Allenstein OctaPC(8-core) and Quadzilla(4-core) *OS Update

[GenerationM]

Originally Posted by Dorian27

"No Operating System Found" - This is the lovely message I received after booting up my system. I'm assuming (and hoping) it's my C: drive. I am using an original quadzilla (which has worked outstanding for the past 3 years) and I am going to replace the C drive.

Oh my GOD...I'm not one to pull the panic bar easily, however, this evening after a system lock up, this message has appeared for me as well, on my original Tyan Quad build. I have been having sporadic startup/boot issues occasionally but haven't really paid any mind to it, chalking it up to the system being on too long, too hot in the room, etc. but tonight I have gone through my BIOS to make sure that any of my settings haven't been somehow corrupted. I have Acronis disc images that have taken various snapshots along the way (as Shan has suggested), but alas I don not have a recent one. When I turn on the boot logging screens, it almost looks like the Quad isn't seeing any of my drives at all? Could it be something with the motherboard itself?

I was hoping to mix an album over the Christmas break, but I'm now hoping that I won't have to rebuild my machine. Any other thoughts from users of the original Tyan Quad?

Hope to hear from someone,
Jeff M

[spkguitar]

Just make sure it's booting from the right drive. I remember having several different problems with the boot sequence being reset on my old Tyan Quad occasionally.

[GenerationM]

That may have been the case, although when this whole thing started, I had it set to boot from my Acronis Loader on CD, and in my BIOS, it was recognizing my Pioneer DVD-RW drive as RIONGER FVF-RM" FVR-313D" " " " " " " ", which seems little whacked to me...the boot order looks like it had been reset somehow from IDE0, which is my regular C: Drive. Thanks for the tip - I haven't had to use the forums much lately because things have been running so smoothly, aside from the odd booting issues, but now that I'm aware of that, I'll keep an eye on it a little closer when she's giving me issues. I wonder if my IDE cable going to my DVD drive needs to be replaced as well, now my D: drive is coming up as simply an 'Optical Drive'. Oy Vey.

Thank god for this user community. The techie type guys here in town wouldn't have the first clue. Thanks spkguitar for the tidbits of wisdom.

On a related note, if I was to go about building a new machine, (and without having to sift through 300+ pages of screen reading) is the i7-920 the de facto machine that people are building now? I'd like to grab some extra horsepower, but I don't really want to compromise the stability of my 7.4LE setup. Just thinking out loud for the time being.

Thanks again.
Jeff M

[spkguitar]

Originally Posted by GenerationM

in my BIOS, it was recognizing my Pioneer DVD-RW drive as RIONGER FVF-RM" FVR-313D" " " " " " " ", which seems little whacked to me...

Me too. I would definitely look into that. Got a different IDE cable you can try?

Originally Posted by GenerationM

Thanks spkguitar for the tidbits of wisdom.

No prob. My Tyan is actually still going strong. It's not a Pro Tools machine anymore; it's a linux media server, and it does a darn good job of it!

Originally Posted by GenerationM

On a related note, if I was to go about building a new machine, (and without having to sift through 300+ pages of screen reading) is the i7-920 the de facto machine that people are building now?

Most of the important parts (mobo and processor) for my i7 are no longer readily available. The new standard seems to be the newer X58A-UD3R and the 950. Newegg has a combo sale going right now for the mobo/proc. I built one for a "client" recently and it is really a great choice.

The Tyan quad was awesome in it's own right, but you will honestly be amazed at the power of the i7.

[Shan]

Originally Posted by GenerationM

On a related note, if I was to go about building a new machine, (and without having to sift through 300+ pages of screen reading) is the i7-920 the de facto machine that people are building now?

I just built an i7 980X 6-Core. There's definitely no going back now.

Shane

[GenerationM]

Originally Posted by spkguitar

Me too. I would definitely look into that. Got a different IDE cable you can try?

I'll check with our IT guys here at work and see if they have a spare one, otherwise it'll be a trip to our local computer shop.

Regarding the i7-980X, thanks for the info Shane. I'm not in a financial position just yet to build a new one, but I will keep my eyes on these threads again and try to keep pace with what some of the trail blazers are building. I bypassed PT8 altogether after reading some of the horror stories, and only have used W7 a handful of times, but I'd be curious to know if I could still put together a decent system for about the same price as the original Tyan Quad. It'll just be about building the 'box', as opposed to forking over cash for new monitors, etc.

Thanks for the update, and I'll post back once I have a chance to check out my IDE cable.

Cheers,
Jeff M

[spkguitar]

Originally Posted by GenerationM

I'd be curious to know if I could still put together a decent system for about the same price as the original Tyan Quad.

The parts for the X58A/950 I just built came to about $1100.

[sunburst79]

I was going to say you can built a new system for 1/2 to 1/3 of the price of the orginal Quadzilla

[GenerationM]

Originally Posted by GenerationM

.

Thanks for the update, and I'll post back once I have a chance to check out my IDE cable.

So, tonight I set out on operation IDE cable. I changed the cable and it was still registering my Pioneer DVR-111D as an optical drive, and randomly swapping out characters in the name. I changed the IDE cable (and the drive), and rebooted, and it starts 'Detecting Array' . I gave it a warm boot and went into the BIOS to check and see if my boot order had been corrupted, and it had not. IDE 0, IDE 1, and then CD. Rebooted again, and the Operating System Not found error appeared. Rebooted, checked BIOS, repeat. This time when it comes up, I put in my Acronis boot disk and the Acronis Loader starts, to which I oress Continue Booting Windows and everythng is fine.

So, near as I can tell, it is somehow not recognizing my boot order, or something has been wrong with my setup. Currently I am running the SATA drives as specified in the build plans, connected to SATA0 and SATA1, and the IDE DVD drive is connected to the IDE socket on the MB under the FDD socket. In the BIOS it is listed in the Primary channel as the Master, but I have jumpers if I need to change it. I have no other IDE devices, and the Raid is turned off in the BIOS.

As long as I keep the Acronis disc in the drive, it will boot to windows for sure, but it does on occasion without a drive. Seems like when it wasn't recognizing my DVD drive, it had no problem booting to my CD, but I can't recall if my DVD drive was part of the original boot menu in the BIOS. I'll try removing it, since I don't normally boot from CD and see if that makes a difference. This might sound a little frantic, but I'm sort of 'typing out loud' if you will.

Strange days indeed. Any other ideas?
Jeff M

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by GenerationM

So, tonight I set out on operation IDE cable. I changed the cable and it was still registering my Pioneer DVR-111D as an optical drive, and randomly swapping out characters in the name. I changed the IDE cable (and the drive), and rebooted, and it starts 'Detecting Array' . I gave it a warm boot and went into the BIOS to check and see if my boot order had been corrupted, and it had not. IDE 0, IDE 1, and then CD. Rebooted again, and the Operating System Not found error appeared. Rebooted, checked BIOS, repeat. This time when it comes up, I put in my Acronis boot disk and the Acronis Loader starts, to which I oress Continue Booting Windows and everythng is fine.

So, near as I can tell, it is somehow not recognizing my boot order, or something has been wrong with my setup. Currently I am running the SATA drives as specified in the build plans, connected to SATA0 and SATA1, and the IDE DVD drive is connected to the IDE socket on the MB under the FDD socket. In the BIOS it is listed in the Primary channel as the Master, but I have jumpers if I need to change it. I have no other IDE devices, and the Raid is turned off in the BIOS.

As long as I keep the Acronis disc in the drive, it will boot to windows for sure, but it does on occasion without a drive. Seems like when it wasn't recognizing my DVD drive, it had no problem booting to my CD, but I can't recall if my DVD drive was part of the original boot menu in the BIOS. I'll try removing it, since I don't normally boot from CD and see if that makes a difference. This might sound a little frantic, but I'm sort of 'typing out loud' if you will.

Strange days indeed. Any other ideas?
Jeff M

Out of curiosity what happens if you unplug all the drives but the boot drive? Will it boot?