Hello,

My system has a Procomp BVK1A mainboard sporting one of those dreaded VIA KX133 
chipsets. I have been a virtual lurker, monitoring the archives, and have heard plenty 
of horror stories about this chipset, but let me make clear that this board was 
rock-solid for the better part of a year. It would go for weeks without a power-off or 
reboot. People would look at me funny, and ask, "Doesn't your computer *crash*?" (Of 
course not; it runs Linux!)

Then, a couple of months ago, I installed 2.4.4. And that, as Stevie B. once said, was 
where the heartache began.

Every time I use X, given sufficient time (between 15 minutes and 24 hours), the 
system would freeze. Solid. I haven't tried the Magic SysRq key, but heck, my CapsLock 
won't even go on and off. Usually it takes a while but the problem seems to be 
exacerbated by heavy-load, graphics-intensive applications (GIMP and Mozilla come to 
mind). Console mode seems to run okay, but in the Real World sometimes a GUI is 
necessary.

That's not the half of it. Sometimes, Windows freezes in identical fashion. I've even 
experienced it occasionally under NetBSD, but that usually takes quite a long while. 
I've tried 2.4.4, 2.4.5, several AC patches to 2.4.5, then I went back and tried 
2.4.1. I've compiled it for an Athlon, a PII, a Pentium, and a 486. I suspected the 
AGPGART and DRI drivers and so I unloaded those as well. I'm typing this message to 
you under kernel 2.2.19. I am still experiencing freezes. Remember, this box was 
incredibly stable before 2.4.4 and I really don't want to give up this mainboard and 
CPU; it's got some nice things (like 2 serial ports!) that are hard to find anymore.

The CPU is not overclocked and I have ruled out cooling problems (the fans hum nicely 
at top speed). I was wondering if anyone knew what's going on, and if there's some 
patch I need to apply. Did I tickle some sort of schroedinbug in the chipset that was 
kind of hiding there, waiting to make things fail? If anyone has any answers, please 
CC me personally. Thanks for all your time and patience.
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Read <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Unix Code Artist, Anime Fan, Really Cool Guy

_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

Reply via email to