Beta 11i discussion

[Dale]

From those symptoms, it sounds like something has developed a temperature sensitivity (or perhaps a fan is failing). I'm assuming you had a side panel off the case, when you were testing the power supply replacement. The diagnostic is to see how it does with the side panel(s) off, and perhaps with a small fan blowing on it.

Do you have temperature and/or fan-speed monitoring on your computer? I presume you would have noticed if a case fan was not running at all.

The logical candidates, in no particular order, would be:
Video Card, assuming you're using one.
Memory
CPU or failing CPU fan.

[JohnWho]

Oh yeah -

a failed or failing fan can cause all sorts of thermal related problems.

Although, one of t h e s e will solve most of those problems.

[henemly]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Adjusted.  

Great!

Originally posted by JohnWho:

Although, one of t h e s e will solve most of those problems.
 

What a novel idea. (never seen that)

[Jim Sachs]

Update - I tried removing the video card, and just using the on-board graphics. Still failed, after greatly varying amounts of time (anywhere from 1 second to 3 hours). Doesn't seem to be heat-related. All fans working fine, with the cpu fan mostly in its quietest mode (normal speed-up when taxed).
At that point, there were too many variables (CPU, memory chips, motherboard, etc.), so I decided to try to resurrect another computer, and put this hard drive in it. Despite the fact that they are both HP Pavilions and very similar, the hard drive just won't fully wake up in its new body. Gets as far as the first XP screen, then reboots. So I put the native hard drive back in, with my drive as a secondary. Everythings there, but of course nothing's "installed", so it's a whole different environment. Took me a long time to remember even how to log onto this Forum, and now everything is blue. Not sure if some things can be put back in place, as they were originally installed years ago in another house (and another state), and I don't have any of the original CDs.

[alphaacres]

Originally posted by Dale:

Now that JohnWho pointed it out, I see that the etched clock, digital clock, and calendar all appear to move across the face of the crystal. To me, it looks like the etched letters are nearer than the crystal - that is, above the face of the crystal.

Am I seeing things? In any case, should they move?  

I agree the etching is facing the wrong way to prove just down load the etched logos and aply them and you can see the differance I even have one that I made and you can see the angle of the letters change as it pans really neat. Having a deeper cut in the crystal would help to.

[Dale]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Update - I tried removing the video card, and just using the on-board graphics. Still failed, after greatly varying amounts of time (anywhere from 1 second to 3 hours). Doesn't seem to be heat-related. All fans working fine, with the cpu fan mostly in its quietest mode (normal speed-up when taxed).
At that point, there were too many variables (CPU, memory chips, motherboard, etc.), so I decided to try to resurrect another computer, and put this hard drive in it. Despite the fact that they are both HP Pavilions and very similar, the hard drive just won't fully wake up in its new body. Gets as far as the first XP screen, then reboots. So I put the native hard drive back in, with my drive as a secondary. Everythings there, but of course nothing's "installed", so it's a whole different environment. Took me a long time to remember even how to log onto this Forum, and now everything is blue. Not sure if some things can be put back in place, as they were originally installed years ago in another house (and another state), and I don't have any of the original CDs.  

If you have a full system backup, it's time to do a restore. Preferably to a new hard drive.

Otherwise, it's time to not make things worse. So, the absolutely first thing, is to make sure you have good backups of at least all of the data on your original hard drive.

If you tell me the models of the two Pavilions, I might (or might not) know more.

I suggest that your best bet will be to put the original drive back in the original PC, and get that to work. It's not video, so the next thing to consider is the memory. Do you have more than one memory stick in that PC? If so, remove one at a time (and move them to the correct positions) and see if that fixes the problem.

Clearly, you do have one "old" PC that you can use to access this forum, so you can still get advice from the community, while you try to get your original PC back in order. If you don't have any of the installation CDs (inclucing the HP restore CD), and you don't have system or data backups, that's the first priority - make sure you don't lose anything else.

Of course, by now, you've probably gone well beyond that advice, due to the "time warp".

Do you have a computer shop in your area, that you would trust to not make things worse?

[Dale]

Let's all hope and pray this isn't like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

[feldon34]

Originally posted by Dale:

Let's all hope and pray this isn't like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  

Do you keep all of a person's sore spots on file?

[Jim Sachs]

I thought I had it figured out earlier today, and I was in the middle of typing up a post of the explanation, when it crashed again. Back to Square One.

[Wizwad]

I managed to get back from Spain with no problems, downloaded 11i and thought it great! Definitely time to release it as MA3.1.

Now I'm eager for the behaviour/skin improvements.

Meanwhile, good luck with the computer. I truly sympathise! And then good luck on shifting the paradigm regarding modelling of the new fish sufficiently to get a new angle on the problem.

[feldon34]

I'm also back from Spain. And no, Wizwad and I didn't meet.

Iberia airlines and whoever setup the security at Madrid Barajas airport could use a lobotomy though.

[Dale]

Originally posted by feldon34:

Do you keep all of a person's sore spots on file?  

No.

[Wizwad]

I came through Oviedo airport, on the northern coast. Any more northern and we would have left a wake through the waves! For such a dinky airport (room to fit 6 planes at the terminal at once!), it was pretty good. No hassles with security and no problems with the plane beyond it being 45 minutes late, which seems to be parr for the course when it comes to EasyJet - or at least that's my experience. Sorry you had problems, Morgan.

[feldon34]

We went to the automated check-in counter (there were dozens of these machines) and entered our confirmation number. I selected an exit row and chose Print. The printer jammed and then the screen indicated that no further action could be taken. I tried to use another computer and it said my record locator was no good.

I contacted a representative at the tail of one of the long lines and he said there was nothing they could do and no further boarding pass could be printed from the machine, I had to go to the counter, despite having only carry-on hand luggage. When further prompted about being penalized because of their computer failing, this rep said "if you miss your flight, it's not our problem, but stand in line anyway". You could just tell he didn't give a crap.

We finally got to the counter and it was basically "that's just the way it is, once the system tries to print a boarding pass, you're locked out". This is the only airline I've heard of this limitation.

Iberia had about 30 counters open and could not keep up with the crush of passengers. They had no bag check system, so every single person had to go through the full line to get to the counter. And presumably, this automated check-in problem is widespread.

Most airlines can cut down substantially on time wasted in line, and hiring on support personnel if they have a bag check system for passengers who qualify for automated check-in. It costs airlines a fortune to rebook passengers on other flights. But they were not focused on cost-control or customer service, just maintaining a broken system.



Then we got to security. In the US and Germany, there are clear animated videos on large plasma screens explaining all the things you are supposed to do. Take off your belt, put your keys, change, and wallet away, take your laptop out of your computer bag, fold up child seats, put everything in bins, etc.

In Spain, they have a video that sort of shows closeups of people going through security and white boxes around concepts that are supposed to be important. They have about 8 different camera angles of a baby being pushed in a baby carraige but nothing specific about what the customer is supposed to do. They had similar white rectangles on people's pockets, their waist, but no instructions or even video showing people actually complying with security policies.

So we get to the part where you are supposed to disgorge your personal effects, jewelry, bags, belts, laptops, liquids, child seats, etc. into trays, and then put them into the conveyor to be X-Rayed. Also, I should add that the piles of plastic trays are on one side of sliding glass doors and the X-Ray machines are on the other. As a result, you must put all your items into various trays, and then stand there holding 4-5 trays worth of stuff until you get through the doors and then put items on the X-Ray belt.

This should still not be a total nightmare, until you realize that most of the people going through security either have never been on a plane before, or couldn't discern from the shoddy video what they were supposed to do. Several people in front of us arrived at the scanner having removed nothing from their persons, and trying to walk through the scanners with full jewelry, belts, bags, pocket change, wallets, purses, etc. So almost everyone was failing the scan and having to be fully wanded and searched.


We got to the airport 90 minutes before our flight and we were just about the last people to board the flight. Coming the other way, from Copenhagen to Spain, it took us less than 20 minutes to get from the front door of the airport to our gate.

[Wizwad]

That really doesn't sound good.

The only thing where Oviedo differed was that there was an actual video of the security procedures and use of the trays, but you still had to carry those trays from the desk over to the conveyor run / X-ray machine.

We must have been lucky, though. We got there two hours early, saw a few people lining up, went for a bite to eat in the terminal caff, came back and checked right in. We must just have lucked into a good time. The only weird thing was that for those of us who had a bag to go into the hold, but had pre-printed boarding passes, those passes went straight into the bin behind the desks and they printed out new boarding passes. That had me scratching my head a bit.

[Jim Sachs]

The default music should automatically be added to the list, if there's nothing else there. If it's not doing this, then that's a bug. My development machine is in a million pieces at the moment, so I can't check it.

[JohnWho]

Sorry to hear you are still having problems with that PC, Jim.

Here's hoping you haven't lost any important data.

*makes note that "11j" might be somewhat delayed*

[Dale]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

The default music should automatically be added to the list, if there's nothing else there. If it's not doing this, then that's a bug. My development machine is in a million pieces at the moment, so I can't check it.  

For the record, it's been that way for several versions (perhaps including 10d). I just thought it was "as designed" behavior.

If MA3 (11i) is started without a MA3Playlist.lst file, that file is created with one entry, CanonGuitar.sgt (with no file path, of course). But if that text is deleted, it is never repopulated. However, that makes no difference - the Guitar music still plays.

I'm not sure it's practical to fix that (slightly-complex logic). You have to let people delete it "completely".

Then there's the question of CTRL-R, etc.

Oh, and the nasty question would be "I have all this other music, and deleted the CanonGuitar.sgt some time ago, but now I want to get it back in the list with my other music."

[Dale]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

My development machine is in a million pieces at the moment.....  

Sorry to hear that none of our suggestions were helpful. Let us know if there's anything we can do.

[Jim Sachs]

I may be back in business. Testing now to see if the system is stable enough to work with.