O'scopes - Tek vs HP/Agilent vs LeCroy

I might argue that, i had w3.1 running for well over 3 months continuously. I could hardly keep w95 running for a day, that was NOT an improvement. W98 was an improvement over w95, but still terribly insecure. It was also a much better adaptation to changing hardware. WinXP was an improvement almost across the board, but not a big one. Vista is still not ready ready for prime time, wait for SP1 to be included.

Shutdowns are for hardware upgrades that cannot be made plug and play. I will even consider it for a kernel changeout. Keep it modular baby.

What bothers me is that i am seeing more and more MSwindows based instruments, even from companies that did (used to) know better. There is no possible way to ever make any MSwindows system real time, yet some vendors are attempting it.

if you're only hearing them while scrolling the screen (and other updates) the blips are bus noise from inside the case, radiated from the expansion bus that the video card is connected to. if you get them with a static image they are coming from the video card or the monitor, a ferrite block over the vga cable coulkd help with that.

add fans to improve cooling, or use punched covers (many small holes)

Bye. Jasen

I sometimes worry when I spin those fans with compressed air - am I generating dangerous voltages? =:-O

Thanks Rich

I don't think so. The monitor switches scan frequency when going from Windows to DOS. There is something in the monitor that creates extra noise when scrolling. There is no noise on a static display.

There is nothing in the cable that knows what scan rate the monitor is using at the moment. The blips do not occur at 1024X768, only at 640X480.

However, moving to a 5/8 wave vertical completely solved the problem. There is no more noise on any frequency through the entire FM band, even though the vertical is only a foot from the monitor.

This problem has plagued me for several years, and this is the first time I found something that worked. Than you very much for mentioning EMI in an earlier post. For some reason that triggered the idea to try a different approach - and it worked!

That doesn't help when switching cards or checking for lint buildup. Or discovering the cpu fan is seizing and ready to fail.

Obviously, if you are in an environment where screwdrivers, paper clips, solder balls and coffee is flying through the air, you need some protection for your computers. But I have a very benign environment. I have no visitors to worry about, and everything is open the way I like. The covers on computers just slow me down and impede creativity. And that's a sin.

Do you know how difficult it is to replace the covers on a computer after fixing it? I just spent 1/2 hr fooling with the covers on my landlord's computer. What a pain. I'll leave mine off, thank you very much:)

I do have a fan salvaged from the freezer section in a fridge that mounts on the side of the computer during warm spells. It runs very quiet and helps reduce crashes on hot days. But obviously it's time to upgrade all the computers in the lab. And part of the new spec will be reliable operation at elevated temperature:)

Regards,

Mike Monett

Antiviral, Antibacterial Silver Solution:

I had that problem and found that securing the case solved it. There's nothing the monitor does differently when displaying a scrolling or static image that's likely to cause radiated noise... OTOH all the updates going over the expansion bus will radiate during scrolling. and there could easily be 4000 active bus cycles per line scrolled.

the punched cases are effectively see-through, but yeah you still have to open them, takes anout 2 minutes to move the cables out of the way, undo the 2 thumbscrews and slide the panel back a little to disengage it.

yeah, some are like that.

Bye. Jasen