Re: Problems with AMD64 and 8 GB RAM? (solved)
On Friday, 8 April 2005 at 13:04:18 -0700, David O'Brien wrote: > On Tue, Apr 05, 2005 at 10:09:11AM +0930, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: >> The moral of the story is, I suppose, "don't buy the MSI K8T >> Master2-FAR". I was warned about the motherboard before I bought it, > > WHY?? There is nothing wrong with that motherboard -- I have three of > them. You are at fault for trying to treat a consumer desktop 2P mobo as > a high-end server one. "You are at fault for trying to used a mobo in an advertised configuration". Sorry, David. If a board doesn't perform as advertised, it's inferior. If you can find a way to work around, fine. I can too, and I have done. But the ability to find a workaround for a deficiency is no reason to say "There is nothing wrong with that motherboard". > People do not run 2GB DIMM's in an MSI K8T Master2-FAR. Indeed. You can't. > The MSI K8T Master2-FAR works fine with 1GB DIMM's. Where on MSI's > website did they state 2GB double-stacked DIMM's were supported? I can't be bothered to search their web site. It's on page 2-8 of the instructions supplied with the motherboard (document G52-S9130X3, version 1.2). Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers. pgpOjAHZUNWP1.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Problems with AMD64 and 8 GB RAM? (solved)
On Fri, 2005-04-08 at 13:04 -0700, David O'Brien wrote: > The MSI K8T Master2-FAR works fine with 1GB DIMM's. Where on MSI's > website did they state 2GB double-stacked DIMM's were supported? I haven't been following the discussion, but if we're talking about the MSI K8T Master2-FAR, one can read the following from MSI's website: " • Supports DIMM sizes from 64MB (128Mb x 16 DRAMs) to 2GB. • Supports 4 DDR DIMMs up to 8GB (Registered Memory only) " http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/server/svr/pro_svr_detail.php?UID=484 :-) -- Joel ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Problems with AMD64 and 8 GB RAM? (solved)
On Tue, Apr 05, 2005 at 10:09:11AM +0930, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > The moral of the story is, I suppose, "don't buy the MSI K8T > Master2-FAR". I was warned about the motherboard before I bought it, WHY?? There is nothing wrong with that motherboard -- I have three of them. You are at fault for trying to treat a consumer desktop 2P mobo as a high-end server one. People do not run 2GB DIMM's in an MSI K8T Master2-FAR. If you want >4GB RAM get an eATX 4+4 DIMM configuration motherboard from Tyan or Iwill. The MSI K8T Master2-FAR works fine with 1GB DIMM's. Where on MSI's website did they state 2GB double-stacked DIMM's were supported? -- -- David ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Problems with AMD64 and 8 GB RAM? (solved)
This may not be related at all, but I've been following this thread and at certain times I wanted to drop in and stress that things like pci express cards should be re-inserted after the RAM has been (re)inserted. Perhaps the BIOSes are really that stupid that they only rely on memory adresses assigned by when you plugged in what. Anyway, it may not matter at all for you but knowing the kind of inquiring mind you have, and considering that this was one of the "sorta-would-it-matter" things hanging over this discussion, perhaps it's a point of interest also. This is how I understand it: FreeBSD 5.4-PRERELEASE #0: Fri Apr 1 01:16:43 CEST 2005 root@:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.40GHz (3400.12-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0xf34 Stepping = 4 Features=0xbfebfbff Hyperthreading: 2 logical CPUs real memory = 1071837184 (1022 MB) avail memory = 1035120640 (987 MB) mptable_probe: MP Config Table has bad signature: \M^?\M^?\M^?\M^? ACPI APIC Table: [part of dmesg with this board] I have a rather new uniprocessor Intel board and the manual specifically stressed (in the light of the 4 BG limit and the &*^*&^:-o things BIOSes might do to overcome that -- the bios will want to have that reserved adress pool just below the 4 GB and depending on the bios it can map it above 4GB perhaps) that any pci express cards (my graphics card) must be inserted AFTER the RAM. Also, about the pairing of DDR2 RAM: you must alight the ram in both channels in principle (that is both in A not B), but if you don't it works if you have the same totals. Again, mobo docs should have all the quirky rules. I didn't want to disturb the discussion but in retrospective, I feel that perhaps some of these points might matter. My observations are on i386 not amd64 but the same kind of logic seems to apply AFAICT. HTH, (in retrospective of course ;-) Dan ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Problems with AMD64 and 8 GB RAM? (solved)
On Thursday, 31 March 2005 at 10:59:02 -0800, David O'Brien wrote: > On Thu, Mar 31, 2005 at 11:24:29AM +0930, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: >> On Thursday, 31 March 2005 at 10:32:33 +0930, Daniel O'Connor wrote: >>> On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:14, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > Have you run sysutils/memtest86 with the 8 GB? Heh. Difficult when the system doesn't run. >>> >>> You could try http://www.memtest86.com although that doesn't do >4Gb >> :( >> >> I'm pretty sure it's not the memory. I've tried each pair >> individually, and it's only when they're both in there together that >> it's a problem. And yes, I've tried them in each pair of slots. > > You have a dual-channel memory controller. If you insert one DIMM you > perform 64-bit data accesses. If you install DIMM's in pairs (making > sure you're using the right "paired" sockets), you perform 128-bit data > accesses. Thus your access pattern is different between these two > situations. I'm highly suspious that you can us 4x2GB DIMM's with out > knowing the exact part number. Don't forget 2GB DIMM's are > double-stacked and thus look like double the electrical bus loads. The > same is true for older 1GB DIMM's. This looks like it's the issue. > Install all the memory you would like to use into your motherboard, > download memtest86+ version 1.40 from http://www.memtest.org, dd to > floppy or burn the ISO, and report back your findings from running > it. Done that. It was quite revealing. This particular motherboard and BIOS supply either "ECC off" or "ECC in chip kill mode". Mine was off, and I got many errors. With 4 GB (any two chips) and chip kill mode enabled, I ran memtest86+ for about 18 hours and got about 1 ECC error per second. With 8 GB, with or without chip kill, neither FreeBSD, memtest86+ nor Linux run reliably: memtest86+ spontaneously reboots every 5 minutes or so. I borrowed this memory to test the motherboard, and it's going back this week anyway. I now have my own memory :-(all 1 GB of it), and it tests perfectly. The memory I had the trouble with works perfectly in the machine for which it was purchased, so it does indeed look like an electrical loading problem. The moral of the story is, I suppose, "don't buy the MSI K8T Master2-FAR". I was warned about the motherboard before I bought it, but at the time it was the only game in town. Now I know of other places with (hopefully) better boards. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers. pgpTvRjcpU4Il.pgp Description: PGP signature
