[geeks] Sun JW x100z - Windows Trouble...

[Mark]

Hi,
    I recently got a Java Workstation 2100z (oddly with the second CPU  
missing? Is it actually a 1100z?) and have set about adding stuff to  
it to make it great. I swapped the Quadro FX500 out for a GeForce 6600  
GT I had around but I had severe issues with DirectX stuff, even on a  
clean XP install with 1 game installed (I know it's not really a games  
machine, but you could say the same about my Mac Pro, which is my main  
games machine :P). I swapped the 6600 GT out for a 7600 GS and still  
persisted. Anytime you stressed the card at all boom, reboot. It  
didn't even muster a blue screen. I did all the usual junk like re- 
installing the NVIDIA driver, and DirectX 9. I updated the AMD chipset  
driver to the latest 8000-series chipset driver from AMD.com. I am  
using a Sept '07 version of the NVIDIA drivers but they are stable on  
the same 7600 S and 6600 GT cards in my other PC (P4/2.8 on Intel  
Chipset) and also running the Geforce 7300GT in my Mac Pro. Problems  
like this have, in the past, been down to dodgy chipset drivers (I  
used to get it a lot on VIA boards). Only other possible oddity is I  
am using the onboard SATA controller (Silicon Image Sil3125) and a  
80GB Seagate Barracuda ATA.V SATA-150 disk. Is the SATA controller on  
these machines so bad?
It got so bad that tonight, on a fresh install of XP with the NVIDIA  
drivers loaded I adjusted the resolution of the desktop to 1280x1024  
and got blue-screened. I rebooted and tried again and it worked ok.

On thing that might make a few ears prick up here is I had to  
streamline a custom XP SP2 CD with the Sil3125 drivers on (as a  
TEXTMODE driver) to get XP to recognize the SATA controller - no  
floppy drive = no F6 to add driver :( . While I was at it I  
streamlined in the NVIDIA drivers, the LAN driver for the Broadcom  
Gbit controller (which works fine) and the Adaptec SCSI driver. All,  
except the NVIDIA driver, were Sun-provided.

The hardware seems rock solid under Ubuntu 7.10 even with GLX window  
acceleration and all that fancy junk turned on, even running off the  
SATA disk.

Am I just in Windows Driver Hell? I usually manage to tactfully avoid  
it by being careful. What did

I'm gonna put the FX500 back in and see if that clears it up.

Any suggestions, as ever, gratefully received. It's a beautiful  
machine and I really want to make it sing for me. It does in Linux,  
but, as ever, Windows is a fly in the ointment.


-- 
Mark Benson

My Blog:
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"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."