Ok, I had read several reviews of the Soyo Dragon Plus saying it was
great and stable with Linux (kt266a based board).
I have a Micron 256 Meg DDR DIMM in my system. With my Permedia 2 video
card and my hard drives (and every built in thing turned off and all
other components not mentioned removed) the system crashes at boot if I
let Linux use all 256 Meg. If I say mem=240M it works fine (as far as I
have seen). If I say anything over 240M, either it hangs when trying to
print out the partition table check on boot, or it hangs in the SCSI
card driver for my Symbios 876 based card (if it is in... maybe if it is
out, didn't check).
I do not know if the BIOS edits 55 register in the Northbridge or the
91. 2.4.18pre1 doesn't seem to apply the fix, so it must already be
done.
Again, even without that Symbios based SCSI card, the system hangs
unless I say mem=240M. However, I ran memcheck 98 (I believe that was
the name) v2.8. It ran many passes (all tests enabled, with or without
cache). After 2 days of it running with all tests, cache controlled by
test, around 9 passes I believe, the tests passed with no problems. My
system hung around 8 hours later with all keyboard LED lights on, it
rebooted and started running the test again. The keyboard stayed hung
until power was physically removed from the computer AND keyboard was
unplugged and plugged back in.
I have tried telling the BIOS to do normal (not fast/keyboard
controlled) GATE A20. This didn't change the keyboard hanging or the
hang problem described here.
Is my memory bad? Is the workaround being screwed up by the BIOS? Is
there something wrong with Linux?
Currently my BIOS says that the drive is different than what the
partition table says. The bios apparently doesn't tell the OS what it
sees it as (because I set it in the BIOS to do LBA, which is what the
partition is, and the numbers do match according to it). If the drive
is primary (it isn't) on the chain, Linux, BIOS, and partition table all
see it the same and the crash happens the same or a little later, but
crashes all the same. Later is right before or right after INIT would
be started.
I had the same problems with an EPOX 8KHA+ board (same chipset). I
thought it was bad and so got this board.
Any help would be appreciated.
Trever Adams
P.S. I would have gotten AMD but many people warned against it because
they are soon to stop making 760 chipsets.
P.P.S. Alan Cox, if you read this, I haven't forgotten your request for
DMI scan info from that Venturis (similar to Celebris). I just haven't
had a working computer for over 2 weeks to send the request with.
I read a review of these and put one on my system when I built the new
one. However, I am wondering if this is the problem with my system
mentioned in the above thread. I don't believe I damaged anything
putting it on and I don't believe it is shorting anything out.
As best as I can tell, the memory is NOT overheating.
I DO NOT OVERCLOCK. I just put it on as a precaution. (I hate having
hardware die because of heat.)
Anyway, does anyone know if this is bad or good or just garbage?
Trever
On Thu, 2001-12-27 at 20:57, Trever L. Adams wrote:
> Ok, I had read several reviews of the Soyo Dragon Plus saying it was
> great and stable with Linux (kt266a based board).
>
> I have a Micron 256 Meg DDR DIMM in my system. With my Permedia 2 video
> card and my hard drives (and every built in thing turned off and all
> other components not mentioned removed) the system crashes at boot if I
> let Linux use all 256 Meg. If I say mem=240M it works fine (as far as I
> have seen). If I say anything over 240M, either it hangs when trying to
> print out the partition table check on boot, or it hangs in the SCSI
> card driver for my Symbios 876 based card (if it is in... maybe if it is
> out, didn't check).
>
I have a single 512 meg DDR DIMM and have not experienced the problem
you are.
> test, around 9 passes I believe, the tests passed with no problems. My
> system hung around 8 hours later with all keyboard LED lights on, it
> rebooted and started running the test again. The keyboard stayed hung
> until power was physically removed from the computer AND keyboard was
> unplugged and plugged back in.
>
Just to relate another lockup mystery with the K7 Soyo Dragon Plus,
after install it would lockup within 3-20 minutes repeatedly under
2.4.16, 2.4.9, and 2.4.2. I messed around in the bios until I mangaged
to get most of the cards on their own interrupts, still locked hard.
The only way I was able to get the system stable was to remove the 2
3c905 (one was a straight 905, one was a 905C-TXM) from the system. I
replaced them with a 3c590 and its been stable ever since.
Ryan Butler
[email protected]
Thank you to all who have answered. It appears that I have a memory
problem, even though it passes the memcheck 98 tests repeatedly.
Thank you again for the quick help and wonderful kernel you all provide.
Trever Adams