Ok, I had 2 8800 gtx cards running on a liquid setup with the 3^rd card on the stock cooler. Last night, I removed everything and installed the 3^rd card on liquid and also installed an ad-don pci tv card. The PC turned on and froze at the login screen. I rebooted and it would not post anymore. So I took out the pci card and still the machine would not post. I removed all 3 sli cards and reinstalled them as 2 on liquid cooled and the 3^rd on the stock cooler (this was my initial configuration). No post; then I noticed the motherboard has a built in LCD that shows the post codes. Mine is a 1d, which could be the power supply, Ram or video card (most of the time, its a RAM problem). I called xfx tech support and they said to strip the machine down to the bare essentials.

1 video card, 1 stick of ram, unplug everything else and reset the CMOS. If it works, eventually plug in one item at a time until I find out what crashes the system. If it doesn’t work with the bare essentials, the motherboard could be fried.

I wish the video cards had this option to diagnose them. I would hate to have an RMA on my motherboard (780i) and 3 video cards (8800 gtx’s). Well, off to troubleshooting and we’ll see what happens.

Regarding “Microsoft Windows 7: What the Future Holds” (Mendelson, E.).

So what does the future hold for Microsoft? It’s a company that will probably never die and they have years of buggy software on the way in. Let’s face it, most of the times it’s all about the money. But with this case, it’s all about who can do what and how fast they can do it; which leads to all about the money. One of the best and most stable Operating Systems to come out of Microsoft was Windows XP. Vista is so buggy and requires updating. Most normal people would think, hey maybe after Vista service pack 2 (which would make Vista…maybe as stable as XP), then we can move on to the next, best thing.

It’s a dam shame that they don’t care about the users. They say they do, but do they? Microsoft claimed, they will support Nvidia hardware. Microsoft even releases there own Revamped drivers for Nvidia hardware. Then why the hell does my Vista, 64 bit PC with 3 8800 OC, GTX cards still crash every now and then? My research into the issue says it’s an incompatibility issue between the hardware and the software. Search the net for a resolution? OK, the answer I find everywhere is: they are still not 100% playable with each other, keep checking for driver updates and maybe the problem will be resolved.

What the fudge? Mr. Operating System Giant? You still want to invent the future even though it will crash, gives us headaches and cost half a grand? A GREAT IDEA!

References:

Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com

Mendelson, E. June 2^nd 2008. Microsoft Windows 7: What the Future Holds. PCMAG.com, Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. Information retrieved on June 3^rd, 2008 from: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2314409,00.asp