Richard - Ah, the great '52 set smoke generator, only matched a few years later by using paper exhaust ducts on a pair of 4cx250.....

Jord - Great reading, I'm amazed you had time to record your frustrations and triumphs, thanks for your encouragement to us all.

There are stories to be told of that '52, but they probably need a beer accompaniment. The fun one was the 24-hour field "most contacts" competition, with no mains power allowed. The picture doesn't make it clear, but it's a real brute, probably five feet across - minimum two adults or four schoolkids simply to move it. Getting it out to the school playing fields on the other side of town was an expedition in itself - and rigging the horizontal SW dipole from sectional guyed masts...

...don't try to move one on a bike

Do some distributed computing they said, upgrade your processor they said. And then you get the bollocks Ageless has had to deal with, lol :)

---

Hmmm, I will now need to rename my host. Seeing how it's still called i5-2500K.

07/04/2018 01:08:37 |  | Host name: i5-2500K
07/04/2018 01:08:37 |  | Processor: 4 GenuineIntel  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz [Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9]
07/04/2018 01:08:37 |  | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes f16c rdrandsyscall nx lm avx vmx smx tm2 pbe fsgsbase smep
07/04/2018 01:08:37 |  | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Ultimate x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)
07/04/2018 01:08:37 |  | Memory: 15.96 GB physical, 47.89 GB virtual
07/04/2018 01:08:37 |  | Disk: 878.39 GB total, 214.60 GB free

I have noticed it's a lot faster than before. Programs load and exit quicker, even the internet feels speedier. So, honestly, a cheap but well-deserved and as FiL noticed hard-fought victory. Price of the CPU? Just €50,-

Edit, there:

07/04/2018 01:20:29 |  | Host name: i5-3470
07/04/2018 01:20:29 |  | Processor: 4 GenuineIntel  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz [Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9]
07/04/2018 01:20:29 |  | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes f16c rdrandsyscall nx lm avx vmx smx tm2 pbe fsgsbase smep

Edit2, check what the differences are with an i5-2500K:

26-Jan-2018 08:52:58 [---] Host name: i5-2500K
26-Jan-2018 08:52:58 [---] Processor: 4 GenuineIntel  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz [Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7]
26-Jan-2018 08:52:58 [---] Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes syscall lm avx vmx tm2 pbe

I have noticed it's a lot faster than before. Programs load and exit quicker, even the internet feels speedier.

Interesting to read that, while the absolute headline speed has gone down from 3.30GHz to 3.20GHz. I always thought those gigahertz advertising wars were a bit of a fraud, and now we have the proof.

Don't work harder, work smarter.

Another speed up is in the start-up. Before I would hibernate the computer, as that was the fastest way to boot up (under a minute from BIOS to fully populated Windows).
Now I power down completely (also to continue testing that non-starting thing. :)) and when I start up, it's under 30 seconds from BIOS to fully populated Windows. It might be that has something to do with those other options I turned on in the BIOS, Intel Rapid Start and Intel Smart Connect. Although these both apparently work with Deep Sleep.... that I disabled else my system doesn't start up at all. Also, it is supposed to work together with an SSD, which I don't have. I do have a hybrid HDD (or SHDD), an HDD with 8GB NAND flash cache.

The future is exciting!

I've now got SSD boot drives on most of my machines, and they really do make a tremendous difference. Trouble is, they only get rebooted once a month for Patch Tuesday, so the only real gain is that I can move more quickly from machine to machine while patching. I have the development machines set up with dual monitors on dual KVMs: if I don't have the KVMs set correctly when they reboot, Windows gets the resolution detection all wrong and I'm stuck like that until the next reboot.

News for the people wondering about VT-d, last night I installed VirtualBox 5.2.8 and found that the GPU (AMD RX 470) was not seen even with VT-d enabled in the BIOS. So I checked around on the internet and found that for this option to work, one requires anything other than Windows as its base operating system. None of the VM solutions can run in Windows and use VT-d (not to confuse with VT-x or VT-c). While it seems to be possible to use VT-d in Microsoft Hyper-V, that blog shows it ain't for the normal user. ;-)

So, want to use VT-d? Ask MarkJ how to get Linux. :)

Edit: as for speed. BOINC Benchmarks!

i5-2500K

20-Feb-2018 08:47:03 [---] Running CPU benchmarks
20-Feb-2018 08:47:03 [---] Suspending computation - CPU benchmarks in progress
20-Feb-2018 08:47:05 [---] [benchmark] Starting floating-point benchmark
20-Feb-2018 08:47:16 [---] [benchmark] Ended floating-point benchmark
20-Feb-2018 08:47:21 [---] [benchmark] Starting integer benchmark
20-Feb-2018 08:47:30 [---] [benchmark] Ended integer benchmark
20-Feb-2018 08:47:33 [---] [benchmark] Ended benchmark
20-Feb-2018 08:47:34 [---] [benchmark] CPU 0 has finished
20-Feb-2018 08:47:34 [---] [benchmark] 1 out of 1 CPUs done
20-Feb-2018 08:47:34 [---] [benchmark] CPU 0: fp 4280112713.085411 int 12194621292.368185 intloops 192192000.000000 inttime 8.970058
20-Feb-2018 08:47:34 [---] Benchmark results:
20-Feb-2018 08:47:34 [---]    Number of CPUs: 1
20-Feb-2018 08:47:34 [---]    4280 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
20-Feb-2018 08:47:34 [---]    12195 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
20-Feb-2018 08:47:35 [---] Resuming computation
20-Feb-2018 08:47:48 [---] Exiting

i5-3470

07-Apr-2018 11:22:46 [---] Running CPU benchmarks
07-Apr-2018 11:22:48 [---] [benchmark] Starting floating-point benchmark
07-Apr-2018 11:22:58 [---] [benchmark] Ended floating-point benchmark
07-Apr-2018 11:23:03 [---] [benchmark] Starting integer benchmark
07-Apr-2018 11:23:13 [---] [benchmark] Ended integer benchmark
07-Apr-2018 11:23:16 [---] [benchmark] Ended benchmark
07-Apr-2018 11:23:17 [---] [benchmark] CPU 0 has finished
07-Apr-2018 11:23:17 [---] [benchmark] 1 out of 1 CPUs done
07-Apr-2018 11:23:17 [---] [benchmark] CPU 0: fp 4383997833.199862 int 12699104787.034266 intloops 224160000.000000 inttime 10.046464
07-Apr-2018 11:23:17 [---] Benchmark results:
07-Apr-2018 11:23:17 [---]    Number of CPUs: 1
07-Apr-2018 11:23:17 [---]    4384 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
07-Apr-2018 11:23:17 [---]    12699 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
07-Apr-2018 11:23:19 [---] Resuming computation

Do some distributed computing they said, upgrade your processor they said. And then you get the bollocks Ageless has had to deal with, lol :)

LOL!!

Is there a user of the day? A browse of profiles indicates "yes"

The BOINC forums are mostly for people having trouble with parts of BOINC, although we do have some regulars here. We do not have users though, and thus no user of the day. That's something for the projects.

Thanks.

At the bottom of user profile pages:

Recommend this profile for User of the Day: I like this profile

The BOINC forum software is included in the BOINC server software. It's a package. While some parts were deliberately turned off or hacked out for use on these forums, some other parts are still on. As long as they don't have any negative impact on the stability of the software, we don't mind (or care) them being on.