On Wed, 2005-06-29 at 13:52, Technomage wrote: > On Wednesday 29 June 2005 13:17, Vaughn Treude wrote: > > Hello everyone: > > I have a system that seems to be cursed like the Diamondback's bullpen. > > > > :-( I was thinking maybe with all the experience and wisdom in this > > > > group, that someone could recommend how I should proceed on this. > > > > I've had a system that's been flaky for a long time and getting flakier > > (looking in the system logs revealed a scad of "dazed and confused" > > errors, the system wasn't stable at all past a 2.4 kernel, and it had > > started to occasionally hang with the beeper on.) I tried replacing the > > Soyo KT333 MB with a new one from Abit, one that was compatible so I > > could use the same Athlon 2400 processor and DR333 memory. It started > > out by having seg faults every time I tried to install Linux, so I took > > out the old ram and got a new DR333 memory stick. That improved things > > quite a bit, but it would still hang at least once every time I tried to > > reinstall Linux. I decided to return the new board and go back to the > > Soyo in the meantime. > > > > But when when I moved the CPU and memory to the Soyo, and got it back in > > the case, it didn't work right at all! It would tell me I had a bad > > bios checksum. I could update the bios, but once I saved the settings > > and tried to boot, it would hang hard with a high-pitched squeal out of > > the beeper. > > > > The troubleshooting guide at the Soyo website suggested (a) bad power > > supply or (b) overheating CPU. So first I tried replacing the > > several-years-old 300W supply with a new 400W Antec. That didn't help. > > Then I realized I had forgotten to reapply thermal compound to the CPU. > > That didn't help either. I replaced the coin cell on the motherboard, > > so I wasn't losing my BIOS settings any more. But now it would hang > > immediately unless I used the clear-CMOS jumper to reset the BIOS, > > allowing me to get back into there. > > > > One complication of this MB is that it allows you to select different > > CPU core voltages, RAM voltages, and AGP voltages. There's a default > > setting for each but it doesn't say what that default actually is. I > > left the RAM and AGP settings alone, because the screen implied that the > > default values were the nominal voltages in those cases. But the > > default for the CPU had no such guideline. Checking the specs from AMD, > > the 2400 is supposed to be either a 1.60 or 1.65 V part, but neither of > > those voltages work - it hangs and squeaks again. So I cleared the CMOS > > again and checked the "PC health" area of the BIOS, which showed that in > > BIOS-setting mode it was running at 1.5 V. I reset the CPU voltage > > setting to this value. This time I could get as far as the LILO > > selection screen (I hadn't erased the whole disk, just tried to install > > into a new partition, so I figured I could still boot into Mandrake 8.) > > > > I still don't know about the CPU temperature, but I know the fan is > > running and the CPU core temperature in the PC health section showed it > > to be at 75 degrees C, which was 8 degrees hotter than when I added the > > thermal compound! This seems a little hot so perhaps it's hitting the > > 85 degree limit. With all those fans on, I don't know why! Perhaps I > > damaged the CPU somehow when moving it back and forth. I know that the > > clip on the CPU heat sink is an absolute SOB to get on and off, and it > > seems to take an inordinate amount of force to unclip it in particular. > > The Soyo manual had no advice whatsoever about this except to "be > > careful not to scratch the board" and it took me a while and a couple of > > slips to figure out how to unclip it using a screwdriver and needle nose > > pliers simultaneously. > > > > Any ideas or recommendations? I've now tried replacing everything > > except the drives (though I did try unplugging some of them, didn't > > help) and the CPU. Maybe I need to get a new CPU - but only if I also > > replace that profoundly evil heat sink. > > > > Thanks in advance for any help you can give me, > > > > Vaughn > I've been here many times. > > firstly, part of your problem was questionable ram. Most definitely. I'd suspected it for a while. I put up with it for quite some time because the price was so high. That's the last time I buy generic memory. > second, there is the possibility of heat related damage to the cpu (it still > works, so its only a possibility) > third: have you checked to make sure you aren't accidently overclocking > things. try changing the value of the cpu clock (in bios) to a lower amount. > also, change the clock value for the memory to a lower figure. > I doubt that, because it was automatically setting the frequency to 133 MHz, and the FSB is 266, and according to the Soyo manual that's right. > one last point, it sounds like that soyo MB is on its last legs. the newer > board sounded like it worked a lot better. > But since I now know the RAM was bad, and the CPU questionable, it may not be hosed after all. But I haven't sent the Abit back yet, thankfully. Sometimes it's good to be a procrastinator. > btw, I use a kt333 (in the ECS K7VTA series board) with an XP 2400 here. only > trouble I had with it locking on boot was when the cpu core frequency was set > too high. > > also, due to a recent power supply failure, I am now down to 4 PCI slots on > this board (the last 2 (shared) failed as a result of PSU failure). > Sad, but luckily it seems like a person doesn't need all that many slots any more these days, with so much on the motherboard. > if you can find a Sempron 2400 or 2600 to try on that board, I would suggest > it. if that works with no problems, then you know you have a heat damaged cpu > on your hands. > > TMH I'll try those things, but it may be a couple of days before I get the time, so I just wanted to say thanks for the suggestions before I forget to do that! Vaughn > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss