Why I Custom Build My Computers

For the last fifteen years I've built all of my own computers. The recipe has been straightforward:

• Intel CPU at the "elbow" of the curve for price/performance.
  
• ASUS motherboard with good fan control.
  
• Hard drive recommended by StorageReview.com on their Leader Board.
  
• Zalman CPU fan.
  
• RAM with good reviews on NewEgg.
  
• Namebrand power supply. For the last five years it's been a SeaSonic.
  
• A fanless video card, usually an XFX nVidia card. (Nothing against ATI, I just know the nVidia quirks inside and out.)
  

The most important features to me are reliability, fan control and BIOS control. Reliability because I make my living based on these systems and BIOS control so that I can set the system up without compromise. I don't overclock, but BIOS control can be the critical difference when faced with non-Windows operating environments (which are often used by disaster recovery tools.)

Fan control is a biggy. I really, really hate fan noise. Only in the last few years of manufacturers started to work on this as computers have become home theater accessories. Fans have been made quieter and have been put under the control of the motherboard to slow them down as the cooling requirements drop.

I've ordered the last couple of new systems from EndPcNoise.com. They follow my "recipe" for everything except the hard drive. They also assemble it, test it, route and tie all of the cables, and add additional sound damping devices as requested. The systems I've bought from them have been the best I've ever owned. (I have no financial interest in this company, I'm just a happy customer.)

Last week I bought a used computer system for our test lab. Most of the lab computers are cast-offs from developers, so most of the lab systems follow my recipe. However, we needed a modern system for 64-bit testing, so I bought a used Gateway FX7026, a mid-range consumer system.

My expectations were appropriate for this system. I expected comparatively louder fan noise, poor documentation and shovelware installed with the operating system. I'm pleased to say that I was right on all of these. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. I was reminded in no uncertain terms why I don't buy systems from vendors like Dell, HP and Gateway.

The first problem is figuring out what's in the computer. The documention doesn't really discuss it. As an example of someone who does this right, if you type a system's serial number into the IBM/Lenovo site, you'll be given all of the relevant build information for that particular system. Gateway doesn't give you any of that, so you have to find the components by searching the web or by tearing the system apart and trying to read part numbers.

The second problem is updating drivers. My definition of "simple reinstall" also comes from the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad. Boot the "Restore CD." Walk away for 90 minutes. Come back, install the IBM System Update utility, let it install the latest required drivers. Install updates for Windows. Done.

Gateway used to have such a utility. They still recommend using it on all driver download pages. But the utility is no longer supported and does not work with any system built since 2004. So you have to manually go through the Downloads page, download each update, extract it, install it, reboot, and move on to the next update. Elapsed time - several hours. And you'd better have a second computer to help you with this because the drivers for the network chip are not built into XP.

I avoided most of these problems by installing Windows 7 RC, which has a remarkable inventory of drivers built into. There were only two red X's in the Device Manager after installation.

After Windows 7 booted, I was surprised to look in Task Manager and see that the network card maxed out at 100Mbps. This was a surprise because I had researched the G33 motherboard before purchasing the system and all models of the G33 include gigabit networking. I'd find out the cause shortly.

Next I tried to install the Windows 7 update that enabled Virtual PC and Windows XP. Except that the update refused to install, complaining that Virtualization extensions weren't supported. I knew that the processor supported them. This was a critical issue and I had read Intel's spec sheets before buying the computer.

I learned that Virtualization extensions required BIOS support. No problem, I'd get the latest BIOS from Intel. I had specifically bought this computer because it had a standard Intel motherboard. Gateway refers to the motherboard model as "Shroedoer Town" but doesn't list the exact model. I eventually found out from a handy article that it's a DG33SXG2. Shrewd readers will note that there is no such motherboard on Intel's site.

And here's the final insult. Gateway took Intel's bottom-of-the-line G33 motherboard - and detuned it with cheaper hardware! Gateway removed the GigE ethernet. They removed the ability to use standard Intel BIOS upgrades. They removed the support for virtualization extensions. And Gateway had the temerity to call it a "mid-level" system. I call it cheap.

So Gateway has now made sure that they will never, ever get more business from me. Poor documentation, poor hardware, poor driver updating - there really isn't a lot more to get wrong.

For me, this is a sad thing to see. The first computer I bought after I graduated college was a Gateway 486. I used the famous cow box as a coffee table in my apartment. The monitor was the very first 15" monitor on the market that was "affordable." There was a lot of innovation in that system and it lasted me for years.

P.S. I never did get the fan controls on the FX7026 to work. That's a standard feature of the G33 motherboard, so I can't tell if Gateway broke that too or if there were other factors at play. I also couldn't find any third party software, including SpeedFan, that supported the G33 fan and temperature controllers. Even Intel's software didn't work because I was running a 64-bit operating system.

AppCrash in StackHash_1703

I've wasted an hour solving this one. Here's the symptom. Your application crashes on Windows Vista almost immediately after it starts. If you look at the "Details", you see something like:

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: xxxxx
...
Fault Module Name: StackHash_1703
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0

The problem is that there's no such module as "StackHash_1703", so this appears to be some special case in Windows. I tried turning off antivirus and enabling compatibility mode, but the application still would not work.

The problem was that I had DEP (Data Execution Protection) enabled. For whatever reason, the error message gave me the AppCrash error above instead of the standard message about "DEP has closed the program."

To solve the problem, I added the application to the DEP exclusion list and everything worked again.

If the application that's crashing is video related (such as MovieMaker or Media Player), then your problem is probably caused by an old versions of Nero or an old video Codec.

Dell 1815dn Printer Review: Stay Far Far Away

I bought a Dell 1815dn multifunction laser printer a while back. I've absolutely hated the thing. Everything it does, it does the hard way. I would write more about how bad this printer is, but I've found someone else who beat me to it:

http://www.yelsew.com/dell-1815dn-review.html

I agree 110% with every single thing in this article. I could go on and on, except none of the language is printable in a family blog.

Linux vs Windows: Uptime

If you haven't figured out from this blog, I'm a Windows Guy. But I have a dirty little secret: our corporate Internet presence is a Linux server. Recently I was talking to a Windows IIS developer at a medium-sized company and he was amazed that I would entrust our public face to such an "anarchy of developers." I asked him if he had ever administered a LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) server and he admitted that he hadn't. I said to him that there were two key reasons that I use Linux: stability and maintainability.

Our corporate Linux server (Redhat Enterprise 3) has been rebooted once in the last five years and that was only because the power grid in the hosting facility was being upgraded. The current uptime count is 1,242 days, or almost three and a half years.

The pedants among you will point me to Netcraft's uptime list to show that Windows Servers can be kept up that long too. However, in my experience that's more than a rarity - it's almost a unique exception that requires Herculean efforts. In contrast, our corporate server was simply automatically updated as patches became available. All available patches have been installed (except kernel patches.) No special efforts were required to keep the Linux server running because of updates.

Much of this is possible because Linux does not have the concept of "in use" files. You'll never get an "Access denied" error because someone else has a file open. In practice, this means that shared libraries can be upgraded on the fly without affecting versions of those libraries that are in use by applications. Unix has allowed the replacement of open files for as long as I've used it, over 25 years.

So as you are sitting there thinking yourself smugly superior for your IIS server, take it from another Windows Guy: when your system absolutely, unquestionably has to stay running, Windows should probably not be your first choice.

You'll notice that the NetCraft list I cited earlier includes no LAMP servers. However, until fairly recently, most variants of Unix/Linux could not report more than 497 days of uptime. Thus the presence on the list of FreeBSD but not other variants. See the NetCraft uptime FAQ.

Postscript: Up until March 2007, the Uptime Project tracked who could keep a computer running the longest without rebooting. The winner was an OpenVMS system that had been running for nearly 12 years. Irish Rail allegedly had an OpenVMS machine up for 18 years. OpenVMS is also used by both the US Postal Service and by Amazon.com. Probably completely uninteresting for most of you, but I used VMS for about five years and it has a warm place in my heart.

XBOX Technical Support

I spend part of every day working with customers, sort of "the buck stops here" technical support. So I have more than a little compassion for people who, day after day, must suffer through clueless customers. But Microsoft's XBOX Technical Support has set a new low.

It all started when my brand new XBOX 360 made grinding noises and ate the demo DVD that came with the system. The problem has been thoroughly documented by the press:
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/news/Xbox-360-Game-Disc-Scratched.htm

A little one in the house is very attached to one of the games on the DVD and failure was not an option.

Scratched DVD. Easy problem, right? No, not in Microsoft land.

First I try to ask the question online in their support system at support.xbox.com. The only choices are for console hardware failures. There's not even a choice for "Other." So I call the 800 number.

After wading through menus for at least ten minutes, I finally reached a human. It takes half an hour to explain that my DVD is scratched. Her grasp of English is shaky at best. She says I have to send my console back for repair. Arguing is futile because she doesn't speak English well enough. So I get a service repair order.

After I hang up, I go to the web site to obtain the printing label. I try to go to the support registration system, but it won't let me because the "serial number is already registered." Well duh, she just did that on the phone. But she didn't associate the registration with my Live account.

I fill out a support form on support.xbox.com asking what to do. I use the category "Console will not power on" for lack of a better choice. I get a long form letter, starting with "I know how disappointing it is that you're unable to process a repair online. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience you have felt regarding this unfortunate matter." The email takes eight paragraphs to say "call the 800 number." I tabled the registration problem and just printed the pre-paid shipping label from the web site.

I packaged the system as requested. I taped the DVD to the console with a yellow sticky. I write with my fat red Sharpie pen, "BAD DVD."

A few days later, I get back a new console and a second package with a DVD. Microsoft shipped back the same DVD to me, except they took off the label that said "BAD DVD." There are so many incompetent people involved it's hard to know who to be upset at.

I call back the 800 number again. Every time I ask a question, the support person spends five to ten minutes talking to her supervisor. She wants the serial number for the bad DVD. DVDs don't have serial numbers. She wants some information from the DVD's book. The XBOX Arcade DVD is a demo disc and has no book. It becomes clear that she's apparently never even seen an XBOX 360, much less used one.

After 45 minutes on the phone, she hasn't been able to figure out how to get me a new DVD or how to fix the registration with my Live account. She doesn't even know what a Live account is and tries to get me to use the License Transfer option on the web site. I point out that there's no console associated with my Live account, so I can't have any licenses. She insists that I try anyway, which immediately gives an error message.

She finally gives me an incident number and tells me to call back in an hour. I think that's what's called a "brush off."

I call back two hours later. The new person speaks English quite well and understands it at least better than the last two people. I tell her the problems. She says that she can fix my registration problem by just updating my record. At least she understands the problem and the fix. Her fix doesn't work, but I feel that I've at least obtained validation that I'm asking the right questions.

However, she also gives me the brush off about the DVD. She insists that she can do that for me, but says that "I have to call back tomorrow." At which point she will have gone home and I'll have to start this whole process over with someone else.

So this whole thing should have been one phone call that lasted less than five minutes. Instead, Microsoft's collateral damage is as follows:

• Support reps on the phone for two hours.
  
• Paid to ship console to and from customer.
  
• Paid to replace customer's console (which probably had nothing wrong with it.)
  
• Paid to ship bad DVD back to customer, in a separate envelope.
  
• Public display of complete incompetence.

And the sad thing is, I still don't have a disc that works :-(

Windows 7 Beta on a Thinkpad T42/p

This week I bought an old Thinkpad T42/p off of eBay. IMHO, this system was the pinnacle of the Thinkpad T series, with a great keyboard, a spacious 15" display running 1440x1050, Gigabit Ethernet, and most importantly an ATI Radeon Mobility 9600. This particular system has 1GB of RAM, which I'm told is the minimum required to run Aero. The only real downside to this laptop is that it does not support SATA drives, so you can't put in a 7200rpm SATA drive.

I did a clean install of Windows 7 and I have to say that it runs really well - far better than Windows XP ever did with a similar configuration. Superfetch makes a HUGE difference. I haven't tried to add ReadyBoost yet.

Although the system initially came up with the standard VGA display driver, the Radeon 9600 driver was automatically installed the first time I connected to Windows Update.

The Aero interface did not work at first. I'm not sure exactly what I did to get it working - maybe generating the Windows Experience Index under Control Panel / Performance Information and Tools. I also rebooted a few times. In any case, Aero is now working perfectly.

Here are the numbers reported by the Windows Experience Index:
Processor: 2.0
Memory (RAM): 4.1
Graphics: 2.0
Gaming graphics: 3.6
Hard drive transfer: 2.0

As near as I can tell, all features of the laptop are running properly. There are no missing drivers in the device list. Speedstep works properly. The wireless card works (although I had to choose WPA instead of WPA2 to connect properly to my WRT54G router running DD-WRT.) Display brightness works, volume works, even the ThinkLight. The only thing I installed from Lenovo is the Active Protection for the hard drive.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the T42/p and with Windows 7 experience running on this system.

[Update 5/21/2009] I wiped the system and installed Windows 7 RC today. I confirmed that Aero kicks in AFTER you generate the Windows Experience Index and reboot.

Here are the numbers reported by the Windows Experience Index for the RC. Compared to the Beta, Processor and Hard drive transfer went up and Gaming graphics went down.
Processor: 3.2
Memory (RAM): 4.1
Graphics: 2.0
Gaming graphics: 2.0
Hard drive transfer: 4.3

[Update 10/28/2009] Lenovo has published System Update version 4, which provides a few updates for Windows 7, including the HotKey manager for onscreen feedback of volume, brightness, etc. ActiveProtection is also supported. However, most of the other Thinkpad utilities are still not available for Windows 7.

Downloading symbols for .dmp files

We have an automated system for processing .dmp files received from the field, either our own collection or Microsoft's crash report system. We use cdb (the command line version of WinDbg) to automatically create a text file that contains the stack dump.

The batch file looks like this:

@set _NT_SYMBOL_PATH=SRV*c:\cache*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Cdb -lines -c "!analyze -v;q" -z %1

(Thanks to John Robbins for showing me how to use cdb in this manner.)

In theory, setting _NT_SYMBOL_PATH should provide cdb with enough information to automatically download symbols as needed. However, I wasn't seeing that happening. Without symbols, the debugger can't properly processes callstacks using FPO (Frame Pointer Omission), which means that the callstacks were often missing a lot of information.

Today I found a workaround. The symchk utility will examine a dmp file and verify that all of the required pdb and dbg files have been downloaded. Here is an example:

symchk /id Demo_000000.dmp /s SRV*c:\cache*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols