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Home - Linux - Systems - Jack - Dual pIII

Jack

Why Jack? Was named after the son of my friend who also works on FlamingText.com 

Dual 700 Mhz PIII
Intel 440GX ChipSet
SuperMicro P6DGX Motherboard.
2 Hard Drives (sizes?)
Some crap video card (was a server).
This computer has a noisy fan. When I was at the local computer store, I decided to pick up a new one. I also suspect that the computer runs a little hot, so if it wasn't the fan, then I could just install a second fan.

I quickly realized it was one of the CPU fans that was the culprit. (These are 5cm fans instead of 8 cm), so I'll need to go get one of those (I'll get two and replace the other once as well).

I broke it

So I took out the CPU, removed the fan, and decided to just leave the CPU out until I get the new fan. Of course my mistake, I only had the second CPU in not the first one. When I put moved the other CPU over to the 1st (zero'th) position, I couldn't get it to boot, and so began a long night on the computer. After some time, pulling all the bits out (except the video card), and putting them back in in various incantations, the best I can get is a bunch of beeps.

Time to do it the right way .. find the manual etc...

  • Motherboard has markings: P6DGS, google leads to Super Micro - P6DGS
  • Picture: Here - local
  • Intel 440X ChipsetBased Motherboard (all)
  • pdf - local
  • When it beeps, it beeps eight (8) times, which according to Chapter 3, says there is a Video Card Problem.
  • Woo Hoo, after pulling out and reseating my ATI Rage 2C AGP video card (very sucky), it's up and going again. Perhaps I should have read the manual first, and saved me some trouble .. Now I have to put all the bits back in again!

    Okay , it's finally back up and running again. Although I put the IDE cables back in a differnet config which meant that it either couldn't find the boot block, or the devices where wrongly numbered. Anyway. All back and working now.

    Replaced the CPU Fan

    It's a noisy fella, so I went out (to TheDiscShop and a bought a 5cm fan to replace the CPU fan (A$5). It looked like it was too fat at the shop, but when I got the part home it was almost exactly the right size. The only problem is that the screw holes aren't deep enough, so the screw only just makes it through, and would not be enough to attach onto the heat sink.

    So I got out my trusty drill ("Gunna make a few modifications to my computer", I said to my wife as I passed her by with the drill :-) ) And using the 6mm drill bit, I drilled into the fan to make the screw sit a little lower. Worked like a charm. Noise? What noise. It's amazing the difference.

    This computer was one that had a little trouble under extreme load, so I hope to get around to testing if it's any better after adding the extra fan on the front of the case, and the new fan on the CPU.

    I also plan to add a new graphics card to the computer. Perhaps I'll be able to use this machine as a secondary games machine for when friends come over (It has 2X AGP, which I'm told is enough for even Unreal 2003, but I'll believe it when I see it).

    Video Card

    It occured to me that I might get this machine to work as a secondary machines for games. So I'm looking for a video card that might do the trick: The follow are a list of video cards that *might* be compatible. Prices from The Disc Shop, as of Jun 19 2003. I want this card to work well in linux too. So the recommendation was to get an ATI Radeon 9200. But need to check dri.sourceforge.net to make sure it's supported.

    It is :-) And it's around A$148 (eyo.com.au)

    Matrox Graphics cards were also recommended, but too bloody expensive here. in particular: G550 Dualhead DVI (but don't get the parhelia Matrix Graphics)

    Transition from server to Workstation

  • ATI 3D Rage IIc
  • Installed Xconfigurator
  • Plugged in a mouse :-) ran "kudzu".
  • Messed around with /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 (for ATI 3D Rage IIc).

    I needed to do this, but I hadn't run kudzu, so perhaps that was the problem. 

    cd /dev
ln -s input/misc mouse
  • Ran "startx", when I got it working, just basic xterm, and no window manager.
  • I installed XFree86-twm-4.2.0-8, and then was able to run "twm &"
  • but it's only running at 600x480
  • Messed around and got it to 1024x768?
  • Got lazy with the gnome setup etc.. so put in the redhat 7.3 CD's and did an "upgrade" (although already running 7.3), and selected gdm (xdm for gnome), sawfish, and a bunch of other X/gnome stuff, and it figured out the huge number of dependencies. There is probably a way do this with rpm, but I didn't know how.
    stuff? 
    
0916991630 SUPER P6/DGS/DBS ... R2.2
62-0101-06389-00101111-071595-440BX/GX-0AAMH101-H
AIC 7895 SCSI BIOS v2.11


http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440GX/p6dbs.htm
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:cb80EE14QUAC:www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440BX/p6dbs.htm+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
local copy - p6dbs.htm


http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440GX/p6dgs.htm
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:gphU8OIENwoC:www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/440GX/p6dgs.htm+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
local copy - p6dgs.htm

Sticker on the bios chip:
AMIBIOS
686-PII (c) 1997
American MegaTrends
B44836
------
DGS9161

    Links

    Last Change: Monday, 10-Jan-2005 07:43:25 EST

    Disclaimer

    The information provided within these pages is provided AS IS, and without any warranty. Following these directions may (but not limited to) crash your computer, delete all the information on your hard disk, open up security holes or cause your house to burn down. I made these pages to provide some information about the setup that I have done, but I did not proofread it for correctness, and in most cases did not test it. There are commands in these pages that would definately delete or corrupt all the data on your computer (especially the dualboot section). In fact it happened to me.... So you are on your own!

    Cameron Gregory