2007-08-02

Linux Boot Failure

OK, here's the error I get booting Gusty Tribe 3 on my theater PC:



Here's the one for Feisty:



Any ideas?

Also, two things at work have really pissed me off. First, a helpdesker gave me the classical "You're not LYNX (the "managed" PC of my institution) and your running an unsupported browser (IE7)." The funny bit is, I got it working less than 5 mins after I hung up.

The other concerns my new hire. I wrote out this "pre-interview" email so I wouldn't have to interview all 20 people. HR tells me the email is too "lengthy and intimidating" and will "reduce the number of my applicant pool" and that I should engage with phone interviews with all of them instead. I remind them of the fact that I don't have the time and that I AM trying to reduce my applicant pool. Now, my supervisior wants to talk to me...yay!

2007-08-01

Weird time

I fell asleep when I got home and just woke back up recently. This is going to wreck my sleep pattern for a few days ... yay.

It seems like the new PC is working better than it was. I reset the BIOS (after "tweaking it" to the point it wouldn't boot) and turned off all the items I'm not using (ATA controller, serial port, etc.) So far things have been running smoothly. I've even had a chance to connect the Hauppauge to my incoming cable. I can get all the channels I normally do through Comcast. However, this is just "standard cable" (analog) so I'm not impressed with it. Luckily, DirectTV is having a special on their services. Might have to check that out once the new TV gets here (hopefully Friday).

The only thing pissing me off is the sound card. It's still doing the popping thing. Creative says its a problem with nForce's way of supplying data to the PCI bus and recommends DECREASING your FSB speed. However, when I drop it down to 270 MHz, it still pops when playing a Blu-Ray. The problem with 3D stuff is gone though...wheee. For those looking at buying a X-Fi Audio Elite Pro, keep this in mind before you throw down the dough. Provantage requires one to "contact the manufacturer" before issuing an RMA. Considering they have a "product compatibility problems" clause, I have a feeling this thing might end up on ebay.

Also, my Blu-Ray software (PowerDVD) seems to have a problem enabling HDCP on my monitors. NVIDIA control panel says it's already running, so I'm not sure what's up with that. Maybe it's got something to do with the $19.95 "upgrade" they're offering.

It was noted in the comments that I should run Linux on this thing. I would, if it ran. Gusty Tribe 3 can't open a tty and kills job control. This then causes some exception it doesn't seem to recover from. This happens EARLY during boot so aside from displaying a pretty progress bar, ubuntu is going to need some tweaking to work. I'll post a pic when I have one. Considering that I have to still make the nVidia MediaShield RAID controller work on some form of OSS, I feel that's where I should focus.

First though, back to 300. SP<pop/>AR<pop/>TAA<pop/>AAAA<pop/>A!!!!!!