Month: November 2007

WinXP doesn’t hibernate if RAM is ~2gb or more.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000555.html

Here’s the hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=909095
http://www.u-g-h.com/InsufficientSystem … LIVED.aspx

To prepare the computer to hibernate, the Windows kernel power manager requires a block of contiguous memory. The size of this contiguous memory is proportional to the number of physical memory regions that the computer is using. A computer that uses lots of RAM is likely to use more physical memory regions when the computer prepares to hibernate. Therefore, a larger amount of contiguous memory is required to prepare the computer to hibernate.

Additionally, the number of physical memory regions varies according to the programs, services, and device drivers that the computer uses. Therefore, the hibernate feature occasionally fails.

When the Windows kernel power manager detects that the hibernate feature has failed, the hibernate feature remains disabled until you restart the computer.[ad#ad-1]

ESX 3.5 RC1 runs beautifully on a Dell SC1430!

I was expecting that there might be some problems since it’s not on the HCL, but it seems it runs perfectly! SATA worked just fine! Created VMFS partitions right on the SATA drives! The broadcom nic was supported using the tg3 driver. I was pleasantly surprised as the install to deployment was very easy.

This came as a great deal from Dell when they sent me the 30% off coupons for Dell SMB where the 2nd proc came free, I got a quad core 1.6ghz box for just 761 or so out the door. From newegg, I got 2 2gb dimms and then CompUSA a couple of SATA 500gb hds for roughly a total of 440 or so. The total was less than 1200 for an awesome machine!