Re: [H] The iPad vs the competition?
Well, that seems strange. How come no one but you knows about this? Is this color and touch screen? What size? Let's face it...size does matter here. A tiny phone screen is only useful sometimes.it's not the device I want to have in my living room. I can't see reading a book on a tiny screendon't really want to read the web on them either. Picture videos are too small...too much of a compromise. Yeah, though, I'd rather not have to be a victim of the Apple/Job control. On 1/28/2010 1:24 AM, tmse...@rlrnews.com wrote: They do. Its called the archos 7 (and I think 9). Google chrome, the whole works. Oh, about $150 less, and yes, it can run Kindle software, so ebooks still work fine. Sent via BlackBerry -Original Message- From: Bino Gopalbinogo...@hotmail.com Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:14:53 To:hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] The iPad vs the competition? I guess I was looking at it from the perspective of it being nice to have in the living room when I wanted to use a browser/look things up w/o the whole having to boot up a laptop and all that. I do have a 3GS but the screen is just too small to really easily do stuff on it and the increased screen size on the iPad is useful. I also do like the multitouch interface; one reason I'm leaning towards it. But at the same time it seems so limited that I'm thinking that there will be better alternatives that will do more for OS...can anyone imagine the Google Android equivalent?! That would be awesome! BINO -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 2:12 PM To: hardware Subject: Re: [H] The iPad vs the competition? If I didn't already have an iPhone 3GS I would definitely be interested. But as it stands, my iPhone does everything the iPad does (just, smaller, which isn't a big deal. The killer app for me would be the ability to subscribe to all of my dead tree magazines in ebook form on the iPad, and make notes, annotations, and lookup references. When that arrives, I'm there. --- Brian Weeden Technical Advisor Secure World Foundationhttp://www.secureworldfoundation.org +1 (514) 466-2756 Canada +1 (202) 683-8534 US On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 5:00 PM, DSincdx7...@bellsouth.net wrote: Bino, With this share you seem to be the Uber-Early-Adopter-Candidate. I checked today and it seems that NO further info about access to an iPad will be available until March or April. But, I suppose the Speculation-Masters are now in full gear. To me, it is just another Apple appliance :) Best, Duncan On 01/27/2010 16:25, Bino Gopal wrote: So I'll bring it up: what do people think of the iPad? I can already guess at the level of disinterest and disdain on this list (so no need to vent it here in response), so what I'm more looking for is more factual evaluations of the features and how it compares to equivalent solutions out there now, or that people expect to come out in the next few months. I have a T61 but it's getting old and would like to get a tablet PC-type of device, and am expecting that the upcoming Win7 tablets should blow the iPad out of the water in price and features right? Anyone got their eye on a particular one coming out soon? BINO No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.733 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2650 - Release Date: 01/27/10 14:36:00
Re: [H] The iPad vs the competition?
At 02:24 AM 1/28/2010, tmse...@rlrnews.com wrote: They do. Its called the archos 7 (and I think 9). Google chrome, the whole works. Oh, about $150 less, and yes, it can run Kindle software, so ebooks still work fine. Damn. Now those look really cool. T
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
No more Antec for me! After a caps fiasco killed 2 supposedly premium PSU's that were used 12mo/ea. They refused to give consideration that despite warranty being expired, the units clearly had manufacturing flaw vs. dying from old age and and the replacement had sat for almost a year before being put to work only to die 6mo later. Of course when I opened the barely 6mo dead replacement unit, all the popped caps were a known crap hu-flung-dung brand. Dunno who OEM'd them for antec but I stay away on principal for getting burned! On 1/26/2010 5:38 PM, James Boswell wrote: I had some terrible reliability problems with various models of antec PSU a couple of years ago, had several models all develop dead +12v power for the cpu connector in a fairly short timeframe, and that kinda put me off. pretty much everything I've got or maintain has an Enermax or Corsair unit in it, and I've had no trouble with them. Also had good results from Tagan units. On 26 Jan 2010, at 20:10, Neil Davidson wrote: Antec, Corsair and Enermax PSUs get a lot of rep from forums I'm on.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
Zalman makes some very beefy power supplies. Regards, Zulfiqar Naushad On Jan 28, 2010, at 5:20 PM, maccrawj maccr...@gmail.com wrote: No more Antec for me! After a caps fiasco killed 2 supposedly premium PSU's that were used 12mo/ea. They refused to give consideration that despite warranty being expired, the units clearly had manufacturing flaw vs. dying from old age and and the replacement had sat for almost a year before being put to work only to die 6mo later. Of course when I opened the barely 6mo dead replacement unit, all the popped caps were a known crap hu-flung-dung brand. Dunno who OEM'd them for antec but I stay away on principal for getting burned! On 1/26/2010 5:38 PM, James Boswell wrote: I had some terrible reliability problems with various models of antec PSU a couple of years ago, had several models all develop dead +12v power for the cpu connector in a fairly short timeframe, and that kinda put me off. pretty much everything I've got or maintain has an Enermax or Corsair unit in it, and I've had no trouble with them. Also had good results from Tagan units. On 26 Jan 2010, at 20:10, Neil Davidson wrote: Antec, Corsair and Enermax PSUs get a lot of rep from forums I'm on.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
On Thu, 28 Jan 2010, maccrawj wrote: all the popped caps were a known crap hu-flung-dung brand. At my company we've been doing manual repairs quite successfully on electronics with bad caps recently (on motherboards at least). It has saved us a lot of money in warranty repairs on some systems we sold with 3 year warranties without realizing that the manufacture warranty was only 1 year. About 10 of those systems have had bad caps at about 18 months of life, and I am sure that the rest just havn't shown their age yet. With a little practice on some old motherboards you can likely get to the point with soldering where it is worthwhile to fix these types of issues. Christopher Fisk -- Leela: Hey, you know what might be a hoot? Professor: No. Why would I know that? -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
I've had numerous Antec supplies die as well. Some of them erupted into a shower of smoke and sparks, and others just dropped the +5v rail. CWT (Channel Well Technology) was the OEM of Antec units during their worst phase. Supposedly CWT units are good now (Corsair switched to them after their initial SeaSonic-based units did so well), but I'm still staying the hell away. I think Antec mostly uses Delta now. -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware- boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of maccrawj Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:21 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC No more Antec for me! After a caps fiasco killed 2 supposedly premium PSU's that were used 12mo/ea. They refused to give consideration that despite warranty being expired, the units clearly had manufacturing flaw vs. dying from old age and and the replacement had sat for almost a year before being put to work only to die 6mo later. Of course when I opened the barely 6mo dead replacement unit, all the popped caps were a known crap hu-flung-dung brand. Dunno who OEM'd them for antec but I stay away on principal for getting burned! On 1/26/2010 5:38 PM, James Boswell wrote: I had some terrible reliability problems with various models of antec PSU a couple of years ago, had several models all develop dead +12v power for the cpu connector in a fairly short timeframe, and that kinda put me off. pretty much everything I've got or maintain has an Enermax or Corsair unit in it, and I've had no trouble with them. Also had good results from Tagan units. On 26 Jan 2010, at 20:10, Neil Davidson wrote: Antec, Corsair and Enermax PSUs get a lot of rep from forums I'm on.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
Seasonic is good but relatively expensive. Regards, Zulfiqar Naushad On Jan 28, 2010, at 9:15 PM, Greg Sevart ad...@xfury.net wrote: I've had numerous Antec supplies die as well. Some of them erupted into a shower of smoke and sparks, and others just dropped the +5v rail. CWT (Channel Well Technology) was the OEM of Antec units during their worst phase. Supposedly CWT units are good now (Corsair switched to them after their initial SeaSonic-based units did so well), but I'm still staying the hell away. I think Antec mostly uses Delta now. -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware- boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of maccrawj Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:21 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC No more Antec for me! After a caps fiasco killed 2 supposedly premium PSU's that were used 12mo/ea. They refused to give consideration that despite warranty being expired, the units clearly had manufacturing flaw vs. dying from old age and and the replacement had sat for almost a year before being put to work only to die 6mo later. Of course when I opened the barely 6mo dead replacement unit, all the popped caps were a known crap hu-flung-dung brand. Dunno who OEM'd them for antec but I stay away on principal for getting burned! On 1/26/2010 5:38 PM, James Boswell wrote: I had some terrible reliability problems with various models of antec PSU a couple of years ago, had several models all develop dead +12v power for the cpu connector in a fairly short timeframe, and that kinda put me off. pretty much everything I've got or maintain has an Enermax or Corsair unit in it, and I've had no trouble with them. Also had good results from Tagan units. On 26 Jan 2010, at 20:10, Neil Davidson wrote: Antec, Corsair and Enermax PSUs get a lot of rep from forums I'm on.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
Even I have changed caps on MBs. (I can do NASA certified soldering though... I was Gov't trained GEEIA) It is worth it IF you can get good parts. I researched the stresses the caps are under. Only certain types are good for MBs. SO, It can be a good cap, just the wrong one or type. I forget the exact spec you need to look for... (High stress.) Here is a site for a list he thinks are known looser MBs. He sells cap kits, or pick-em yourself. IIRC, he has instructions/warnings. NO connection, and never bought any there. Rick Glazier From: Christopher Fisk At my company we've been doing manual repairs quite successfully on electronics with bad caps recently (on motherboards at least). It has saved us a lot of money in warranty repairs on some systems we sold with 3 year warranties without realizing that the manufacture warranty was only 1 year. About 10 of those systems have had bad caps at about 18 months of life, and I am sure that the rest just havn't shown their age yet. With a little practice on some old motherboards you can likely get to the point with soldering where it is worthwhile to fix these types of issues.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
From: maccrawj all the popped caps were a known crap hu-flung-dung brand. LOL. Can't really say that right? (If you know real bad names, offlist is OK with me...) Thanks in advance, Rick Glazier
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
I'll be honest: in a comparison between antec and even pos generic supplies, my luck has been about the same. I have no love for antec psus. If you want a no-name with surprisingly good quality, check Nspire. Sent via BlackBerry -Original Message- From: Greg Sevart ad...@xfury.net Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:15:47 To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC I've had numerous Antec supplies die as well. Some of them erupted into a shower of smoke and sparks, and others just dropped the +5v rail. CWT (Channel Well Technology) was the OEM of Antec units during their worst phase. Supposedly CWT units are good now (Corsair switched to them after their initial SeaSonic-based units did so well), but I'm still staying the hell away. I think Antec mostly uses Delta now. -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware- boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of maccrawj Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:21 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC No more Antec for me! After a caps fiasco killed 2 supposedly premium PSU's that were used 12mo/ea. They refused to give consideration that despite warranty being expired, the units clearly had manufacturing flaw vs. dying from old age and and the replacement had sat for almost a year before being put to work only to die 6mo later. Of course when I opened the barely 6mo dead replacement unit, all the popped caps were a known crap hu-flung-dung brand. Dunno who OEM'd them for antec but I stay away on principal for getting burned! On 1/26/2010 5:38 PM, James Boswell wrote: I had some terrible reliability problems with various models of antec PSU a couple of years ago, had several models all develop dead +12v power for the cpu connector in a fairly short timeframe, and that kinda put me off. pretty much everything I've got or maintain has an Enermax or Corsair unit in it, and I've had no trouble with them. Also had good results from Tagan units. On 26 Jan 2010, at 20:10, Neil Davidson wrote: Antec, Corsair and Enermax PSUs get a lot of rep from forums I'm on.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
Link please? And how hard would you say it is to do this (change caps and solder on new ones)? I've only soldered once or twice and the trick seems to be how to get it to not pool up and melt all over the place...is that by not getting the gun too hot or something else? BINO -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Rick Glazier Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 10:29 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC Even I have changed caps on MBs. (I can do NASA certified soldering though... I was Gov't trained GEEIA) It is worth it IF you can get good parts. I researched the stresses the caps are under. Only certain types are good for MBs. SO, It can be a good cap, just the wrong one or type. I forget the exact spec you need to look for... (High stress.) Here is a site for a list he thinks are known looser MBs. He sells cap kits, or pick-em yourself. IIRC, he has instructions/warnings. NO connection, and never bought any there. Rick Glazier From: Christopher Fisk At my company we've been doing manual repairs quite successfully on electronics with bad caps recently (on motherboards at least). It has saved us a lot of money in warranty repairs on some systems we sold with 3 year warranties without realizing that the manufacture warranty was only 1 year. About 10 of those systems have had bad caps at about 18 months of life, and I am sure that the rest just havn't shown their age yet. With a little practice on some old motherboards you can likely get to the point with soldering where it is worthwhile to fix these types of issues.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
Sorry for the delay... It was in my clipboard, but I wandered around his site a lot and forgot... http://badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=21 He has instructions. You need some sort of soldering experience. (I was one of GEEIAs best students in class 99.8%, 1968.) You can burn the MB with too much heat. I didn't have a solder sucker, but I did have the wicked copper solder removal braid they sold maybe 20-30 years ago. You have to have bass ones -- and things can go wrong... The old caps are a little hard to get off since the MBs are multilayer, and the holes are somewhat hard to clean out... I'm sure people will have various ways that work for them. I think I worked a pin into and then through the holes while keeping the solder slightly soft and malleable. Experience helps. I used as little heat as possible. That is a judgment call, and soldering the new ones back are easier, but cold joints are a constant worry... Be VERY careful to observe polarity. To gain confidence, try it with one or two cheap caps (generic toolbox kinds) first on an old MB that is trash. One you never need to try to run again. After that it gets easier. FWIW, I cross-trained and could solder lead pipes too... Lead pipe to copper pipe, with lead solder. There is a buggy whip type of skill... grin Rick Glazier From: Bino Gopal Link please? And how hard would you say it is to do this (change caps and solder on new ones)? I've only soldered once or twice and the trick seems to be how to get it to not pool up and melt all over the place...is that by not getting the gun too hot or something else? BINO
Re: [H] The iPad vs the competition?
Apple? Apple who? On 1/27/2010 3:25 PM, Bino Gopal wrote: So I'll bring it up: what do people think of the iPad? I can already guess at the level of disinterest and disdain on this list (so no need to vent it here in response), so what I'm more looking for is more factual evaluations of the features and how it compares to equivalent solutions out there now, or that people expect to come out in the next few months. I have a T61 but it's getting old and would like to get a tablet PC-type of device, and am expecting that the upcoming Win7 tablets should blow the iPad out of the water in price and features right? Anyone got their eye on a particular one coming out soon? BINO
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
On Thu, 28 Jan 2010, Bino Gopal wrote: Link please? And how hard would you say it is to do this (change caps and solder on new ones)? I've only soldered once or twice and the trick seems to be how to get it to not pool up and melt all over the place...is that by not getting the gun too hot or something else? It is like anything else, practice a couple of times on a trash motherboard until you are confident you're not burning things. I do recommend getting a solder sucker, makes things much simpler. Christopher Fisk -- Lois Griffin: Peter, you're drunk again. Peter Griffin: No, I'm just exhausted because I've been up all night drinking. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
Zool, Yes, that is true. But, considering all the current and past demands now heaped on the PSU, I'd rather not roll the dice and penny-pinch. Perhaps just me, but I've had superb service from PCPC. My next psus will be SeaSonic. I will watch what OCZ/PCPC does to figure out Who/What they are doing. Never used an Antec psu. Grateful! My nemesis is still Enermax. What a fiasco! Best, Duncan On 01/28/2010 13:31, Zulfiqar Naushad wrote: Seasonic is good but relatively expensive. Regards, Zulfiqar Naushad On Jan 28, 2010, at 9:15 PM, Greg Sevart ad...@xfury.net wrote: I've had numerous Antec supplies die as well. Some of them erupted into a shower of smoke and sparks, and others just dropped the +5v rail. CWT (Channel Well Technology) was the OEM of Antec units during their worst phase. Supposedly CWT units are good now (Corsair switched to them after their initial SeaSonic-based units did so well), but I'm still staying the hell away. I think Antec mostly uses Delta now. -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware- boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of maccrawj Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:21 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC No more Antec for me! After a caps fiasco killed 2 supposedly premium PSU's that were used 12mo/ea. They refused to give consideration that despite warranty being expired, the units clearly had manufacturing flaw vs. dying from old age and and the replacement had sat for almost a year before being put to work only to die 6mo later. Of course when I opened the barely 6mo dead replacement unit, all the popped caps were a known crap hu-flung-dung brand. Dunno who OEM'd them for antec but I stay away on principal for getting burned! On 1/26/2010 5:38 PM, James Boswell wrote: I had some terrible reliability problems with various models of antec PSU a couple of years ago, had several models all develop dead +12v power for the cpu connector in a fairly short timeframe, and that kinda put me off. pretty much everything I've got or maintain has an Enermax or Corsair unit in it, and I've had no trouble with them. Also had good results from Tagan units. On 26 Jan 2010, at 20:10, Neil Davidson wrote: Antec, Corsair and Enermax PSUs get a lot of rep from forums I'm on.
Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC
I've had decent luck with Enermax, but I bought this Zalman PSU for much more than it was worth and it's done real good so far. Although it is a 600W powersupply most reviews state that it can do 750 W sustained. I'm running a Core i7 820 with a Radeon 4890, both overclocked on a MSI GD65 mobo and 8 GB RAM, and nary a problem! The only issue is that it's not SLI compatible, so if I wanted to do crossfire or SLI I may be out of luck. For my next PSU, I'm looking at XFX, Corsair or Zalman again. First pick would be Zalman of course since I've had amazing luck with my Zalman. The model I have is the ZM600-HP. On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 1:08 AM, DSinc dx7...@bellsouth.net wrote: Zool, Yes, that is true. But, considering all the current and past demands now heaped on the PSU, I'd rather not roll the dice and penny-pinch. Perhaps just me, but I've had superb service from PCPC. My next psus will be SeaSonic. I will watch what OCZ/PCPC does to figure out Who/What they are doing. Never used an Antec psu. Grateful! My nemesis is still Enermax. What a fiasco! Best, Duncan On 01/28/2010 13:31, Zulfiqar Naushad wrote: Seasonic is good but relatively expensive. Regards, Zulfiqar Naushad On Jan 28, 2010, at 9:15 PM, Greg Sevart ad...@xfury.net wrote: I've had numerous Antec supplies die as well. Some of them erupted into a shower of smoke and sparks, and others just dropped the +5v rail. CWT (Channel Well Technology) was the OEM of Antec units during their worst phase. Supposedly CWT units are good now (Corsair switched to them after their initial SeaSonic-based units did so well), but I'm still staying the hell away. I think Antec mostly uses Delta now. -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware- boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of maccrawj Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:21 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] something is going on at PCPC No more Antec for me! After a caps fiasco killed 2 supposedly premium PSU's that were used 12mo/ea. They refused to give consideration that despite warranty being expired, the units clearly had manufacturing flaw vs. dying from old age and and the replacement had sat for almost a year before being put to work only to die 6mo later. Of course when I opened the barely 6mo dead replacement unit, all the popped caps were a known crap hu-flung-dung brand. Dunno who OEM'd them for antec but I stay away on principal for getting burned! On 1/26/2010 5:38 PM, James Boswell wrote: I had some terrible reliability problems with various models of antec PSU a couple of years ago, had several models all develop dead +12v power for the cpu connector in a fairly short timeframe, and that kinda put me off. pretty much everything I've got or maintain has an Enermax or Corsair unit in it, and I've had no trouble with them. Also had good results from Tagan units. On 26 Jan 2010, at 20:10, Neil Davidson wrote: Antec, Corsair and Enermax PSUs get a lot of rep from forums I'm on. -- Best Regards, Zulfiqar Naushad
Re: [H] The iPad vs the competition?
These are too funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTzhXMbOWHE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnT0zp8Ya4 On 1/28/2010 3:01 PM, Stan Zaske wrote: Apple? Apple who? On 1/27/2010 3:25 PM, Bino Gopal wrote: So I'll bring it up: what do people think of the iPad? I can already guess at the level of disinterest and disdain on this list (so no need to vent it here in response), so what I'm more looking for is more factual evaluations of the features and how it compares to equivalent solutions out there now, or that people expect to come out in the next few months. I have a T61 but it's getting old and would like to get a tablet PC-type of device, and am expecting that the upcoming Win7 tablets should blow the iPad out of the water in price and features right? Anyone got their eye on a particular one coming out soon? BINO No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.733 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2651 - Release Date: 01/28/10 02:36:00
[H] HP/Compaq drive tatoo?
Hello HWG, I have a compaq in with a Hitachi deathstar drive issue. I ordered a WD green series 500gb 32mb 7200 sata drive to replace the failed drive. The customer ordered the vista recovery cd's since the recovery partition was shot. When I first put the discs in it worked great and was leading me thru the recovery process. However, the choice I made was not what I wanted so I backed out and it dropped me out to reboot. Since then I have not been able to get into the recovery discs, I am booting from them but it gives me a non-system disk or disk error. The discs read fine from 2 other DVD drives and I have swapped out their compaq DVD drive with a another yet the problem continues. So, next step was to test the drive (new one) and sure enough it comes back with SMART errors in the read test. So I goto WD web site and DL their diagnostic iso and try to get the system to boot off of it. It gives me an error that it can't find some file on the CD - that is actually there. So I download a new copy and burn another - same thing. I replaced the DVD drive again and the problem continues. So... This is weird. One thing I tried was a XP disc, and I did a fixmbr, diskpart, and format (which took awhile) but all that worked fine. Yet, everything else... Ideas? -- Regards, joeuser - Still looking for the 'any' key... ...now these points of data make a beautiful line...
Re: [H] HP/Compaq drive tatoo?
On 1/28/10 5:42 PM, Joe User wrote: Hello HWG, I have a compaq in with a Hitachi deathstar drive issue. I ordered a WD green series 500gb 32mb 7200 sata drive to replace the failed drive. The customer ordered the vista recovery cd's since the recovery partition was shot. When I first put the discs in it worked great and was leading me thru the recovery process. However, the choice I made was not what I wanted so I backed out and it dropped me out to reboot. Since then I have not been able to get into the recovery discs, I am booting from them but it gives me a non-system disk or disk error. The discs read fine from 2 other DVD drives and I have swapped out their compaq DVD drive with a another yet the problem continues. So, next step was to test the drive (new one) and sure enough it comes back with SMART errors in the read test. So I goto WD web site and DL their diagnostic iso and try to get the system to boot off of it. It gives me an error that it can't find some file on the CD - that is actually there. So I download a new copy and burn another - same thing. I replaced the DVD drive again and the problem continues. So... This is weird. One thing I tried was a XP disc, and I did a fixmbr, diskpart, and format (which took awhile) but all that worked fine. Yet, everything else... Boot up something like dban and do a quick wipe of the drive, even the first little bit of the drive should be enough. The machine is really trying to boot the hard drive, and is having issues. Harry Ideas?
