MCE Instability - one more thing fixed!
I'm really fond of my MCE set-up. It's one of those neat products that mostly works without too much messing around.... although mine has been behaving very badly recently and I couldn't track down the cause of the problem.
Actually, tracking down cause of the problem was fairly simple... it started after I added a pair of Maxtor 300GB SATA drives to the rig, and the instability only occurred when the drives were powered up (didn't matter if they were being used or not - just having them in the machine drawing power seemed to be enough)
So I tried a whole bunch of things - stress test software, memory tests, drive tests, swapping the SATA cables, plugging the Molex to SATA power connectors in different places, and swapping the SATA power connector with another machine ... all to no avail.
Then the other day I was moving the (unattached) power cables out of the way inside the case and one of the SATA connectors fell off. I thought it a bit strange until I noticed a now visible tiny crack in the plastic where it obviously hadn't been giving a consistent firm grip - leading to erratic power problems which in turn brought the entire machine to it's knees.
Popped down to my computer store and got two new SATA leads (one for the MCE machine and one for the machine I'd tried swapping power leads with), powered it up and 72 hours later it's still going strong.
Why did I swap the power leads on the other machine? Not because I was feeling generous but because they were bought at the same time and on closer examination I discovered the other lead also had a tiny crack (though less pronounced) in the same place - I'm guessing that as the MCE rig vibrates slightly more than the desktop tower (which is in a room that gets less floor thumping action from dog and daughter) that the lead wasn't being shaken as much.
Hopefully... alls well that ends well (though Murphys Law says I'll get home and find it's died again)