Battleangel

Ok. First off, I’m still haven’t gotten the new Aria system to work properly. The Epox mainboard is a real troublemaker in many ways. The most recent development is that I bought another harddrive (since I was short on one drive anyway), a SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200.7 80GB for the setup and presto, I could install XP. Everything worked like a charm, at least to begin with. Previously I had run a 10h+ memtest86 session and I was down to either a harddrive problem or a broken mainboard. However, the MAXTOR 160GB disk that wouldn’t work doesn’t seem to be broken in any way. A lot of files are damaged, yes, but they seem to have been damaged when running the unit with the Epox MB. That however will be hard to prove in reality. For now I’m 15-20GB short on files that I’m gonna have to download again and really pissed at Epox.
Because as well as the system seems to be running now, I could NOT install my G400 card. I even tried a brand new install and disabled the Unichrome memory sharing in the bios but still the system would lock up. Before, with the MAXTOR drive, I had tried both with and without the G400 and gotten the same result. Bottom line, the Epox 8KMM5i, maybe the entire KM400(A) line, seems to be incompatible with everything on the market. Goddamn I should have gotten an nforce board instead! And considering how displeased I am with Epox since the incredibly crappy 8KHA+ board I will steer clear of them in the future. Can’t believe I took a chance on an untested product like this.

So, while I cannot use the computer as a media player I can hopefully use it for downloading while I sort out the problem. I now have an additional external storage case that I think not even Epox can mess up. But again, I went a little out of line and bought a Qtec case so one never knows. It seems to work but speaking purely of build quality it is the worst product that I’ve ever bought, at least since the 80s. Qtec is another company to avoid at all costs. But I seem to be making really elementary mistakes lately.

Also, I have a thread going about this here. And I have been in contact with Epox support but they have been unable to assist me.

The logical course of action would be to replace the G400 with a new card, perhaps some Radeon 9200 model, but I’d really, really like to know if it’ll work before I jump that barrel. It’s difficult to convey how frustrated I am about this, but suffice it to say, it’s making me testy, borderline aggressive. Computers are so intertwined in my culture that when they aren’t working, I’m not working. This must come to an end.