Teh Uber L33t Aqua-Computer Thread :)

[Top Nurse]

I know you didn't buy this from Sharka, but perhaps Wes can help you get this thing RMA'd. Wouldn't hurt to make the call? I was going to send something to Franz at IT-Trade so it could go in the same package. Or perhaps Wes might be willing to do a warranty replacement on the unit if he can work things out with IT-Trade and A-C. Last time I was there he still had 2 Aquaero's sitting there....

I know that a shipment of A-C stuff is leaving Austria Friday or Monday so time is of the essence here. I would gab at Franz this evening for you, but he is gone for the long weekend fishing and isn't expected back till Monday. It would be nice if this could get worked out in the background so A-C customers can do what they do best like play CSS or whatever they need to do. Obviously the unit HAS to go to Germany to see what went wrong, but does the customer have to wait for atrip there and back is what I think should be able to change. Just my opinion...

 

[Aviddigi]

I would love to be able to change it out here in the US but thats not going to happen. This aquaero came from AC itself. Is it really a long weekend i hope someone is there tomorrow, i may as well pack everything up and send it out if i dont get a response. Three days there, acouple of days for them to do what they have to do then three-four back to the US if someone does not lose it. This is just my luck

 

[Top Nurse]

I would love to be able to change it out here in the US but thats not going to happen. This aquaero came from AC itself. Is it really a long weekend i hope someone is there tomorrow, i may as well pack everything up and send it out if i dont get a response. Three days there, acouple of days for them to do what they have to do then three-four back to the US if someone does not lose it. This is just my luck

Well for Franz it was, but I don't know if that was the case for A-C as they are in Germany and he is in Austria. I think Franz just decided it wasn't worth the time to go back from the lake today and it was opening day of the fishing season.

Did the Aquaero come from A-C itself or from AC-Berlin? Seems that a manufacturer would like to have their representative here in the USA take care of stuff like this for them. :shrug:

 

[Aviddigi]

AC itself, i dont want to get into business practices but when BMW and mercedes finally started to make it over here people had to fight to get parts or service because there was such a low volume of consumers. Look at it now though every soccer mom drives a BMW suv or some other forigen P.O.S ( me ) Its going to take awhile before there is one or two main places to go for some all out AC support.
If i win the lotto i'll open my spot and carry AC products for the individuals like me that can't leave well enough alone and have evil aquaero gremlins in thier computers.

 

[Shoggy]

Shoggy,,, has anyone posted on the AC forum about their Aquaero not taking the os loader firmware even though you get the prompt to press the ENTER key for 2 seconds?

I'm thinking about trying the EPROM reset and see if it takes.

No, the most people have a blank display and nothing works.

 

[Top Nurse]

I'm thinking I will wait on the real fix for my Aquaero. So long as it gets fixed in the time frame that A-C originally quoted of the end of next week

Otherwise it gets returned to Sharka => IT-Trade => Aqua Computer or someone is nice enough to just send me the dang English 3.99 firmware and the loader for it.

 

[ShoNuff]

I only tried the fix b/c I know Shoggy and I have the same, v3.07 Aquero with the 3.22d firmware. Based on Shoggy's success I thought it would work for me.

Given Shoggy's response it appears that those with the newer Aquero's are having the problems.

R1ckCa1n did the reset thingy work?

Top Nurse, it's your turn to let the "magic smoke out of your Aquero."

 

[Top Nurse]

Top Nurse, it's your turn to let the "magic smoke out of your Aquero."

Not a chance in hell, I'll wait patiently till end of next week Then I want someone to send me the dang 3.99 English firmware and the loader for it.

 

[R1ckCa1n]

Well I did a factory reset and it didn't help my problem.

No matter what I do, the v3.99D will not load the new OS..........

Funny thing is after doing all of this, the aquaeros is now working better than when I first got it.

 

[Top Nurse]

Funny thing is after doing all of this, the aquaeros is now working better than when I first got it.

Well at least something good has come out of all this FUN you've been having.

In retrospect if this problem is coming from the latest Aqauero hardware with the 3.99D firmware then perhaps that is where the problem lies. Maybe their was a bad batch of eprom's or they made a slight design change in production that isn't being accounted for. All it takes is one bad bit in an eprom to get gibberish or have untoward effects. My Gemini astronomical positioning system has firmware updates and the guy that does all the coding is Dr. René Görlich in Berlin. He is really good at this kind of stuff and teaches at one of the universities there in Berlin. Just a thought that maybe an outside opinion might help things along and I'm not insinuating that you guy's don't know what your doing

 

[R1ckCa1n]

Kinda funny that I am the only one who can't even kill this damn thing........In other words I would rather kill it or have it work, no in the middle crap.

 

[Top Nurse]

Kinda funny that I am the only one who can't even kill this damn thing........In other words I would rather kill it or have it work, no in the middle crap.

Well like I said before, IF they don't get this fixed within the time frame they said they would do it (i.e. a week from tomorrow) then I want a 3.99 English firmware and the loader to put it in delivered to me or Sharka. Personally I would just settle for the English 3.99 firmware now as a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush....

 

[Top Nurse]

Aquatube 3 1/16" in diameter = 77.7875 mm

Just got my aquatube/aquabay. Kinda bummed though because I received no fasteners to connect the Aquatube to the Aquabay.

Did you measure with a caliper or by a ruler? Sounds like a 78mm diameter, but a 3.125" hole saw would give me about 79mm. I wonder if that is the way to go or do the 3" hole and file to fit with a die grinder?

I believe your screws are on the way and your 2 each 10mm x 1/8 BSPP fittings as well.

 

[Top Nurse]

In previous discussions with another distributor of A-C here in the USA I was told anything had to be returned to Europe. However, I have a much happier story to tell today. When I got my Cuplex XT in about a week ago it had a slight scratch on the clear "blue ice" top. It wasn't particulary noticeable until I put some light on it. I was really bummed thinking I was going to have to send it back to Germany to get fixed. Nope nada niet... Wes at Sharka Corp and Franz at IT-Trade arranged for me to get a new top at no charge and it is being delivered next week with their stock shipment.

 

[Top Nurse]

Anyone in need of an Airplex Evo 240 slightly used w/ a new grill? PM me as it goes on the F/S forum in morning along with a ton of H20 stuff I don't need.

 

[Vlad335]

Did you measure with a caliper or by a ruler? Sounds like a 78mm diameter, but a 3.125" hole saw would give me about 79mm. I wonder if that is the way to go or do the 3" hole and file to fit with a die grinder?

Naw. I used a ruler. Don't have a caliper that big.

I don't understand what you are trying to do with the aquatube. ( I'm sure its pretty cool though.) Why not just cut a hole bigger and use the aqua plate mount thingy?

I believe your screws are on the way and your 2 each 10mm x 1/8 BSPP fittings as well.

Yeah got an email from Wes. He took care of things

 

[Shoggy]

Kinda funny that I am the only one who can't even kill this damn thing........In other words I would rather kill it or have it work, no in the middle crap.

I recommend that you leave it as it is. There are enough death Aquaeros...

 

[modsquad2]

Naw. I used a ruler. Don't have a caliper that big.

I don't understand what you are trying to do with the aquatube. ( I'm sure its pretty cool though.) Why not just cut a hole bigger and use the aqua plate mount thingy?



Yeah got an email from Wes. He took care of things

You can mount the AquaTube (or a Innovatek model) either way. It's 61mm if you don't use the mounting plate.

 

[Vlad335]

Wow! Nice cut!

Personaly I still like the look of the mounting plate though.

 

[modsquad2]

Wow! Nice cut!

Personaly I still like the look of the mounting plate though.

"to each his own" my friend. Most of the AquaTubes you see are mounted with the plate. I enjoy being different.

 

[Top Nurse]

"to each his own" my friend. Most of the AquaTubes you see are mounted with the plate. I enjoy being different.

Looks nice and different. I like different...doing the same as everyone else is boring. Did you have to shim it so that the plastic was flush with the case.

Old adage: Tis better to blaze a trail and let others follow than meekly following the horse in front of you as the view never changes.

 

[Top Nurse]

but do you have picture of those res. in action?
because i want to know if its as bright as the silver one
iam using a repack bay res. and its really dark, i think its becoz of the res. is in black or the white LED not powerful enough

I didn't know if you got your question answered or not, but if you go here to Project Black Narcissus there is a ton of pics.

 

[Aviddigi]

Hey guys im in some sh!t and im parting out everything check here http://snt-systems.com/forum/showthread.php?t=223 and here http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=900348

Thanks

 

[Top Nurse]

I don't understand what you are trying to do with the aquatube. ( I'm sure its pretty cool though.) Why not just cut a hole bigger and use the aqua plate mount thingy?
Yeah got an email from Wes. He took care of things

Greetings...

Well it isn't that I'm not thinking about putting it in with the plate mount. I just like things that are neat and tidy (nurse thing). But what I was considering doing is to go up to the Lian-Li importer and see if I can scrounge some sheet metal that matches the middle compartment floor of my V2000B. Then I can make a plate that matches the look of my case. The stock aluminum plate color is a bit off for my tastes, though I am considering using the black plate because it looks good with the other black parts.

 

[Shoggy]

Some news on Aquaero:

The problem seems to have something to do with the usb-controller of the mainboard. There are two different types => OHCI (nVidia and Intel) and UHCI (VIA). Currently a lot points toward some models of the UHCI type as the root of evil.

While flashing the operating system or firmware it is possible that a few data-pakets get lost and get exchanged with zeros. The bad thing: the checksum of zero is zero So the sofware thinks that everything is ok and continues.

For further technical analysis they will wait for defective Aquaeros that should arrive tomorrow and on monday.

It's also possible that the real problem doesn't have anything to do with the usb-controller - it's their current presumption based on some tests and feedback from users.

-------------------------------------
Mhhh, and sometimes you only need some luck

 

[Top Nurse]

Some news on Aquaero:

The problem seems to have something to do with the usb-controller of the mainboard. There are two different types => OHCI (nVidia and Intel) and UHCI (VIA). Currently a lot points toward some models of the UHCI type as the root of evil.

While flashing the operating system or firmware it is possible that a few data-pakets get lost and get exchanged with zeros. The bad thing: the checksum of zero is zero. So the sofware thinks that everything is ok and continues.

For further technical analysis they will wait for defective Aquaeros that should arrive tomorrow and on monday.

It's also possible that the real problem doesn't have anything to do with the usb-controller - it's their current presumption based on some tests and feedback from users.

Thanks for the updates Shoggy

USB 1 = Really Bad

USB 2 = Still Bad, but sometimes usable

USB 3 = ???

Serial or parallel ports reign on high! I have an EPROM burner that works just fine using any parallel port. Never had a problem...

So this is not a good development, because there have been other instances of Aquaero's having problems with certain MB USB devices. If the problem is with specific MB's then perhaps the MB manufacturers could be persuaded to patch their BIOS Have any ASUS A8N-SLI boards with NF4 chipsets been involved in this debacle?

Added: I don't have a VIA chipset, do you think it would be safe as mine is Nvidia? VIA strikes again....

 

[Shoggy]

I have collected some system configurations and there are nForce based systems with failed update procedure too. Currently nothing is safe

ShoNuff has a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe and his update works

It's possible that the mainboard manufactor has to take a bit of the guilt too. I can remember a few problems with Asus mainboards - after updating to a beta bios they were gone.

 

[Top Nurse]

I have collected some system configurations and there are nForce based systems with failed update procedure too. Currently nothing is safe

ShoNuff has a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe and his update works

It's possible that the mainboard manufactor has to take a bit of the guilt too. I can remember a few problems with Asus mainboards - after updating to a beta bios they were gone.

So come on and give What mainboard manufacturers are having this problem? I know that Aviddigi has been having problems with MSI boards before this even came up...

 

[R1ckCa1n]

Nah.. I see what they are doing. If you see a problem on a specific chipset, it makes the debugging easier. Now that they have seen the problems across multiple chipsets, it voids the thought process.

I hope there is an answer soon.

---------------------------------------------------

Shoggy - I know there is a warning that there is a maximum amount of flash warning, what is that limit?

 

[Top Nurse]

Nah.. I see what they are doing. If you see a problem on a specific chipset, it makes the debugging easier. Now that they have seen the problems across multiple chipsets, it voids the thought process.

Well yes and no. Certain MB manufacturers have been known to produce much more buggy boards than say perhaps others. That was why I wanted to know if this was being limited down to certain MB's. The problem may not be with the Aquaero firmware, but some BIOS or internal architecture of a specific MB or manufacturer of MB's. When you are working on the internals of a machine in binary language strange things can occur Whenever I flash a BIOS I always do it with a DOS program, because Windoze is a buggy unstable environment. Thanks Bill

 

[Shoggy]

Shoggy - I know there is a warning that there is a maximum amount of flash warning, what is that limit?

You won't reach that limit in your entire lifetime - believe me It depends on the model, 1.000 to 100.000.

I did a little video where I scroll through the menus of the new Aquasuite. Might be interesting for on or another.

Click here to see it (Windows Media).

 

[Top Nurse]

Just a quick note to let you know that the Aquastream setup from Sharka Corp is a little different than the one that other dealers send out. The main difference is that the Sharka kit comes with an intake and output adapter that gives you a G 1/4 intake & output (1/4 BSPP) instead of the normal G 1/8 adapter that other dealers sell you at extra cost. This gives you a wider choice of fittings to use with your Aquastream pump in case you ever intend to use it with something other than A-C products. The kit also includes 2 fittings of your choice in either Plug & Cool or standard compression fittings (8mm, 5/16, or 3/8 ID) at no extra cost.

Other than the difference outlined above they ship with the same Aquastream, PSU jumper, control panel, and rpm cable that comes in all the kits.

 

[modsquad2]

Looks nice and different. I like different...doing the same as everyone else is boring. Did you have to shim it so that the plastic was flush with the case.

Old adage: Tis better to blaze a trail and let others follow than meekly following the horse in front of you as the view never changes.

You use the stock mounting plate installed inside the case to lower the reservoir the thickness of the colored acrylic (which you use on top of the stock clear acrylic)..It works out pretty well..

 

[dgkulzer]

Just a quick note to let you know that the Aquastream setup from Sharka Corp is a little different than the one that other dealers send out. The main difference is that the Sharka kit comes with an intake and output adapter that gives you a G 1/4 intake & output (1/4 BSPP) instead of the normal G 1/8 adapter that other dealers sell you at extra cost. This gives you a wider choice of fittings to use with your Aquastream pump in case you ever intend to use it with something other than A-C products. The kit also includes 2 fittings of your choice in either Plug & Cool or standard compression fittings (8mm, 5/16, or 3/8 ID) at no extra cost.

Other than the difference outlined above they ship with the same Aquastream, PSU jumper, control panel, and rpm cable that comes in all the kits.

Not sure about the "no extra cost" thing since it appears that the sharka one is almost 20 bucks more than the one from 'other dealers'. Mine also included the G1/8 fittings - I did not have to pay extra. The "1/4" and "1/8" does not actually refer to the physical size of the fitting so the "1/4" is not twice as big as the "1/8". Considering the fact that the AC pump is twice as much as the standard 1046 pump I would not recommend it unless you are building a AC system. Unless you plan on using your Aquastream with a Aquaero display you can save 50 dollars just by getting the standard 1046 and then getting adapters that fit your pump, either 1/2, 3/8 barb, P&C or compression.

 

[Vlad335]

Greetings...

Well it isn't that I'm not thinking about putting it in with the plate mount. I just like things that are neat and tidy (nurse thing). But what I was considering doing is to go up to the Lian-Li importer and see if I can scrounge some sheet metal that matches the middle compartment floor of my V2000B. Then I can make a plate that matches the look of my case. The stock aluminum plate color is a bit off for my tastes, though I am considering using the black plate because it looks good with the other black parts.

Well... To each his own they say but look at the pic below.

Maybe its just my personal taste but that looks damn good to me. The stainless steel against the aluminum... I love the Aqua Computer logo too.

(I downloaded a bunch of AC photos from around the web about 2 months ago and that is one of my favorites. When I get a V2000 thats exactly what I am going to do.)

 

[Top Nurse]

You use the stock mounting plate installed inside the case to lower the reservoir the thickness of the colored acrylic (which you use on top of the stock clear acrylic)..It works out pretty well..

Hmmm... Sounds interesting, I shall have to look into that Lately I was thinking of using the black mounting plate, but turned upside down so the A-C name is on the bottom (not showing) so I can have the side mounted accessories pointing towards the side of the case that doesn't have a window That should make it cleaner looking in the wiring and plumbing department as well.

 

[Top Nurse]

Well... To each his own they say but look at the pic below.

Maybe its just my personal taste but that looks damn good to me. The stainless steel against the aluminum... I love the Aqua Computer logo too.

(I downloaded a bunch of AC photos from around the web about 2 months ago and that is one of my favorites. When I get a V2000 thats exactly what I am going to do.)

That looks like Shonuff's case? Well one of my Aquautube's is going to the right of that on the other side of the wall that separates the HDD's from the PSU area. Directly below it will be Aquastream pump 1 and it will be flowing through a Black Ice Micro (dual 80mm) mounted above the PSU, the Aquatube, and the HDD's in the racks in the front lower compartment. A V2000 case has lots of room The other Aquatube is being mounted horizontally in an Aquabay and goes though Aquastream pump 2 the CPU, NB, and GPU x 2. It also is being plumbed for two separate Black Ice Pro II (single 120mm) radiators at different places in the loop. My long range goal is to be set up for TEC cooling my SLI GPU's so I do need two separate rads if I didn't want to cut a hole in the case for an EVO 240, which I just sold

 

[modsquad2]

That looks like Shonuff's case? Well one of my Aquautube's is going to the right of that on the other side of the wall that separates the HDD's from the PSU area. Directly below it will be Aquastream pump 1 and it will be flowing through a Black Ice Micro (dual 80mm) mounted above the PSU, the Aquatube, and the HDD's in the racks in the front lower compartment. A V2000 case has lots of room The other Aquatube is being mounted horizontally in an Aquabay and goes though Aquastream pump 2 the CPU, NB, and GPU x 2. It also is being plumbed for two separate Black Ice Pro II (single 120mm) radiators at different places in the loop. My long range goal is to be set up for TEC cooling my SLI GPU's so I do need two separate rads if I didn't want to cut a hole in the case for an EVO 240, which I just sold

You beat me to the post TN. It is ShoNuff's old case (he has changed his design since the picture). This is a original AquaTube location, or at least the only one I have seen. That makes it cool in my book..

 

[Top Nurse]

Anyone else had trouble getting the A-C temp probes out of their G 1/8 push-fit connectors? I think the probe bodies may be oversize or the groove on the probe is not made to spec. I sure hope that they weren't designed to not come out I'm glad I planned on using Innovatek temp probes with my Aquaero.

Added: I got it out, but jeez I had to pry it out with a flat bladed screwdriver !

 

[ShoNuff]

Hmmm... Sounds interesting, I shall have to look into that Lately I was thinking of using the black mounting plate, but turned upside down so the A-C name is on the bottom (not showing) so I can have the side mounted accessories pointing towards the side of the case that doesn't have a window That should make it cleaner looking in the wiring and plumbing department as well.

I also have the same pic (somewhere) with the BLACK Aquacomputer mounting plate. The silver plate that AC makes against the bottom of the Lian Li doensn't look good. The black faceplate looks really good. I also think the stock faceplate (pictured above) looks good in real life. If you don't have the black faceplate already pm me and I'll hook you up.

I was going to use the black faceplate covered with a piece of UV Green acrylic on top of it. I just don't have the skills with acrylic to cut it. I tried but it just didn't come out right. I used a whole piece of 11x17 acrylic trying to make a decent cut.

When you cut the hole make sure you use the metric size so that you don't have to go back and widen the hole. It was a bear to enlarge evenly. I would have rather just used the right hole saw from the beginning.