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rrussell
Ace
Posts: 3,306
Join Date: Jul, 2004
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« on: September 26, 2008, 09:59:54 AM » |
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My trusty ol' 200N - whose adventures are detailed in these very forums - is still doing duty in our kitchen as a public access family PC.
Got it running Linux Mint, my son loves to watch Muppet episodes on YouTube and "Zoboomafoo" videos recorded on our PVR, and it's our weather report every morning. With all the noise/cool/fan mods you guys prompted me into doing, we hardly know it's there.
Anyone else's still plugging along?
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username1234
Veteran
Posts: 327
Join Date: Feb, 2005
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« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2008, 06:05:53 PM » |
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I'm still using my 210P!
Athlon 64 2800+ still powering my Media Centre PC... cooled with SilenX 80mm Thermo fans on the CPU and Case, 92mm for the PSU - very quiet.
Only thing is you cannot use speedfan or the Biostar System control on Vista to control fan speeds (and nForce 3 250 is not supported on Vista) so not upgrading yet.
Its probably time to upgrade I should think for gaming, but for TV and PVR its great!
1234.
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iamaran
Regular
Posts: 33
Join Date: Jul, 2005
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« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2008, 01:04:09 PM » |
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Just donated my 210P to my children in an attempt to stop them playing with my new kit - not Biostar, nor SFF.
However the reason I'm here is to look for a post I vaguely remember about someone fitting an alternative PSU to the 210P. (There's a burning smell from mine...)
May start a new thread about that.
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Zypher
Regular
Posts: 81
Join Date: Aug, 2004
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« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2008, 11:31:47 PM » |
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Yup ... IDEQ 200N (mobile barton 2600 running at 2.0Ghz, 64MB GF2 mx400 VGA, on board sound, 768MB RAM, WinXP Pro) still running strong in my home although it is relegated to my sons' pc watching www.disney-playhouse.com, www.totlol.com and youtube.com cartoon clips. Made some mods and except for the all onboard USB which fried, all else works perfectly although I have had to use a USB PCI card for USB purposes. If not for this, I would have retained it as my web surfing machine. |
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oldmoney
Green
Posts: 1
Join Date: Oct, 2008
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« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2008, 08:35:46 PM » |
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Still use my 200n everyday...
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rrussell
Ace
Posts: 3,306
Join Date: Jul, 2004
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« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2008, 09:47:44 AM » |
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oldmoney, me too.
I think Biostar really hit it right with that machine. I'm kinda disappointed they dropped out of the SFF arena.
The only problems I've ever had with it were the fan headers on the motherboard, and I have to admit to doing some stuff that was probably not really designed for.
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Rhythmeister
Green
Posts: 21
Join Date: Oct, 2005
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« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2008, 09:04:39 AM » |
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I was using one I picked up recently 'til the CMOS chip freaked out from what I can tell  Anyone got a spare 4MB one lying about that they fancy flashing me the most recent bios onto?! I tried flashing in one of my Soltek Qbic EQ3702a machines using Uniflash 1.40 but to no avail. I get disc read errors from either floppy drive and new discs I'm using... |
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rrussell
Ace
Posts: 3,306
Join Date: Jul, 2004
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« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2008, 11:56:04 AM » |
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What model?
Are you talking about the BIOS chip?
I actually have an extra for my 200N, I believe. I'd have to dig through some stuff and find it, but I'm pretty sure...
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kiran_mk2
Regular
Posts: 179
Join Date: Apr, 2002
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« Reply #8 on: October 30, 2008, 03:34:54 PM » |
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My 200N is still going strong. radeon 9600, 1gb ch-5 ram (those were the days...) and an xp1700+ clocked at 200x10. The only thing that's gone wrong is one of the fan headers no longer controls the speed.
It's too slow for what I want to do (converting my DVDs to mpeg4), but I haven't found a suitable replacement - just as small and even quieter. The reduction to 45 nm means faster chips are running cooler, but noone seems interested in selling small machines. The Acer L series and Mac Mini need an upgrade to the latest chipsets (AMD 790GX, nVidia 9400) to tempt me (but are silent and the right size) and the Dell studio hybrid is overpriced. I've a feeling that if the Mac Mini isn't updated soon I may fold and get an imac.
Shuttle tried to cram a full PC into their boxes which drove up the noise, heat and price. Now I think there's a market for x27-esque devices. Low power "Headless" servers that simply act as a NAS with more features.
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burnin8r
Regular
Posts: 91
Join Date: Dec, 2006
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« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2008, 08:07:41 AM » |
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newegg still has some 330P's left, I think I might pick one up just so my x2 4800+ still has a home when I upgrade, not that I don t have spare mATX cases and 939 mobos.
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YourEvilTwinBrother
Regular
Posts: 141
Join Date: Nov, 2003
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« Reply #10 on: November 08, 2008, 07:18:47 PM » |
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My 200N still goes to every lan with me, of course now it's our dedicated game server, and it runs like a champ still !
I still cuss my shuttle clamshell case EVERY time i have to remove it, and i think of the IDEQ panels.
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Rhythmeister
Green
Posts: 21
Join Date: Oct, 2005
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« Reply #11 on: November 11, 2008, 02:59:54 AM » |
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What model?
Are you talking about the BIOS chip?
I actually have an extra for my 200N, I believe. I'd have to dig through some stuff and find it, but I'm pretty sure... I managed to get a spare from a friend (good old Willem programmer!) and hotflashed the borked one which flashed successfully but which doesn't let the board post I got a fully working 200N mobo (M7NBA?) from fleabay (just needed a CMOS reset!) and STILL BSOD with Valve games/ Fallout 3 with either 2GB of OCZ platinum or 1GB of Ballistix (brand new RMA) on BOTH boards with ram running at the conservative 2.5, 3, 3, 8 and CPU (2500 XP-M) at 200x11 (1.675Vcore) and either an x1600 Pro 256MB (GDDR3) or x1600 512MB (GDDR2). Any ideas what the issue could be? Generic STOP error, the log doesn't ID any particular process/ driver Also, how do I get XP installed on a Raptor in this machine?! |
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stillo
Green
Posts: 8
Join Date: May, 2008
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« Reply #12 on: November 22, 2008, 11:50:51 PM » |
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This month it was the last of my 250N. After 1.5y of using no signal from PCI-e card, and now even from onboard. Completely no signal.... It's a pity because it is almost impossible to find a mobo NC51G-S2 for that. If you know where, I will be glad for any help ;-)
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Zypher
Regular
Posts: 81
Join Date: Aug, 2004
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« Reply #13 on: December 01, 2008, 08:09:57 PM » |
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My 200N just went into coma!
There is power light on front but when I pressed the power switch, there is no reaction or life. Its just in a coma ....
Will try to use a normal PSU and check if it is a psu issue when I have the time ... quite sad about this.
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Rhythmeister
Green
Posts: 21
Join Date: Oct, 2005
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« Reply #14 on: December 02, 2008, 03:12:03 AM » |
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It turns out that either of the boards function FINE with onboard gfx when overclocked but as son as a 3D app starts using either the X1600 or 9800XT then it BSODs, any ideas?! Tried a full size PSU and different bioses, video ram shadow on and off etc etc but no joy...
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rrussell
Ace
Posts: 3,306
Join Date: Jul, 2004
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« Reply #15 on: December 02, 2008, 04:33:03 AM » |
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Zypher - there's a thread somewhere in this forum about resurrecting the 200N. It's not uncommon to have to do. Are you overclocking? Search for it and if you can't find it, lemme know. It has to do with the clear-CMOS jumper inside the front left corner.
Rhythmeister - the 200N was notorious for failing to overclock when using onboard graphics. Many folks could get a MUCH higher overclock (if they could OC at ALL) after adding in an AGP board. It was also kinda twitchy with regards to video board vendors. I always had MSI in mine, although I never went higher than a 7900GT. I'm kind of amazed that you could get an OC at all with only onboard graphics :cheese: So unfortunately my only advice is either get a less beefy vid card or back off the OC :shut:
And finally, a moment of silence for stillo's 250N. How sad to see a trooper like that pass on...
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stillo
Green
Posts: 8
Join Date: May, 2008
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« Reply #16 on: December 02, 2008, 04:58:01 AM » |
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And finally, a moment of silence for stillo's 250N. How sad to see a trooper like that pass on... Thanks guys! This helps maybe :-) I'm stubborn so... PC has been sent to my seller and today I've received answer it will be sent directly to Biostar for RMA. So I am very curious what Biostar will do with it (because from Dutch Biostar support I've got info lately that MoBo NC51G-S2 for 250N is not available on stock even in Taiwan ;-). Otherwise I can cry over my lost dat on RAID 0 (2x160GB) :-(( Useful link for BIOSTAR Europe Technical support: Biostar Microtech Netherlands BV Archimedesweg 2A 5928 PP Venlo www.biostar-europe.comRMA biostar-europe.com
+31 77 8503-944,5 (Mr. Gryan 941), 940 Technical support |
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rrussell
Ace
Posts: 3,306
Join Date: Jul, 2004
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« Reply #17 on: December 02, 2008, 05:10:08 AM » |
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Oh, my.
Well, definitely keep us posted. I had no idea you were in Europe!
Maybe you could find another motherboard with the same RAID chipset and retrieve your data ;-)
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rrussell
Ace
Posts: 3,306
Join Date: Jul, 2004
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« Reply #18 on: December 02, 2008, 05:38:17 AM » |
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My 200N just went into coma!
There is power light on front but when I pressed the power switch, there is no reaction or life. Its just in a coma ....
Will try to use a normal PSU and check if it is a psu issue when I have the time ... quite sad about this. Here's a quick synopsis.It also brought back SandboxTiger's 200N, but it looks like he had some larger issues at hand too. |
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stillo
Green
Posts: 8
Join Date: May, 2008
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« Reply #19 on: December 22, 2008, 08:29:40 AM » |
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Hello SmallFormFactor Biostar friends ;-)
good news: my iDEQ 250N came back from Biostar service point (sent to somewhere in EU). Motherboard NC51G-S2 has been replaced by the new one (luckily they has it) and PC is OK now (signal from PCI-e and onboard card is OK).
The best for me is, that even RAID0 (stripping) HDDs are working without loosing data (no initialization of RAID array needed). For sure before sending miniPC to support is good to write down which cable was connected into which SATA on motherboard and into HDD.
If somebody is interested what the Biostar support name is and the address I can ask my seller.
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rrussell
Ace
Posts: 3,306
Join Date: Jul, 2004
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« Reply #20 on: December 22, 2008, 01:38:40 PM » |
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Hey, congratulations!
It's always nice to hear a happy ending.
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treaclepumpkin
Regular
Posts: 27
Join Date: Nov, 2003
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« Reply #21 on: December 24, 2008, 09:12:16 AM » |
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Still got my 200T as my main machine, the CPU fan header only runs flat out now, so I've had to disable it to reduce the noise. But my original case mod, put an additional fan in the side to cool the graphics card, means it still runs relatively cool.
Going to have to replace it in the new year though - it's had a very good run, about five years.
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healeydave
Green
Posts: 2
Join Date: Apr, 2009
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« Reply #22 on: April 24, 2009, 10:26:14 AM » |
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Interesting to find this thread after all these years.
I bought a 200N several years ago and its been the worst PC I ever owned.
Everything was standard, still using on-board graphics, lan etc. (no self inflicted trouble by trying to use other component parts)
It was that bad, it played a big part in me getting dissolutioned with PC's and moving to Mac's.
It wasn't solely responsible, MS with their bloat-ware themselves played their part very well in pushing me away :-)
These far eastern companies throw together boards with chipsets from here and chipsets from there and keep their fingers crossed it will all work together its really annoying.
I bought the 200N back in the day when large tft screens were expensive. I bought 2 x thin bezel-ed 17" screens to run off the dual graphics card ports with the intention to have a large desktop.
The machine never worked properly from day one. It still has XP on it but I had to turn off hardware acceleration to prevent blue screens within minutes of boot-up, blue screens were rife if I tried to use both displays too, so one screen was never used :-(
With H/W acceleration off, I could do menial tasks without a crash, but I can still get it to dump a blue screen if I try to transfer too many large files through the NIC.
I would never touch Biostar ever again, fortunately that will never be a issue!
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Rhythmeister
Green
Posts: 21
Join Date: Oct, 2005
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« Reply #23 on: April 24, 2009, 12:27:49 PM » |
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Odd that you had so many issues with the 200N, the NForce 2 chipset was designed specifically for AMD chips and I've never had a problem with either of my 200Ns, or a trio of Soltek EQ3702As that was hardware related bar a faulty headphone socket on one of the Solteks caused by too much in and out, ooer! The onboard GeForce4 overclocks like nothing else I've ever seen, I had 50% overclock on the core on one of my Solteks and was running HL2 on it, mad :s Keeping the toasty Athlon XPs cool isn't a problem in the wee Biostar due to the excellent heatpipe cooler, I even run one 2800xp passively cooled with a server heatsink! Sounds like you had a dodgy/ early BIOS/ incompatible ram to me... Flog it on fleabay, someone (maybe even me)'ll prob get it running successfully  |
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healeydave
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Join Date: Apr, 2009
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« Reply #24 on: April 24, 2009, 12:36:37 PM » |
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Well, I have always suspected it has some sort of hardware fault or just a poor collaboration of devices thrown onto the main board.
I updated the bios to the point where no new bios's seemed to turn up at Biostar.
The one thing that surprised me the most is that it is still in one piece and never got sledgehammered, because I'm sure that would have given great satisfaction with no remorse, hehehehe.
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