Love the weather here in CO

Just took a spin in the Elise yesterday. It was a lovely day (probably 60+ degrees). That's right, I'm driving the Elise in the *middle of December*. It's like I live in Southern California. Awesome.

I managed to only break the speed limit once. I had to show a M3 convertible owner what a real sports car does around the corners... 8*D

Highpoint RocetRAID 23xx always boots. SOLVED!

Ok, this just took me about an hour to figure out, and I only really stumbled upon it by accident. Hopefully this will show up SOMEWHERE in Google/Bing/Yahoo so someone else can find this to solve the issue.

Background:

I have an "older" PC that I want to turn into a media server, so I bought a SATA RAID card (Highpoint RocketRAID 2300). The machine has a HDD and a DVD burner in it - I installed the OS clean, patched the OS, then installed the card with OS drivers. So everything is working fine.

Installed the drives, boots fine.

Initialize the drives (no reboot).

Format the array (RAID5, but this doesn't actually matter).

Reboot, BAM - blinking cursor.

WTF?

Well, obviously it's trying to boot to the array because it won't even let me get into the PC BIOS. I can view the RAID BIOS, but once I exit out of that I get the blinking cursor (of death - heretofore known as the BCOD).

Grumble grumble. Pull RAID card, get into PC BIOS, make sure that I'm only booting to the hard drive and no other drives. Oh, what is this? The SATA hard drive is not native and the BIOS thinks it's on a SCSI controller card (pretty standard stuff, but probably related to my problem).

Put card back in, BCOD.

Leave card in, unplug drives, boot. Boots fine.

Reboot - go into PC BIOS, make sure the RAID card is NOT in the list of startup devices (it isn't - it's not even listed) and boot again. Boots without issue.

Reboot - got into RAID BIOS to see if there is some wonky setting THERE that says "boot to this device". There is, but there is nothing to configure (no drives are attached remember).

Attach drives, RAID BIOS, configure boot options... Only one device (the array) and no visible way to turn it off.

Reboot, BCOD.

Well, at this point I'm actually getting mad enough to read the manual...

Dig through the manual and there is another settings menu - when you flash the BIOS! This has a handy feature which is to turn off INT 13 support. Remember this was actually an issue in the old days of configuring PC hardware, like SCSI cards? Yeah INT 13, that still matters. Anyway - since I actually have 2 add-in cards to boot from (the onboard SATA controller and the SATA RAID controller), and the PC BIOS is not recognizing the SATA RAID controller, there's a fight and the SATA RAID controller "wins".

So - FINALLY I've figured it out. Fire up the RAID BIOS flash utility and disable INT 13 support. Remove drives (not card), boot windows, fire up flash utility...

HAHA no, wait. The option isn't available in the RAID BIOS flash utility! That button is grayed out! Loading a bios file enables the button though (I have to flash INT 13 support onto the card? strange) So, I set the setting, flash the BIOS and shut down. Attach drives. Finally this works!

BZZT! BCOD.

ARRGHH! DOUBLE YOU TEE EFF!

Remove drives, go BACK into Windows, fire up flash utility, INT 13 is enabled... what? Ok, so it probably doesn't read the settings from the BIOS, but how do I get it to save? Well, it DOES ask to save the configuration to file after I disable INT 13 support - maybe that's a "fresh" RAID BIOS image?

Hmm - look at file sizes (identical). I don't have a binary file diff tool, but I do have Notepad - files look similar (with strings in the same locations). What the hell - I can't use the array anyway - flash the newly saved file.

Reboot. Cross fingers.

Windows boots without issue.

So - to wrap it up. If you want to boot a system to a NON Highpoint controller, use the Highpoint RAID BIOS flash utility to make a custom flash file and then flash it with that.

Rules for driving in winter conditions

1. Dont.
2. Seriously. Don't drive in bad weather.
3. Turn on your lights. There's no reason you can't flip that little switch, and it makes you more visible to other motorists.
4. Clean off your car. No, that doesn't mean a little square on your windshield - the ENTIRE CAR. Scrape all windshields and mirrors. Brush the 3-4 inches of snow from your hood, roof, and trunk. Clear your headlights, turn signals, and taillights.
5. Turn down the temp on your defroster. In "icy rain" conditions, you will keep your windshield cleaner if you have a "cooler" defroster than a "full hot" defroster.
6. Get dedicated winter tires. A front wheel drive car with winter tires will handle and stop better than an all wheel drive with all-season tires.
7. Pay attention! No cell phones, no texting, no NOTHING. Just drive. If you have to make a call, pull over into a parking lot.
8. Make every effort to match your wheelspeed with your vehicle speed. If you are spinning your tires, or if they are locked up you no longer have control over your car. You aren't Sebastian Loeb, now is not the time to slide the car around with a little bit of throttle.
9. As a last resort - if you are having problems getting around, try reducing the pressure in your tires. You do have that tire pressure gauge in your car, right? You can usually drop a few pounds from the recommended pressures in the manual/door sill and still be safe. For example - if you run 35PSI, drop that to 28 or 29. Remember to repressurize when the roads dry up.

Finally: PAY ATTENTION! You are responsible for knowing and driving within the conditions. It's highly likely the road conditions 1 or 2 miles from your house will be completely different than the conditions at your house. Learn how to "read the road" - see what other cars are doing. Are they sliding? Increase your distance to other cars. Are YOU sliding? Slow down. Does the road look "wet"? It's probably ice. ("black ice" doesn't exist - that means you aren't paying attention)

Learn how your car handles in an empty parking lot. Be prepared for a slide. If you have a manual, use a lower gear to slow down. If you have an automatic try to shift to "1" or "L". In the worst case scenario try to find an "out" - if you are sliding downhill, pick the grass/ditch instead of the car in front of you (obviously if there are people there, pick the car).

Track Day!

Well, my first track day has come and gone and I have to say I had quite a bit of fun.

First, pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/douglikespatti/TrackDay

Pictures from another club member:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/djason/sets/72157624389565952/

It all started at 5:45 AM Sunday morning. Which, as you know is quite early for me. I had to drive to the track - I estimated it would take about 2 hours and I had to be there at 8 AM sharp for the vehicle inspection and I didn't really know where I was going. Shoulda printed a map! It was pretty easy getting there though (High Plains Raceway which is just east of Byers, CO) and I made it just in time for the inspection. I was all good except for my battery which was a little loose. After some quick work sandwiching my water bottle retainer between the mount and the battery I was good to go.

First part of the day was riding a giant SUV around the track. Well, not giant (Land Rover) but we went around 2 or 3 times with an instructor telling us about the various corners, breaking points, and apexes that we would immediately forget... LOL. Next the "group meeting" where they laid the ground rules and put us into groups. I was obviously in the "novice" group. Next, some classroom time and Q and A. Finally we could get out on the track and race!

Actually, no. No racing. For my group's first session it was "follow the leader". We all got in our cars and headed around the track. Slowly. In hindsight this was probably good practice. Although I've never been on a track, based on driving in video games I would say this is one of the trickier tracks to drive on. Lots of blind corners, lots of elevation changes, and lots of late apexes. We probably did 5 or 6 laps and then came in. Then we waited. There were 4 total groups, so each group had to wait their turn.

Next session was much better - they sent us out on our own and gave us permission to pass in the straights. I was fortunate enough to get a ride-along instructor that time and he gave me a ton of great advice. I felt much more confident after that session, and I even made a few passes during the session. Still a lot to remember and I would continually get one of the 2 right hand, uphill sweepers wrong. On the first one (turn 7) you want to set up on the right for a hairpin left. on the second one (turn 11) you need to apex on the left (turn 12). I always got them confused. Either I would nail one and totally botch the other, or I would just fail both of them. 8*D

In addition to those two turns, I really struggled with the two late apex turns on the course (turns 2 and 6). Those are so tricky. You basically have to wait about halfway around the turn before you actually start "turning in" and I was always jumping the gun.

After more waiting (and lots of picture taking) they sent us out on our 3rd and final session. I was alone and wanted to really bump up my speed and try to nail those late apex turns. Obviously this was the most fun session and I really pushed myself (the car, not so much). Unfortunately there was another driver that wasn't letting other people pass (we had STRICT instructions not to pass without "permission") and I wasn't going to get black-flagged, so I just slowed down a bit. Still lots of opportunities for learning even if you aren't going as fast as you would like.

Overall I would say it was a good day, but next time will be better. There's a program that someone has provided the track info for so you can run the track yourself (on the computer). I hear it's a pretty accurate simulation, so I'm going to try to "memorize" the track - that way I'll be able to REALLY push it next time.

Here's a "hot lap" by an experienced driver in a really fast car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3v6DYsK164

4 days...

Seller just sent me a few more pictures of the car with the hardtop on and cleaned up.

http://picasaweb.google.com/douglikespatti/2005LotusElise

Woo!

Yes, I see where the window doesn't meet the roofline. I asked the Lotus forum if that's normal. I have no idea - it's a high-strung sports car (which seldom wears it's roof anyway). LOL.

UPDATE:

No, there is no gap in the window - it's just an optical illusion.

Lotus Elise

I've always thought the Lotus Elise was a great little car, but never thought I would own one. Well, it appears that in a week I will have one of my own! I've been looking for a few months, and joined a local club to help in the purchase (and afterwards).

I don't have any great pictures yet as I haven't seen the car in person, but here's the ad for a look. http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=278832013 It's got both the Touring and Sport packages, less than 10k miles, and it's really inexpensive to boot!

Before I knew I would buy the car I took the 12th through the 14th off from work (for my birthday). Unfortunately the current owner is busy on the 12th, so I will have to wait until the 13th to pick the car up. I will then be making the trek from Tucson to Rapid City the next few days and hope to have a little fun in the Black Hills before coming back home.

I'll be taking tons of pictures of course and probably update Facebook with info from the trip. I'm already going bonkers waiting to pick up the car - I don't know how I will be able to stand the next week.

It's smiling at me! http://picasaweb.google.com/douglikespatti/2005LotusElise#5468336038151892402

House is almost done!

I've uploaded a few more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/douglikespatti/NewTownhome

Everything is looking good, except for a few niggling issues. The toilets are wrong - yeah, I know but it's the little things, right? Also, I've been struggling with this since day 1, but the gas range STILL isn't in. They tell me that it will be replaced before I close in a week. *crosses fingers* The refrigerator still isn't in, but they tell me that will be in as well.

That's right - I close in a week. Wednesday morning (the 23rd) is when I sign my official papers. Quite a Christmas gift (with the accompanying debt). Fortunately I locked in a good rate and it's a fixed loan.