New hardware

Last week my GIGABYTE GA-M51GM-S2G-based system bit the dust (capacitor plague?). I'll be updating this blog entry through the weekend with progress setting up the replacement hardware, which arrived Friday.

The old system had crashed overnight, and attempts to reboot it always crashed early in the boot process. I borrowed a system from work for a few days, and also ordered some new parts: motherboard (my best guess at what had failed), CPU (second guess), and a new power supply (required by the new motherboard). memtest86 didn't quickly turn up memory errors (surprisingly, it seemed to run OK even though linux wouldn't boot), and the hard drive worked in an external sata enclosure.

• BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
• AMD Phenom 9600 Agena 2.3GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Quad-Core Processor Model HD960ZWCGDBOX - Retail
• Antec earthwatts EA430 430W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

After setting up the new system, I ran memtest and saw memory errors. In short order I determined that 1 of the 4 1GB memory sticks was the source of the problem. Then I left memtest running on the matched pair of sticks that seemed to be good. 11 hours later, memtest still hasn't detected any errors.

Ubuntu 8.04 live CD boots to the desktop, and the Realtek 8111C-based gigabit ethernet does seem to work (at least at 100mbit), contrary to some reports on the internet.

Update, 1 August 2009: The system has been working nicely. It presently has an uptime of 55 days, and seems quite stable.

Entry first conceived on 2 May 2009, 12:56 UTC, last modified on 15 January 2012, 3:46 UTC
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