On Wed, 13 Jun 2007, Andrew Falanga wrote: > On 6/13/07, Ian Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:02:38 -0600 Andrew Falanga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > wrote: > > > > > a hard hang. Nothing worked. I could not even Alt+<num> to a > > > different pseudo terminal. The system just hard hanged. I rebooted > > > and tried the install again with the same result. > > > > At the same place? If so, I'd tend to suspect memory rather than cpu. > > No it did not stop at the same place. I still suspect memory versus > the cpu, especially considering that, apparently, there were several > generations of the K6. I didn't know this. For several years, I did > not have the time or money to play with hardware and therefore lost > touch with much of the hardware that was out there.
Andy, you're making me remember stuff I thought I'd about done with :) > > > I'm wondering if it could be hardware, specifically memory. I've > > > never seen a FreeBSD, OpenBSD or Linux (for that matter) hard hang on > > > program compilation apart from hardware problems. Also of particular > > [..] > > > System configuration is as follows: > > > > > > AMD K6 700mHz > > > 256mb RAM (PC 133) > > > 13gb HDD > > > > 700MHz? Please show us the line from your /var/run/dmesg.boot showing > > the exact cpu and clock. This will also indicate features & stepping I'm still curious .. > > That's a K6-2, though it doesn't say so there. From memory, the fastest > > ever K6-2 was ~550MHz, but people did tend to wildly overclock them .. 525MHz, on reflection. I built a box for a friend on a budget and went for the 450, which another friend had managed to screw up to about 600 with a huge heatsink and fan/s. These were Gigabyte mobos with 100MHz FSB - I see you've been pointed to wikipedia re that - and PC133 RAM, and both 'mine' are still rocking 8 years on, running standard spec .. I'm still rather awed to hear 700MHz though, especially when you say: > pretty sure this was never over clocked. It was the secretaries > computer of the church I attend. I'm working on remaking the system > into a web server as the secretary was just given a laptop. You'll need to find out the motherboard make/model and google up its manual to have any chance of resetting bus speed / clock divider and such. There's another whole trip about setting the cpu core voltage for different speeds; overclocking these beasts involved black magic to which whole websites were/are fanatically dedicated, gamer folks mostly. > > If you really are running it at 700MHz (at what bus speed setting?) then > > I'd treat it to a new heat sink with fresh thermal paste and a BIG fan. > > Ok, sounds good. I'll see what I can find for this CPU. Seeing you'll want to replace the no doubt well dried out thermal paste anyway, K6-2s are clearly marked with notional speed and model numbers. > > And sure it's best to run matched-speed memory. Your BIOS probably lets > > you play with wait states and such, but the basic PCI bus speed might be > > something weird if you've managed to crank the cpu up to 700MHz .. > > How do wait states relate to memory speed? Please enlighten me. I > have an idea, but I'm only theorizing, I'd like to know what it really > means. If it's more in depth than one would like to type in a > response, sending a link is fine. I learned quite a bit on the "Sig > 11" links given earlier. This is drifting well past getting FreeBSD to behave under load on it, but I googled "AMD K6 wait states" and got heaps of hits, including the above. Basically, wait states delay the processor long enough to read or write to comparatively slow memory devices; better to wait than burn. You mentioned later trying some 100MHz memory, but you'll either need a slower bus speed than 100MHz (or more / some wait states) for that, and would be better off finding more PC133 RAM. Dumpster diving, anyone? :) Cheers, Ian _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"