Quote:
Originally Posted by Beastie
If you run it for 10 passes or so without a single error, you can be pretty sure that your cache/RAM work.
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Not quite true, I've seen some RAM modules that consistently give an error only after 40 or 50 passes (In any board, and replacing the module usually solves the problem).
I've also seen modules that work perfectly fine in one board, and not at all in another (While it works fine with other modules which are the exact same make&model).
This is all relatively rare of course ... But I see it a few times a year nevertheless.
If in doubt, replace memory.
People are often quick to blame windows for blue screens (Or Kernel Panics as we call them in UNIX world), but in the majority of the cases it's hardware related or related to something that's not strictly a part of Windows, such as a 3rd party driver.
As for the longevity of a Windows installation: I've personally never had any problems with that, both with my own machines and most of my customer's.
Yeah, FreeBSD longevity is better, but a Windows XP install ought to survive a few years (3 or 4 at most) ... It does require some maintenance though.
Jggmmi customers's IT department just re-images, maybe many problems can be fixed in a few minutes, there are quite a few common problems with standard solutions which are not so hard. spending at least 15 to 20 minutes trying to fix the problem is often worth it, I don't have any exact figures, but I think I can solve at least half of all Windows problems without reinstalling in a hour orso.
This is not so easy, and something you really need to spend time in learning this. It took me a total of four year work experience ...