mutant_matt

I'm running that M/B with a Celeron 3.06Ghz CPU. I haven't looked closely but it looks like it's just cruzing along TBH. I went for this CPU because it was dirt cheap (< GBP30/USD55), plenty capable enough and fitted in the motherboard I had already decided I was going to use (the P5PE-VM). As for your other questions, sorry, don't know, can't help. HTH! Matt

If it's when you reboot, I'd say it's most likely to be the BIOS. Only one way to check.... Matt

For the unbeleivably low cost of GBP33/USD60, having another P5PE-VM is cheap insurance for the future (and to seriously reduce the hassle of finding a replacement board in the future when the current one dies). I'm just ordering my spare board now... Matt

I would have thought that that is a config issue with Xlobby (knowing nothing about it! ) Matt

I would have thought you'd have to really be hammering the server to need the extra bandwidth, and I doubt Tom would be interested in doing anything clever like teaming, so you'd just have two IP addresses/server names/shares at best. There *might* be a use for it if you had many multiple access streams taking place at once, like multiple music streams, and multiple video streams all at once, like in a house with say 4 people in different rooms accessing different content. HTH! Matt

Presumably Tom, the Intel one is the best bet as you deffo already support the Intel chipset from the original onboard ethernet on your originally suggested motherboard? (Thinking about buying an extra card as a spare in case this ever happens to me, as I need to buy a new GigE switch and net card for my existing main PC anyway). Ta, Matt

If it's cpu that's causing the problem, then it might be the machine working to decode the video stream? What spec machine is the HTPC, and what type of video stream is it? If you switch to process list in Task Manager, you can select extra columns and then you can display CPU Time. You can then see which processes have been using the most CPU, but also you want to try and figure out which process is causing the CPU spikes. Then you'll know what to attack or it might be obvious what's happening. Matt P.S. Don't bother with CTRL-ALT-DEL for Task anager, right click the task bar (I personally have it running all the time, from startup, run minimised with it set to "hide when minimised").

Try bringing the server to the HTPC and connecting them with a cable? (if they are both gigabit NICs, I think you can use a normal patch cable, if not, use a crossover). That will rule out the LAN. I'd be tempted to run a bandwidth test before and after this (I'd use a file copy of a file of a known and reasonable size, from a command prompt) and time it. Then at least you know exaclty what throughput you're getting, and when, which might help figure things out. Make sure you use a nice chunky sized file, say a good 50MB or more. HTH! Matt

I remembered someone had that problem, but I couldn't remember who! Call me Matt, BTW Matt

People have reported that on some m/boards, when you add a drive/make a change to the drives, the BIOS sets the boot order to something different (probably, to boot from the Primary Master Hard Drive (which won't work)). If that is the case, you have to save changes, reboot, go back in the BIOS and set the boot order properly again. I don't know if this helps in your case or not though... Matt

I don't think total consumption is the main issue though, I think what's taking what from what rail when is the key issue and whether or not the unit can supply the correct amount on the key rails at the peak times. The tests seem to concentrate on this more than the total, but often, the total quoted can't actually be supplied also. I'm certainly no expert though, so I'd look for some articles and reveiws written hopefully by people who are! HTH! Matt

IIWY, I'd figure out what current 12 drives plus cpu/motherboard and fans add up to and see if the PSU is supposedly able to supply it. Secondly, try and find a review where someone has actually tested the claims as many PSUs often fall short of the claimed abilities. I wouldn't personally be very tempted, as it will probably be marginal and could easily cause randomly any of the components in the system damage. Also, you could end up having really "strange" random problems which would be hard to pin down to the PSU struggling, especially when it gets hot! IMHO, HTH! Matt

Yes, but only if it is already a ReiserFS partition, so most likely, one that's already been in unRaid.... Matt

Any "push to make" switch which only "makes" whilst you hold it should do the trick. Matt

Also, right now, I'm fairly certain you can issue the powerdown from the (web) console, and then switch the power supply off. When you switch it back on, it will boot (that's how it works with my P5PE-VM) Matt

In the list of devices, IIRC, at the bottom, you can choose "Disabled". If not, it doesn't matter, as long as your USB stick is the 1st boot device. For a while I had 3 boot devices with no problems. Matt

Try turning the sowftware firewall off completely on the HTPC to see if it makes any difference? Presumably, it's nothing to do with the rip itself, that is, it's not always in the same place in the film (movie ) where you get the drop outs? Are you ripping to unRaid on machine A and playing it back on Machine B (the HTPC)? If so, try playing it back on machine A to see if that is the same, worse or better? Is unRaid doing anything else whilst serving the film to the HTPC? (like serving other streams at the same time or a rip is being written) Are the network cards in all 3 machines decent Gigabit cards and not cheap cards? (branded 3com/Linksys etc. as opposed to generic no-name cards) HTH! Matt

If you've tried mapping the drive as a persistent connection, for the all users account, and that's not working, you could create a batch file (use the .cmd extension) and then use srvany to run that as a service, to run automatically on startup. There are also places in the Registry (can't remember where off the top of my head) where you can get Windows to start things as part of the startup. This is where apps that need to run something after a re-boot as part of an install put things to get in early. HTH! Matt

Can you ping by IP address the server? Did you set it up to use a static IP addresss (a good idea!). I presume you can ping it as you wouldn't be able o get the management interface working in your web browser if you couldn't. I personally like the idea of setting the unRaid server to be the Master Browser as it's always on so there should be no issues with re-elections and the delay that can happen with the workgroups propagating the information around the workgroup (which is probably the problem you are seeing). You could always add the ip address and hostname of your server to your hosts file and then it will definately always work (you have to have the unRaid server's IP address static for this one though). HTH Matt

Surely it'll be in SP1? If so, that'll likely be getting on for a year, if not many months? Matt

Make sure you purchase a 2-flash license so that you have a backup flash ready to go if one fails. That way, you won't have any down time. HTH! Matt

It might have actually been clearer explaining exactly how it does work with binary!

I thought WinFS had been canned. TBH, I think you should stick with RFS unless there is a really compelling reason to switch and even then, it's a lot of work (both coding/distribution/people upgrading) for all concerned for presumably little benefit? Matt

Tom, OK, my Sil3114 card has arrived. Which version did you add support for this to? I'm still running 3.0 Beta2 (lazy, will get round to upgrading). Ta, Matt

Seems like almost everyone is using this board now, certainly all us newcommers to the party! Thanks for the heads up. Matt