Skybuck's DreamPC2006 back alive for the 5th or something:) end 2012 (winfast motherboard)

[Skybuck Flying]

Hello Peeps,

Just want to let you guys know that my/Skybuck's DreamPC from 2006 is back
alive !

The motherboard used is one with an nvidia firestorm(or what's it called ?
no wait force yeah... lol ) chipset or something like that...

Motherboard name and model number:

Foxconn WinFast NF4SK8AA-8KRS

So far there was only one major problem with this motherboard that had to be
solved.

The usb keyboard and usb mouse refused to work after windows 7 started
updating the drivers.

It turns out there is some kind of ATI/AMD PCI Express (????) Filter driver
or something that must be removed and deleted from the system by simply
unstalling it an choosing "delete from system" checkbox.

This non-existent hardware/driver was wrongly detect by windows 7, as soon
as it's removed windows 7 will auto-detect all real hardware properly, an
internet connection is highly recommended since it will search/find/download
drivers from windows update.

The CD didn't contain any windows 7 64 bit drivers, so the internet
connection is needed !

I just put the PC through it's paces with some nice demos/music/graphics and
so far it seems to run pretty well, though I didn't notice so demos crashing
during terminates/closing ? that's kinda odd but could be a demo specific
thing so I am not too worried yet, though I might investigate further if
other apps have that behaviour as well.

So far I am kinda like this winfast motherboard... so far everything seems
to work including the new cardreader... this motherboard is really old
school, it has a serial/comport and a parallel printer port, 4 usb things on
the back and additionals for the front.

The only thing I do miss is a nice floppy reader.. but that's my mistakes or
delocks mistakes... they should have included a floppy drive with that card
reader... I totally forgot about the floppy... they do have a model that
includes it... oh well... maybe it's time to put the floppy disk to it's
death... i'd rather not... but maybe it's for the better... though I don't
really think so... now I can't do memtest properly oh well... this issue
might have to be resolved in the near future or so... maybe I will order
another card reader.. wow... if I kill my PC again I am going to shoot
meself lol... no just kidding.

Currently I am using a "used" motherboard... I also got a "brand new"
motherboard which is exactly the same model... so far all seems well..

I also upgraded the old pentium III 450 mhz with 2 gigabytes of ram... that
helped a little bit... so that's nice to fall back on in case of distress


Though my DreamPC is a whole lot more noisy... even at all low fan speed ?!
I am pretty sure it's the front fans making that noise.

I look forward to a really low noise/noiseless PC in the future... it's so
much better than a noisy one !

For now I am just glad I can access my files again and enjoy them ! I
might have to start wearing ear plugs again if I want some peace and quiet
will sitting behind this one...

The winfast little chipset fan was also kinda noisy... but when the case was
closed I didnt really notice it anymore ? or maybe just very slightly/super
high pitch noise ? barely hearable.

There seems to be a mistake in the manual...

The system fan and the chipset fan connectors are actually swapped... or
maybe it's a mistake in the bios...

I don't know... first I tried connecting to chipset fan connector as
indicated in manual... however the bios said it was system fan...

So I connected it back to system fan1... this was also the default... both
motherboards came with the chipset fan connector connected to system fan1...
so this seems wise to follow it for now at least.

Oh yeah that reminds me there is one more serious issue with this
motherboard that will need to be resolved:

Currently it can only handle 3 GBs.... it will need a bios update for 4 GB
support.

According to the manual the motherboard has something that can be used to
recoved from a bad flash session, so I hope that will work out if it goes
bad

I will definetly try to flash this bios in a few days or so...

For now I am just going to enjoy my repaired PC for a few days but the
sooner the flash the better I guess perhaps for warranties sake or so

I doubt I ll get warranty but the webshop is legally bound to a minimum of 6
months... so that ll be curious if it does die

Oh yeah and I will also try and contact people that can hopefully do
something about my wall power sockets so that those will become grounded,
that would be really nice... cause I am quite fed up with my "DreamPC2006"
from dieing !

The winfast motherboard feels nice and fast... could also be because I was
behind a slower machine lol...

I was so happy when my DreamPC worked again and the
sounds/music/everything.... really nice...

I spent an entire day re-building it and solving the problem... and then
finally a little party ! =D YEAH =D

And now I write this e-mail to let you guys know that everything is probably
all good and fine for now ! =DDDDPP;:;::; D *** =DDDD

^ Yes so happy lol.

Ok time to get back to normal lol...

But first some more favorite youtube ! =D

Oh boy... and then later so much play to do... camera/canon/hack kit, cuda,
programming, videos, more you tube.. lol.

Oh yeah good times ! =D

I'm glad I could get the repair parts with an expired identity card...
didn't wanna get a new one with fingerprints ?!

Maybe webshop should find a way to distribute goods without requiering
govermental identify cards... perhaps the dutch goverment is corrupted !


I don't trust nobody with my fingerprints or DNA though... so they can go
screw themselfes... me will wait until 2013 when that BS is hopefully
exterminated ! =D

The manual of the winfast wasn't too great... some things remain
unexplained.

Like what's an FDC controller ? I suspect that might be a firewire
controller ?

Also it didn't really show what was ide1 and ide2...

Oh well fortunately I managed.

According to the internet this is a stable motherboard...

Time will tell...

For now I put all fans on low... I don't want the DreamPC2006 to get sucked
full with dust again... though even at low it will probably suck dust like a
vacuum cleaner !

Time will tell...

Perhaps in future I might have to disconnect most fans... except one or two
or so

One odd thing is that the power led of the delock card reader stays on even
while PC is off... it's kinda cool... that way I know the PC is under
power/on sort of .

I must give a big thanks to Microsoft for providing my system with good
motherboard drivers ! Without Microsoft servers/drivers it would have
sucked.

I also used Linux Mint 11 to test what the problem was with the usb mouse
and usb keyboard... they worked fine on linux mint 11 so that was a clear
sign that it was a software problem and not a hardware problem.

I used a PS/2 mouse to get windows 7 working again ! Windows 7 has a
nice on-screen keyboard even for login so that was real nice ! .

Without ps/2 mouse/old gear I would have been so fokked... fortunately I am
a smart guy... and hold on too old/proven gear ! =D

Fortunately this motherboard had support for the old/proven gear ! yeah baby
!

I hope this DreamPC2006 will stay with me like all the other computers
through time... it's just cool.

I am not giving up on you baby ! =D

You gonna stay with me... at least for a while ! =D

Bye,
Skybuck-forever ! =D

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Tomorrow I will try and post/upload some pictures somewhere... probably on
my sky drive/website !

To show and ofcourse prove to you guys what's going on with my PC !

So show you the new orange motherboard !

At least I already make photos of that...

Perhaps I will make some more of the final systems when everything is
cleaned up...

At least the table is messy at the moment... and still have to figure out
where I am going to put my tiny little pentium III 450 mhz...

I think my mind is already made up... I am just going to make some room
somewhere on the table...

I was thinking... maybe I could even attached both computers to a single
monitor... but I shouldn't do that...
because I need the old monitor for the P166 and 80486.. maybe not really..
but maybe the big widescreen monitor cable won't reach all the way there...
so that s why...

Also maybe it's better not to connect this big ass monitor to those old
computers no point really.. would be funny though to see a 80486 boot
on a widescreen but then again... nothing new really... it's just like the
boot stuff... no biggie.

Let' see what else... oh yeah.

I must remember a couple of things to do:

1. Detach ps/2 mouse tomorrow.
2. Detach vga cable from monitor tomorrow.
3. Upload photos !
4. Clean up.
5. Place old pentoum III 450 mhz on table too and connect it, but dont use
it at same time with receiver and new pc because of overload potential. I
dont wanna do/risk that.

Which makes me really wonder how big offices or lan parties run some many
PCs ?! gjez...

6. Take more pictures ! =D

7. Perhaps even transfer files from old to new, and new back to old... to
have some more recent files/backups on old pc... could be dangerous/risky
though if it dies... but i'd much rather have some updates files on there if
the dreampc dies again !
Yeah transferring files is a good idea... some important information on
there

The motherboard kinda smelled fishy... it smelled like fireworks... the new
one too... I guess it's just the PCB... for a moment there I was worried
that it blew up or something and was dead on arrival

But so far so good ! I kinda like the idea that it has been used
before... this means it had some time to blow out PCBs... yup... I should go
vent soon.

I always blew a hell lot of dust from the harddisks...

I also used Linux Mint 11 to test the drives... no bad sectors.... thank god
for that !

I also took one final picture of the harddisks, since I forgot which ones
were the good/correct ones and which were not...

Fortunately I had a picture on my canon camera and could see it on the LCD
display which were the correct ones before it died... so that saved me from
having to figure it out ! LOL... that saved me a whole lof ot time/grief for
sure ! So cameras handy !

I also attached the leds/headers/power switches correctly the first time
though I havent tested the reset switch yet... all text towards/facing edge
of motherboard... a tip once giving to me seems to have worked... and
assuming white/black is ground... or goes right whatever...yeah ! =D

I also tested card reader briefly... it works.. it showed pictures from
canon/camera/flash card which was nice.

8. Upload video of plane spotting or so that was pretty cool... yup me
definetly have more plane spotting to do ! and maybe even a ufo
app+spotting ! hihi , more about that in the future I promise ! =D Oh
my god now I am making promises... yes a promise is a promise. That s why I
want my DreamPC back online... to finally build a UFO Spotting App ! =D
So people can network together... and alert each other as it happens it will
be udp/p2p based... hopefully people will start using it so I didnt waste my
to-be-spent development time !
And ofcourse hopefully it will help peeps to catch ufos in the act ! :0)
=DDD <-accident noise smiley but I like it ! hehe like a smiley on mars !
=D Total accident/coincidence !; ) =D ok that was a bit too far
wondering off lol.. but it's my posting I can wander off if I want too ! LOL
P** ok but must stop it now ! Otherwise I will loose you my reader
?! =D

9. Oh yeah that reminds... the mystery about the double boot requirement for
the PIII is still unsolved. on/off/on.

Hasta La Vista Baby !

It's time to terminate this posting since it's becoming a beast ! =D

Ok one last remark about the motherboard... is has usb keyboad/mouse supprt
so it also works in boot menus and such which is nice !

10. Put away Linux Mint in important motherboard box... I love Linux Mint 11
it's a nice fall back system.

11. Make more Linux CD's not DVD's for pentium III 450 mhz ! If possible ???
Though most distro dont support it anymore ?! Ohhh to bad ! Must find at
least one which is decent ?!?

Yeah... since PIII 450 had windows update issues... so it might die software
wise in future... though restoring backup would hopefully still be possible
if cds work...

Oh yeah

12. Defrag PIII

Though 11, and 12 is kinda boring, especially 12... but I should do this
anyway in case of trouble in the future !

Though I must do this when receiver is off to prevent a fuse from blowing !
1800 watts is power limit right ?! Hmmm....

That doesnt even include a printer or anything else yet ?! Yikes ?!

Hmmm... could attach to kitchen power... not sure if that's smart with
fridge and microwave... guess not... those motors probably bad for PCs...
yeah...

Hehe... kinda strange... I really dont understand how offices work with so
many PCs or Schools... might have to ask in a seperate thread if nobody
answers here

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Paul]

Hello Peeps,

Just want to let you guys know that my/Skybuck's DreamPC from 2006 is
back alive !

The motherboard used is one with an nvidia firestorm(or what's it called
? no wait force yeah... lol ) chipset or something like that...

Motherboard name and model number:

Foxconn WinFast NF4SK8AA-8KRS

So far there was only one major problem with this motherboard that had
to be solved.

The usb keyboard and usb mouse refused to work after windows 7 started
updating the drivers.

It turns out there is some kind of ATI/AMD PCI Express (????) Filter
driver or something that must be removed and deleted from the system by
simply unstalling it an choosing "delete from system" checkbox.

This non-existent hardware/driver was wrongly detect by windows 7, as
soon as it's removed windows 7 will auto-detect all real hardware
properly, an internet connection is highly recommended since it will
search/find/download drivers from windows update.

The CD didn't contain any windows 7 64 bit drivers, so the internet
connection is needed !

I just put the PC through it's paces with some nice demos/music/graphics
and so far it seems to run pretty well, though I didn't notice so demos
crashing during terminates/closing ? that's kinda odd but could be a
demo specific thing so I am not too worried yet, though I might
investigate further if other apps have that behaviour as well.

So far I am kinda like this winfast motherboard... so far everything
seems to work including the new cardreader... this motherboard is really
old school, it has a serial/comport and a parallel printer port, 4 usb
things on the back and additionals for the front.

The only thing I do miss is a nice floppy reader.. but that's my
mistakes or delocks mistakes... they should have included a floppy drive
with that card reader... I totally forgot about the floppy... they do
have a model that includes it... oh well... maybe it's time to put the
floppy disk to it's death... i'd rather not... but maybe it's for the
better... though I don't really think so... now I can't do memtest
properly oh well... this issue might have to be resolved in the near
future or so... maybe I will order another card reader.. wow... if I
kill my PC again I am going to shoot meself lol... no just kidding.

Currently I am using a "used" motherboard... I also got a "brand new"
motherboard which is exactly the same model... so far all seems well..

I also upgraded the old pentium III 450 mhz with 2 gigabytes of ram...
that helped a little bit... so that's nice to fall back on in case of
distress

Though my DreamPC is a whole lot more noisy... even at all low fan speed
?! I am pretty sure it's the front fans making that noise.

I look forward to a really low noise/noiseless PC in the future... it's
so much better than a noisy one !

For now I am just glad I can access my files again and enjoy them !
I might have to start wearing ear plugs again if I want some peace
and quiet will sitting behind this one...

The winfast little chipset fan was also kinda noisy... but when the case
was closed I didnt really notice it anymore ? or maybe just very
slightly/super high pitch noise ? barely hearable.

There seems to be a mistake in the manual...

The system fan and the chipset fan connectors are actually swapped... or
maybe it's a mistake in the bios...

I don't know... first I tried connecting to chipset fan connector as
indicated in manual... however the bios said it was system fan...

So I connected it back to system fan1... this was also the default...
both motherboards came with the chipset fan connector connected to
system fan1... so this seems wise to follow it for now at least.

Oh yeah that reminds me there is one more serious issue with this
motherboard that will need to be resolved:

Currently it can only handle 3 GBs.... it will need a bios update for 4
GB support.

According to the manual the motherboard has something that can be used
to recoved from a bad flash session, so I hope that will work out if it
goes bad

I will definetly try to flash this bios in a few days or so...

For now I am just going to enjoy my repaired PC for a few days but
the sooner the flash the better I guess perhaps for warranties sake
or so

I doubt I ll get warranty but the webshop is legally bound to a minimum
of 6 months... so that ll be curious if it does die

Oh yeah and I will also try and contact people that can hopefully do
something about my wall power sockets so that those will become
grounded, that would be really nice... cause I am quite fed up with my
"DreamPC2006" from dieing !

The winfast motherboard feels nice and fast... could also be because I
was behind a slower machine lol...

I was so happy when my DreamPC worked again and the
sounds/music/everything.... really nice...

I spent an entire day re-building it and solving the problem... and then
finally a little party ! =D YEAH =D

And now I write this e-mail to let you guys know that everything is
probably all good and fine for now ! =DDDDPP;:;::; D *** =DDDD

^ Yes so happy lol.

Ok time to get back to normal lol...

But first some more favorite youtube ! =D

Oh boy... and then later so much play to do... camera/canon/hack kit,
cuda, programming, videos, more you tube.. lol.

Oh yeah good times ! =D

I'm glad I could get the repair parts with an expired identity card...
didn't wanna get a new one with fingerprints ?!

Maybe webshop should find a way to distribute goods without requiering
govermental identify cards... perhaps the dutch goverment is corrupted !


I don't trust nobody with my fingerprints or DNA though... so they can
go screw themselfes... me will wait until 2013 when that BS is hopefully
exterminated ! =D

The manual of the winfast wasn't too great... some things remain
unexplained.

Like what's an FDC controller ? I suspect that might be a firewire
controller ?

Also it didn't really show what was ide1 and ide2...

Oh well fortunately I managed.

According to the internet this is a stable motherboard...

Time will tell...

For now I put all fans on low... I don't want the DreamPC2006 to get
sucked full with dust again... though even at low it will probably suck
dust like a vacuum cleaner !

Time will tell...

Perhaps in future I might have to disconnect most fans... except one or
two or so

One odd thing is that the power led of the delock card reader stays on
even while PC is off... it's kinda cool... that way I know the PC is
under power/on sort of .

I must give a big thanks to Microsoft for providing my system with good
motherboard drivers ! Without Microsoft servers/drivers it would have
sucked.

I also used Linux Mint 11 to test what the problem was with the usb
mouse and usb keyboard... they worked fine on linux mint 11 so that was
a clear sign that it was a software problem and not a hardware problem.

I used a PS/2 mouse to get windows 7 working again ! Windows 7 has
a nice on-screen keyboard even for login so that was real nice ! .

Without ps/2 mouse/old gear I would have been so fokked... fortunately I
am a smart guy... and hold on too old/proven gear ! =D

Fortunately this motherboard had support for the old/proven gear ! yeah
baby !

I hope this DreamPC2006 will stay with me like all the other computers
through time... it's just cool.

I am not giving up on you baby ! =D

You gonna stay with me... at least for a while ! =D

Bye,
Skybuck-forever ! =D

Old school FTW. Make sure you shop for a replacement cooling solution
for that chipset fan It's got the old SLI paddleboard. No
bifurcation ICs. Board intro around beginning of the year 2006.
It's got electrolytic caps and no polymer caps that I can see.

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-186-059-01.jpg

If the chipset cooler ever needs to be replaced, see
if this one will fit in its place. They don't make these
any more as far as I know, so you might have to look around
to find one. There are two ways you can rotate this, and
the question is, whether it stays clear of the video card
or not.

"Thermalright HR-05 SLI/IFX"
http://bigbruin.com/2007/hr05ifxsli_1

*******

Your old PC was killed by the USB header mistake. Not
by grounding. The reason for fixing the grounding issue,
is to avoid hum issues with the stereo, and slight shock
hazard to you.

Paul

 

[Robert Baer]

Want a computer that takes no power, no software, no added hardware,
and universally adaptable within the limitation of imagination?

It is called an


ABACUS!

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Hello,

To prove to you that the DreamPC2006 was indeed rebuild here are photos:

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=aedd...EA32D61BC86&id=AEDD0EA32D61BC86!595&sc=photos

This is called Skybuck's DreamPC2006 Fifth Build !

I'm kinda lazy with it so I am not gonna rename any pictures because been
there done that before... after 4 builds it's starting to become a bit
boring...

It's the same hardware, the same drill... just a different motherboard.. I
am sure you understand.

One nice thing about the pictures:

It does show off the quality of Canon Powershot SX50 HS camera. No flasher
was used... just lamps on ceiling and normal standing lamp.

Shutter speed of 15 seconds was used, and iso 80.

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Robert Baer]

Your "dream" PCs so far have been nightmares; get the abacus!