Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 16:00:02 -0800 From: J.C. Roberts <unknown@abac.com> To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Subject: SRM memtest Message-ID: <tcnup15n4j9oa5g22cmodbhu2k8aihdlpv@4ax.com>
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I noticed something odd on an Alpha Personal Workstation 433 that I got off of eBay. The ARC/AlphaBIOS would occasionally report 256MB rather than the usual 384MB. This weirdness was intermittent. I have reseated everything in the system to make sure there are no connection/connector issues but I think it would be prudent to actually test the memory itself. I kicked the system into SRM Console mode and I've been trying to run memtest to no avail. I believe *I* am the real problem since I don't know what the heck I'm doing in SRM in spite of the fact that I've read the SRM Console user guide. http://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/semiconductor/literature/srmcons.= pdf The SRM version is v7.2-1 Mar 6, 2000 Running even the most simple tests seems to basically lock up the system since the command fails to ever exit even if you let it run for a couple hours to try completing two passes. >>> memtest -rb -p 2 If you background the memtest process and run show_status, it seems to pass at least once? >>> memtest -rb -p 2 & >>> show_status ID Program Device Pass Hard/Soft Written Read -------- --------- -------- ------ ----------- --------- ------ 00000001 idle system 0 0 0 0 0=20 0000004F memtest memory 1 0 0 0 0=20 Using >>>kill_diags afterwards only locks up the system. I've searched around for more detailed instructions on the web. I found a cryptic post to the DebianAlpha list http://lists.debian.org/debian-alpha/2004/11/msg00064.html It mentions using >>>dynamic -r to figure out values to use with memtest switches but I still don't understand what was meant. The whole "zone" thing is a mystery. Worse yet, the SRM Console user guide doesn't even mention "dynamic" as a command and the man/help pages in the SRM itself are useless. I've reduced the system memory to 128MB (two DIMS) so I can test the pairs and by accident I figured out which pair is bad (i.e. running "dynamic -h" by mistake resulted in errors with one pair). When you guys use memtest properly, how do you do it? Thanks, JCR
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