Beelzeblog

So I guess some background, as I don't think I gave much....

We have a 3200 sq ft house, not counting the unfinished basement, that we want the unit to be able to heat.  We currently have a 4 ton air exchange heat pump, and I'm dis-satisfied with its heating capabilities.  Our duct work is more than sufficient for a new geo furnace, so really...

Since this blog is the only one I have ever contributed to, and since our next project has at least *some* HA tie-in, I guess I'll just blab about it here.

We pondered getting a geothermal heatpump when we built our house in 2008, but the initial cost (+$20k) was more than we could handle.  We also thought at the time that our fireplace we were...

Having done the clean reinstall now, I decided I would save (backup) this completely clean, updated, bare install so that when I want to do it again, I can just restore it from WHS instead of having to do the disk install.

When I went into the WHS console to tell it to save a backup copy, I noticed something interesting.  I now have *two* computers listed...

My desktop PC was getting slower and slower, suffering from the usual Windows bloat that happens over time.  So I was gearing up for the big format/reinstall routine.  I usually try to do that every year or so.

So I clicked on the WHS icon and told it to do one "final" backup, and named it so.  It's funny because the WHS screen where you can...

I finally moved CQC from the kitchen computer back to the WHS system, and everything works absolutely fine, with no lockups.  So, CQC is now removed from the list of culprits (though that was always a very long shot).

I still say it's the Syba card then.

Well, going on several days now with 90% of the original system back up and operating, and no freezes....I'd have to say I'm done tinkering.

The last step was adding back in the 2 IDE drives.  So now, all of the original drives are a part of the system, and there have been no freezes.  Now, it is still possible that maybe one of the drives...

Ok, so I've stripped the system down, fully patched it, and now I wait.

If it fails again, here are the remaining things it could be:

• The system hard disk
  
• The video card
  
• The motherboard
  
• The motherboard drivers
  
• The windows updates

If it doesn't fail within, say, 3 days, then I'll start adding back...

Ok, I've come up with a gameplan.

I'll move the CQC install to the kitchen PC, as it appears to be plenty stable, and is on all the time anyway.  It's trivial to move it there, and then I don't have to worry about losing CQC when the WHS machine freezes.

I'll remove the syba serial port card from the WHS machine.  I don't...

Well, I said I'd cry if it froze again.....  

Came home, and noticed that the garage lights didn't come on when the door opened....an ominous sign.  Sure enough, it's froze up.

So that lasted like 2 days from the full reinstall.  And all I put on there was CQC, the windows updates, the appropriate drivers and such.  That was all.

Now, I *did*...

Well, the reinstall went mercifully well.  Popped in the WHS install DVD, and it asked if I wanted to do a new install or a reinstall.  I chose the latter, and thus it preserved all of my backups and shared dirs.  So, no data was lost in the transaction, but I ended up with a brand spanking new WHS install.  Nice!

As of this morning, it was still up...