Which Is The 'best' Motherboard Available In Thailand?

[Tywais]

Just a suggestion that would eliminate the OS and any virus issues that may be there. Get a Linux LiveCD such as Ubuntu and boot/run from it for a period of time. If it still crashes then it is the hardware, if not then the OS.

[onethailand]

I run Avast on one machine and it seems to have done its job well. I run AVG on my notebook and it also doesn't have any problems.

I somehow doubt it's a virus.

Power supply - could be a problem but a year of use with it after first experiencing problems makes it a bit unlikely.

You are backed up by a UPS so power surges won't be a problem either.

I'm going to make the simplest of suggestions, only because I've seen it happen before and not because I have any certainty that it is the problem.

Change the power cable. It is possible that the connection to the computer is not snug enough, or else there's some other fault in the cable. Should cost you no more than 40-50 baht anywhere if you don't already have a spare lying around.

[stumonster]

swapping in a new PSU to check might be an easy way for you to work out if this problem is PSU related - the amount of time you have spent compared to 1200-1500 baht

I just use DELUX PSU's in my machines , and have had no real issues with them. easy job to swap a PSU if you have a normal case.

the PSU supplies different rail voltages and under some load conditions one of them maybe playing up - dodgy/intermittant electrolytics have been the bane of the electronics industry.

[dotcom]

I insist on Enermax power supplies. No other brand will go in my towers. Regardless of what the shop wants to sell me. Enermax Liberty all the way. Yes they are more expensive but in my view worth it.

btw. Jedi have built many towers for me. Don't know what OS you are running. XP Pro SP3 running fine. 150 baht at Pantip.

[katana]

swapping in a new PSU to check might be an easy way for you to work out if this problem is PSU related - the amount of time you have spent compared to 1200-1500 baht

I was going to suggest that as well.

[blam]

Not a very timely reply here, sorry, I just discovered this forum.

P5KR are finicky. Very picky. If you are just getting a black screen, turn it off, unplug it, get into the RAM modules, pop them loose, then reseat them. Then, remove and reseat your VGA card. Then plug it back in and boot. You may have to do this several times.

After you get it started:

Go into your BIOS (hit delete when you see the prompt at boot) go to the 'Power' menu tab, use arrow buttons to scroll down to highlight 'Hardware Monitor', hit 'Enter', wait a moment, you will then see your voltage output at the bottom of the screen. 12V must be over 11.8, the 3.3 can be 3.2, and 5 can be 4.8. The 12V rail will tell the tale. If it is lower than 11.8, keep watching it to see if it creeps up a bit, if not, you need a new higher powered PSU (Power Supply Unit) I use the new "DeLuxe" 500W available at Pantip, 3rd floor, north end.

My guess is that the PSU is not the problem. The usual problem with the PK5R is RAM, check your manual to see if the RAM you have is in the allowed configuration and specs. Also, make sure that if you have 2 RAM modules that they are the same, and they are in the #1 and #3 slots. Read the manual for more on that.

I like these motherboards very much, but have now moved on to the P5Q and P5Q Deluxe for extreme overclocking. (Both running Q6600 2.4 overclocked to 4.0GHz each with 8 GB RAM running Vista 64bit.

Best of luck to you. Don't give up, the P5KR really is a terrific motherboard, especially for the money.

[CosmicSurfer]

Not a very timely reply here, sorry, I just discovered this forum.

P5KR are finicky. Very picky. If you are just getting a black screen, turn it off, unplug it, get into the RAM modules, pop them loose, then reseat them. Then, remove and reseat your VGA card. Then plug it back in and boot. You may have to do this several times.

After you get it started:

Go into your BIOS (hit delete when you see the prompt at boot) go to the 'Power' menu tab, use arrow buttons to scroll down to highlight 'Hardware Monitor', hit 'Enter', wait a moment, you will then see your voltage output at the bottom of the screen. 12V must be over 11.8, the 3.3 can be 3.2, and 5 can be 4.8. The 12V rail will tell the tale. If it is lower than 11.8, keep watching it to see if it creeps up a bit, if not, you need a new higher powered PSU (Power Supply Unit) I use the new "DeLuxe" 500W available at Pantip, 3rd floor, north end.

My guess is that the PSU is not the problem. The usual problem with the PK5R is RAM, check your manual to see if the RAM you have is in the allowed configuration and specs. Also, make sure that if you have 2 RAM modules that they are the same, and they are in the #1 and #3 slots. Read the manual for more on that.

I like these motherboards very much, but have now moved on to the P5Q and P5Q Deluxe for extreme overclocking. (Both running Q6600 2.4 overclocked to 4.0GHz each with 8 GB RAM running Vista 64bit.

Best of luck to you. Don't give up, the P5KR really is a terrific motherboard, especially for the money.

I checked the BIOS Hardware Monitor 2days ago... It read:

3.3V - Fluctuating between 3.296 and 3.312

5V - 5.112v

12V - 12.096v

VCore - 1.280v

Ram is correct.. verified compatable and seating in alternating slots...

4 modules, paired 512MB, 1GB, 512MB, 1GB = 3 GB RAM

Thanks...

CS

[CosmicSurfer]

I insist on Enermax power supplies. No other brand will go in my towers. Regardless of what the shop wants to sell me. Enermax Liberty all the way. Yes they are more expensive but in my view worth it.

btw. Jedi have built many towers for me. Don't know what OS you are running. XP Pro SP3 running fine. 150 baht at Pantip.

I'm running XP Pro SP2 at the moment.... OEM Version from USA.. Legit, NOT a Pantip copy.

Or should I say that I was....

Computer crashed AGAIN tonight...

I got home...Booted up.. got desktop for about 5-10 Minutes then it rebooted on me....

Now all I can get is Black Opening screen where you see American Megatrends, The RAM installed and press "Delete" to get to Bios, etc.... Here it Freezes.... I try a hot boot.. either I get this screen again and another freeze, or it will go to the screen to choose Safe Mode, Last good configuration , or Load Windows normally, then it either freezes here, or when I make a choice, it just reboots, and the cycle starts again....

So I just closed it.

This is exactly the problem I was having when I turned it over to the Computer doctor about a month ago.. (See older thread linked to in one of my posts above...) The doc, after evaluating all my hardware came to the conclusion that it was the motherboard, as he could find no problems with any other hardware.. (He may not have verified the PSU)... and this is when I brought it into JEDI COOL.. Pantip Plaza, MAIN FLOOR... (Everyone should know exactly where they are)....

Again, after I told Jedi what was happening, they said that they would send the Motherboard back for service and that it would take 2 weeks.. I left them the box and waited.. after 2.5 weeks I CALLED them.. a few days later thay had tracked it down and called me to come get it.

When I arrived and asked them what had happened with the Board, at first they said that they didn't know..., weren't sure..., and finally that it had been replaced with a new one.

I was talking with the Boss.. Tall guy with a small goatee... as usual all he did was nod his head a lot and mumble something in Thai to one of his boys who then translated.. Evertytime I talk with this guy I ask him if he understands me.. He always says Yes, or rather nods his head in an affirmative manner.. but I can never get him to say anything directly to me in English.. so I'm really not sure... He reminds me of my Matayom students...Most likely he can't understand, but he's too shy to tell me, so He just nods.. says Yes and then ignores me...

My Feeling, bottom line.. Jedi builds beautiful computers.. If that's all they have to do... They have the hardware... but their after-sales service sucks BIG-TIME !!!!! The only fix they know is "Re-Install the O/S.

I'm willing to bet money that they NEVER sent the motherboard to Synnex, the distributer.. They sure lied about replacing it.. The S/N on the Board is exactly the same number that is on the Original Box that I still have.

And now I have EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM as I had a month ago...

So Saturday, I'm bringing it back into them, and I'm going to get them to try and boot it up.. Then I'm going to WATCH them pull the motherboard and wallk over with them to Synnex to verify that they actually turn it over..The Warrenty expires in one month.. if they don't fix it now, then I'll be cheated out of the cost of having to purchase another MotherBoard on my own. Lemons happen... to me it's obvious that I have one.

If they in fact did return it to Synnex previously, then they need to demand a NEW replacement... I won't settle for one of their reconditioned boards.. I've been bringing this machine back to Jedi because of on-going problems at least every 2 months since I bought it. All they have ever done is reload the O/S... not once have I ever seen them try and test any hardware...

I DO NOT RECOMMEND JEDI COOL TO ANYONE....

STAY AWAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CS

Edited September 11, 2008 by CosmicSurfer

[jchen]

good point by blam- take out all ram, then set one 1gig stick in the first slot then start computer- you gonna have to fix hardware stuff by yourself- not anything about your xp. thailand no good for take care anything, sell ok, take care no good.

[CosmicSurfer]

good point by blam- take out all ram, then set one 1gig stick in the first slot then start computer- you gonna have to fix hardware stuff by yourself- not anything about your xp. thailand no good for take care anything, sell ok, take care no good.

Sorry, but the RAM is good.. been checked numerous times.. I'm 99.99% convinced I have a BAD Motherboard...

Taking it out and checking it one stick at a time will only verify the RAM, not The MotherBoard.

And I've never felt that this is an O/S problem. It is hardware all the way.

I can't fix a bad Motherboard, nor to I want to buy a new one without putting up a fight for them to honour warrenty and provide some service.

Nor am I interested in getting it to boot at this time.. I want to leave it in this condition, and bring it back to JEDI and then let them tell me that it is NOT a Hardware problem. They will have to tear it apart and find the problem.

It's still under Warrenty

CS

Edited September 11, 2008 by CosmicSurfer

[blam]

Dealing with computer warranty/repair in Thailand is like trying to ride a bike underwater, you basically aren't going anywhere without help. Do you speak Thai? Synnex is full of people that don't speak English well at all. When you do go up there, go as early as possible, they open at 10. SMILE and act like you are not pissed at all, be as patient and quiet as you can manage, and don't leave without getting the paperwork. Again, smile, tell them that you are returning it for the 3rd time, that your daughter can't do her homework without the computer and you don't want her going to a game shop to do it, and that you desperately need help. (They respond to this lamebrained tactic much much faster... watch.)

1. If you can't get Jedi to fix it, keep in mind that the MB does have a 3 year warranty from ASUS. Synnex will honor that. You may indeed be stuck with fixing it yourself, and guess what? There are no more P5KR motherboards left out there to replace yours. (And, guess what #2, the other P5K options available don't support RAID.) They may have to send it back to Taiwan, get ready to wait a month.

2. If your computer has ever overvolted, yes it happens all the time here if you don't have a UPS or some kind of shield (not one of those phony powerstrips they sell at Carrefour), the onboard northbridge chipset is toast and is not covered by warranty. (But Thais don't know sh#t about this so don't worry)

3. Can you get access to a different VGA card? If the RAM on the VGA has overheated, it is a goner, should also have a 3 yr warranty. This also is a common undiagnosed ailment here.

4. If all is lost, and you get sick and tired of messing with it, you can always just break down buy an ASUS P5Q and get back to work, your installed OS on the P5KR is 100% compatible with the P5Q with very minor driver updates.

5. Don't get pissed off at me for trying to help. Never buy complete set computers from a shop in Thailand. When they built it they could have scratched traces on the board, or they could have overtightened a screw somewhere causing a nasty long term grounding issue. Also, I personally would not have gone with that RAM config... 512s?

6. CS: You may understand here that I feel your frustration from a first hand standpoint. You WILL be able to work through this.

[CosmicSurfer]

Dealing with computer warranty/repair in Thailand is like trying to ride a bike underwater, you basically aren't going anywhere without help. Do you speak Thai? Synnex is full of people that don't speak English well at all. When you do go up there, go as early as possible, they open at 10. SMILE and act like you are not pissed at all, be as patient and quiet as you can manage, and don't leave without getting the paperwork. Again, smile, tell them that you are returning it for the 3rd time, that your daughter can't do her homework without the computer and you don't want her going to a game shop to do it, and that you desperately need help. (They respond to this lamebrained tactic much much faster... watch.)

1. If you can't get Jedi to fix it, keep in mind that the MB does have a 3 year warranty from ASUS. Synnex will honor that. You may indeed be stuck with fixing it yourself, and guess what? There are no more P5KR motherboards left out there to replace yours. (And, guess what #2, the other P5K options available don't support RAID.) They may have to send it back to Taiwan, get ready to wait a month.

2. If your computer has ever overvolted, yes it happens all the time here if you don't have a UPS or some kind of shield (not one of those phony powerstrips they sell at Carrefour), the onboard northbridge chipset is toast and is not covered by warranty. (But Thais don't know sh#t about this so don't worry)

3. Can you get access to a different VGA card? If the RAM on the VGA has overheated, it is a goner, should also have a 3 yr warranty. This also is a common undiagnosed ailment here.

4. If all is lost, and you get sick and tired of messing with it, you can always just break down buy an ASUS P5Q and get back to work, your installed OS on the P5KR is 100% compatible with the P5Q with very minor driver updates.

5. Don't get pissed off at me for trying to help. Never buy complete set computers from a shop in Thailand. When they built it they could have scratched traces on the board, or they could have overtightened a screw somewhere causing a nasty long term grounding issue. Also, I personally would not have gone with that RAM config... 512s?

6. CS: You may understand here that I feel your frustration from a first hand standpoint. You WILL be able to work through this.

So Sorry if my frustrations have been so evident and maybe it has come through in my post as short-tempered and dogmatic, and thanks for your understanding about this...

Your comments are both relevant and comforting... It been an excruciatingly frustrating year... like having your car always break down - except when you take to the service center, when it runs properly. After living here for 7 years, the lack of reasonable Customer Service at Jedi in particular and Thailand in general has me one cylinder short of blowing a gasket.

I choose Jedi after looking around at various places, including in Fortune, but I couldn't find any other place that had the same combination of hardware, specs and price, plus what I thought was the ability to speak some English by their staff.... at least the woman (owner's 'wife' ???), who sold me the computer, could speak some English... More than any other place that I shopped at... What I hadn't counted on was their total indifference to CustServ and Cust Satisfaction... their attitude is amazing, which is probably caused by the combination of the amount of business they do (very busy), their locations (2) on the ground floor of Pantip, and by the very small amount of Baht they probably make on each sale.

The discouraging part of my shopping experience was the total inability to find any shop that had anyone to "TALK" to, in discussing the specs I wanted and the best choices of hardware to buy to meet my specs and needs. Jedi seemed to understand me, but even then I had doubts about what there customer service would be like, they seemed reluctant to answer my questions... but in the end, as I was buying all 'Name Brand' hardware of a reasonably hi-end spec, I figured, what could go wrong??? My Fault.

The Geil Ram was suggested by Jedi, and the research I did didn't show any negative comments beyond the normal bitching found against any brand, so I was in no position to doubt their suggestion, or demand another brand.

The Power supply I actually wanted was 600W, but they insisted that that was too much and 450 was adequate for everything I wanted now and in the future. Maybe the case isn't Big enough for a larger PSU, or The ASUS Motherboard wouldn't allow for it space wise.. This I don't know, but again they were insistant that the 450W was perfect, so I accepted their wisdom, as they are the supposed experts.

I have never operated this computer without a UPS, so I doubt anything has been toasted.

The RAM config (512s) ws chosen to grab all the RAM that XP could use... 4GB is too much.... 2GB is the Norm, but I was upgrading from an underpowed laptop (512MB Max) and I wanted to get all I could. My thinking was that when I upgraded to Vista, (after SP2 or SP3) I would then dump the 512 and replace them with a pair of 2GB Chips.

Anyway, the whole thing goes back to them tomorrow... Square One.

I have said it before and I will say it again... This country needs a GOOD, Reputable Computer shop, that will build, service and comunicate based on Western Quality and Service standards... and can communicate with the Expat community at a reasonably decent level. If I had the money, I would open one myself... Any Venture-Capitalists out there willing to back me? :-) Imagine not only how many Farangs would shop there, but also how many Thais, who are equally pissed off by the lousy service that is common place in this country.

Just ranting again,

CS

[onethailand]

The Power supply I actually wanted was 600W, but they insisted that that was too much and 450 was adequate for everything I wanted now and in the future. Maybe the case isn't Big enough for a larger PSU, or The ASUS Motherboard wouldn't allow for it space wise.. This I don't know, but again they were insistant that the 450W was perfect, so I accepted their wisdom, as they are the supposed experts.

Unless you depend on your computer to power your monitor, printer, water cooler and air conditioning, 450W should be enough

I have said it before and I will say it again... This country needs a GOOD, Reputable Computer shop, that will build, service and comunicate based on Western Quality and Service standards... and can communicate with the Expat community at a reasonably decent level. If I had the money, I would open one myself... Any Venture-Capitalists out there willing to back me? :-) Imagine not only how many Farangs would shop there, but also how many Thais, who are equally pissed off by the lousy service that is common place in this country.

This country had a good shop. Trouble is, there aren't that many expats out towards Bangna.

Have you tried changing the power cable yet, or have you already given up?

[CosmicSurfer]

This country had a good shop. Trouble is, there aren't that many expats out towards Bangna.

Have you tried changing the power cable yet, or have you already given up?

"Had" a good shop??.. or HAS??? Is it still open?

Where?

Actually, the cable was changed when I sent the computer to the Computer Doc... who experienced the same problems before I took it back to Jedi to fix the Motherboard problem... I gave him (the Doc) the computer without any cables, so he had to use his own.

I have given up.... I hiope to bring it back to Jedi tomorrow.... For the last time....

As my wife says...

Only Buddah Knows....

CS

[onethailand]

LOL - had. I closed it 8 years ago Just too far off the beaten path for most expats.

[stumonster]

who are equally pissed off by the lousy service that is common place in this country.

mate - I know you are a bit pissed off , but not all service is Lousy - refer to this post I made yesterday http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Connecting-R...47#entry2210147

if you are taking the machine back to Jedi , maybe suggest to them you think the power supply is iffy and could they change it - they migth do it just to get you out of their hair if you play the card at the correct moment

[quiksilva]

The Power supply I actually wanted was 600W, but they insisted that that was too much and 450 was adequate for everything I wanted now and in the future. Maybe the case isn't Big enough for a larger PSU, or The ASUS Motherboard wouldn't allow for it space wise.. This I don't know, but again they were insistant that the 450W was perfect, so I accepted their wisdom, as they are the supposed experts.

Unless you depend on your computer to power your monitor, printer, water cooler and air conditioning, 450W should be enough

I disagree, don't forget he is running four hard drives and a 7300GT and besides you can never have too much power!

[onethailand]

I disagree, don't forget he is running four hard drives and a 7300GT and besides you can never have too much power!

You're right, 4 HDD is a bit of a monster, I hadn't noticed that. Nevertheless 450W is still plenty enough to power his system.

[ballbreaker]

Contact ASUS direct and give them all the details on your problem. You may get better results.

[CosmicSurfer]

Contact ASUS direct and give them all the details on your problem. You may get better results.

I still have a month left on the Jedi warrenty, and ASUS is in Taiwan (Isn't it??).. so I'll give JEDI one more chance.. besides ASUS's Thai distributer SYNNEX is almost as bad at service as Jedi is.

What is with this place... is labor so cheap, that they would rather repair or recondition a bad DVD rather than give their customers a "NEW" replacement... and then they don't even bother to CLEAN their reconditioned replacement units .... I swear... no B/S. I don't want to bother you with the details... but that's another story about this computer... and has also left me with a bitter taste and bad feeling about ASUS... and I hate having to go crawling back to Synnex about the motherboard now.

Back in the land of "Service or Die", they would just junk the part and hand you a Boxed Brand-New replacement.. no fuss.. no muss.

But, then again... cheap labor does account for the lack of proper training and knowledge....

Just the basics... Lets not clutter up Service with Details and testing.

Move 'em in... Reinstall O/S... Move 'em out.

CS

Edited September 13, 2008 by CosmicSurfer

[dotcom]

LOL - had. I closed it 8 years ago Just too far off the beaten path for most expats.

You mean Tiger Computer in Seri Center?

What happened to "I have a virus"?

Intermittent fault is very hard to diagnose.

Why would they break open a new power supply? Let's say your existing one is fine - what are they to do with the one they let you borrow? Sell it as new?

There is a shop - Legend Computer up on Suk 52.

I use nothing but Asus motherboards - I have 2 P5K-PRO & one P5KR. Wouldn't use any other brand.

I have had very good luck with Jedi on the rare occasion I had a problem. If you don't want to try Legend - then leave it with Jedi till they fix it.

[Sabum]

Ive got some high powered rifles with long range targetting scopes for sale if your frustration gets to the point you start climbing towers.

[CosmicSurfer]

LOL - had. I closed it 8 years ago Just too far off the beaten path for most expats.

You mean Tiger Computer in Seri Center?

What happened to "I have a virus"?

Intermittent fault is very hard to diagnose.

Why would they break open a new power supply? Let's say your existing one is fine - what are they to do with the one they let you borrow? Sell it as new?

There is a shop - Legend Computer up on Suk 52.

I use nothing but Asus motherboards - I have 2 P5K-PRO & one P5KR. Wouldn't use any other brand.

I have had very good luck with Jedi on the rare occasion I had a problem. If you don't want to try Legend - then leave it with Jedi till they fix it.

The Virus was a False positive... based on the MS Error Codes from the Event log of the Crashes... When I xchecked for the registry entries they said I would have to delete to clean out the virus, I found that I din't have any of these files.

Besides... a virus never made sense to me.. Where and how did I get it??? Not possible.

Do you mean "John Legend".. He was my Computer Doc.. we finally settled on the moherboard being bad.

Jedi just had my computer for over 2 weeks.. just picked it up last Saturday... It crashed again on Thursday, or was it Wednesday. actually the crashes started the Monday after I picked it up.

I don't think Jedi did anyrthing while they had my computer.

Now it's up to Jedi to fix or replace it. It's under warrenty.

CS

Edited September 13, 2008 by CosmicSurfer

[onethailand]

Geez, Dotcom dam_n good memory you've got!

Actually, it was Tygre - but you're right. Couldn't compete with most of the cheap low-end stuff being sold there as we chose high-quality parts - couldn't keep decent staff as they seem to hop around all the time - and couldn't find enough customers knowledgeable about computers to want to buy a custom-built system with the best parts.

Might be different now but I've been out quite a while and margins are still razor-thin... on the other hand my good friend Set It Up is still in business and doing well - in fact they also run the C-NEX shop which now occupies my old space. But I'm not so sure about his staffs' ability to handle questions in English.

[dotcom]

Hi Ted. Yeah my friend Jason swore by you guys. I sent him to Set It Up after you guys closed.

Hey we went up to the BarBQ sandwich king today & thinking of you.

JEDI made their name on water cooled systems - they do good volume. That High end shop up on 4 - Busitech or whatever can only dream about the volume JEDI do.

My bet would be that CS problem is VGA card - but it's only a guess.

JEDI make money because so few systems come back.

You don't make money tweaking someones system for free.

CS has to start swapping out parts till it stops rebooting.

btw - XP can only use 2 gig of ram so ditch those 2 512 DIMM & keep em for VISTA. One less potential problem.

[Tywais]

btw - XP can only use 2 gig of ram so ditch those 2 512 DIMM & keep em for VISTA. One less potential problem.

Have to correct you on that. XP (32-bit version) can use up to 4GB depending on how well the BIOS re-maps the IO to high memory. Some members have reported seeing the full 4GB in XP. I personally have 3GB available to XP on my machine due to my BIOS re-mapping is not compliant with XP and as such cannot exploit the full 4GB memory.

[CosmicSurfer]

JEDI made their name on water cooled systems - they do good volume. That High end shop up on 4 - Busitech or whatever can only dream about the volume JEDI do.

My bet would be that CS problem is VGA card - but it's only a guess.

JEDI make money because so few systems come back.

You don't make money tweaking someones system for free.

CS has to start swapping out parts till it stops rebooting.

btw - XP can only use 2 gig of ram so ditch those 2 512 DIMM & keep em for VISTA. One less potential problem.

First... It is true that XP will see and use up to 3 GB RAM.. Google it.

Now, I'm happy to report that the Great and Esteemed "Reimar" ... our Forum moderator... has kindly agreed to look into my problems...

His Report so far....

1) The Power supply was badly miswired and grounded to the case, causing it to pull 3 Amps... and increasing my Electric bill by 750 - 1,000 Baht per month for the last year... He rewired it and now it is functioning perfectly.. at only 1 Amp. (That's about 12,000 more Baht that Jedi has cost me.)

2) He personally brought the motherboard to the Distributor, where he verified that Jedi had, in fact, sent it to them a few weeks ago, with instructions that they should check the Hard Disk connections ( I had told Jedi that "SOMETHING" was wrong with the Board, and I wasn't sure what, but they needed to check the whole board out)... The Distributor returned it to Jedi "as was", due to the HD components working perfectly... They never checked out any other aspect of the Board... After Reimar brought it there, they discovered that the BIOS chip was bad, and replaced it.

3) After multiple attempts to load both XP and Vista, Reimar has discovered that when the 1 GB RAM chips where installed, there were boot, re-boot and O/S install problems... But when he tried with only the 2x 512MB chips.. everything installed and ran without any problems... But it took a Hardware "Testing" tool to confirm the Bad Ram... Software testing of the RAM had not detected any problems.... I ran 3 different Software test... the other Computer Doc ran tests.. Jedi ran tests... the RAM passed them all.

4) Reimar has also discovered a possible BootKit Virus, which will be dealt with by reformating the 80GB O/S drive TWICE to be sure it is Removed.... He also discovered that Jedi had failed to enable the Bios RootKit reporting ablitity to advise me of an attempt to write to the Boot Sector of the Hard drive.

5) and most disturbing... the RAID "1", that was supposed to be protecting my 2x 320GB Data drives. was in-fact a RAID "0".. which was protecting NOTHING....

The Moral is..... DO NOT SHOP AT JEDI.

You can never be sure that your system has been Built or Set-Up correctly.

Reimar still has my machine... Hopefully no more issues will appear, and my problems may finally be solved.

I'll report back when he finishes.

Fingers Crossed

CS

[onethailand]

Hi Ted. Yeah my friend Jason swore by you guys. I sent him to Set It Up after you guys closed.

Superb memory I hope Jason's doing well. Set It Up is reliable and strangely enough I knew the owner via internet but never met each other until we suddenly discovered we were opening shop across from each other!

Hey we went up to the BarBQ sandwich king today & thinking of you.

Thanks for the invite - I was supposed to go to Singapore but that's been postponed until Friday morning... as it is I didn't wake up early anyhow - when I looked at my watch it was half past one so too late to change plans. Will definitely catch you guys on another run.

Back to the topic... XP doesn't need more than 2GB of RAM unless you run Photoshop or 3D-type programs.

And Reimar - great job

Can't see how a power supply was miswired but the ground problem makes sense - wouldn't blame Jedi for that because that is what 99% of computer shops in Thailand do (not insulating the power supply from the rack) - and in fact what nearly every computer shop in first-world countries do. Thailand is a special case because most older buildings don't have proper grounding, thus rendering your 3-prong plug useless. The other way to solve this problem is to create your own ground, of course.

Jedi is of course responsible for not describing the symptoms correctly to the distributor.

BIOS Rootkit - disabled by default, again by the great majority of shops. There are very few shops (or people like Reimar) who know how to properly set a BIOS - so don't think I would blame Jedi for this either.

RAID array - obviously I have no idea what your configuration was, but judging by the fact that you have 4 hard disks and expected to be "protected", the normal setup would have been RAID 0 + 1 - not one or the other. RAID 0 stripes disks so that 2 or more disks appear as one disk - RAID 1 is mirroring. With 4 disks you would normally stripe 2, and then stripe 2 to mirror the first pair (RAID 0 + 1).

It would've been silly to stripe all 4 - I assume that this may be what Reimar was referring to, but as I recall you've done reformats as well... and or told Jedi to do so - so I can see the array being reset and I wouldn't be too quick to blame that on Jedi either unless I knew exactly what happened.

All that's really important is that Reimar will get your machine back in good working order. But don't blame Jedi for not being of the same caliber! I miss playing with that stuff but I don't miss the thin margins... even today I let my former partner Roy build all my machines because I don't have the time to keep up to date on everything. But because I come from that background, I don't trust any other shop - PERIOD - to build my machines for me.

Edited September 17, 2008 by onethailand

[Guest Reimar]

Just for to answer what isn't described right:

Can't see how a power supply was miswired but the ground problem makes sense - wouldn't blame Jedi for that because that is what 99% of computer shops in Thailand do (not insulating the power supply from the rack) - and in fact what nearly every computer shop in first-world countries do. Thailand is a special case because most older buildings don't have proper grounding, thus rendering your 3-prong plug useless. The other way to solve this problem is to create your own ground, of course.

The PSU wasn't miswired. The problem was that while assembling the computer together, JEDi placed a lot wires (mainly for extra fan's) on the back of the internal case, between the buttom parts (where the MB is fixed on). As it seems to be that the PSU wasn't tighten to the case at that time, some of that wires came between the PSU and the case and at time the PSU was tighten, sharp edges of the case was "cutting" the insulation of 3 wires and forced a short circuit. So, I was solder new wires.

If the Power system of the building has a proper grounding, the fuse will cut the power, but it wasn't. I was realizing that at the moment I switched the computer on, the Amp Meter of the used Power Circuit jumps up about 3-4 Amp while "waving" as well. Normal there is just a very little "waving" to see at the Amp Meter and I was start to check all connection of that computer and found the above described. After fixing that error, the Amp Meter was show just 1-1.1 Amp while switch on that computer.

That was the responsibility of JEDI!

Next:

BIOS Rootkit - disabled by default, again by the great majority of shops. There are very few shops (or people like Reimar) who know how to properly set a BIOS - so don't think I would blame Jedi for this either.

Shops, which relies on assembling high performance system, as JEDI claims to be, not only should but must know how to handle that, PERIOD!

Raid:

RAID array - obviously I have no idea what your configuration was, but judging by the fact that you have 4 hard disks and expected to be "protected", the normal setup would have been RAID 0 + 1 - not one or the other. RAID 0 stripes disks so that 2 or more disks appear as one disk - RAID 1 is mirroring. With 4 disks you would normally stripe 2, and then stripe 2 to mirror the first pair (RAID 0 + 1).

CS was ordering RAID 1 to use on the 2 320 GB HDD's! The reality was that one of the HDD's was named as RAID 1 and the other was sitting UNALLOCATED in the case! Which means just nothing else as that HDD wasn't partitioned or formatted or assigned for to use in an RAID system!

Who is to blame for that? JEDI, PERIOD!

Memory:

The Memory JEDI was supplying for a high price are just the cheapest GEIL Memory of the DualChannel PC6400 memory, with CL5 you can get in Thailand and cost just slightly more than "normal" DDR2 Memories!

Two sets of memory inside that computer: 1 set= 2x1 GB and 1 set= 2x512 MB.

Running the computer with all memories in, after 1/2-1 hour the computer "hangs" or reboot! The temperature of the 1 GB pieces are about 65 C while the 512 MB pieces app. 48 C. Removing the 2 x 1 GB pieces and the computer works well since the last 48 hours. Doesn't matter what Ram Test Software tell's, that just indicates there is an problem with that 2 x 1 GB memory!

****************************************

All the above mentioned are just the result of an intensive testing!

Feel free to build your own meaning about the shop mentioned but from this and other, past experiences, I would never suggest someone for to use that shop.

Cheers.

[onethailand]

The PSU wasn't miswired. The problem was that while assembling the computer together, JEDi placed a lot wires (mainly for extra fan's) on the back of the internal case, between the buttom parts (where the MB is fixed on). As it seems to be that the PSU wasn't tighten to the case at that time, some of that wires came between the PSU and the case and at time the PSU was tighten, sharp edges of the case was "cutting" the insulation of 3 wires and forced a short circuit. So, I was solder new wires.

If the Power system of the building has a proper grounding, the fuse will cut the power, but it wasn't. I was realizing that at the moment I switched the computer on, the Amp Meter of the used Power Circuit jumps up about 3-4 Amp while "waving" as well. Normal there is just a very little "waving" to see at the Amp Meter and I was start to check all connection of that computer and found the above described. After fixing that error, the Amp Meter was show just 1-1.1 Amp while switch on that computer.

Ok - that makes more sense.

I suspect some junior staff did the assembly - personally I don't consider JEDI to be a high-end integrator.

Shops, which relies on assembling high performance system, as JEDI claims to be, not only should but must know how to handle that, PERIOD!

See above. I don't consider any shop in Pantip or Fortune to be high-performance no matter what they claim. The staff in most of these shops are essentially nomadic.

You, I would trust. Me, I would trust. My former partner, I would trust.

After that - no way.

CS was ordering RAID 1 to use on the 2 320 GB HDD's! The reality was that one of the HDD's was named as RAID 1 and the other was sitting UNALLOCATED in the case! Which means just nothing else as that HDD wasn't partitioned or formatted or assigned for to use in an RAID system!

You don't know when the RAID array dropped out. Could've been JEDI on their second attempt - could've been the OP who reformatted after encountering problems. Could've been the array reported an error, and the OP (or JEDI) simply chose to continue - automatically dropping the array.

Having built some of the first IDE RAID systems in Thailand - and even with Celeron processors - I think I know what I'm talking about. There are many ways/reasons the RAID could've dropped the array, you can't just blame it directly on JEDI.

Memory:

The Memory JEDI was supplying for a high price are just the cheapest GEIL Memory of the DualChannel PC6400 memory, with CL5 you can get in Thailand and cost just slightly more than "normal" DDR2 Memories!

Two sets of memory inside that computer: 1 set= 2x1 GB and 1 set= 2x512 MB.

Running the computer with all memories in, after 1/2-1 hour the computer "hangs" or reboot! The temperature of the 1 GB pieces are about 65 C while the 512 MB pieces app. 48 C. Removing the 2 x 1 GB pieces and the computer works well since the last 48 hours. Doesn't matter what Ram Test Software tell's, that just indicates there is an problem with that 2 x 1 GB memory!

I think you know RAM testing software isn't reliable anyhow... in any case, could be timing issues, slot configuration issues, even BIOS issues which could affect how the RAM performs. Certainly, mixing different memory in a computer can often cause problems. For best reliability one should always buy the same memory from the same lot - and if upgrading memory, should generally buy all new memory and dump the old memory, even if it is the same make, model, and timing.

While ASUS generally makes great mainboards, they also make mainboards which are more problematic in some situations. I don't have this mainboard and haven't read up on it so no position to comment - but based on past history I certainly wouldn't classify ASUS as being amongst the most stable.

As for recommending/not recommending a shop - I agree you should make your decisions on the information available - but be sure that the shop can be blamed for the problem in the first place. As for me, I don't recommend any shop any more. I do tell people who ask me to call my old partner, or Set It Up, depending on what they need.