Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 11:57:44 +0100 From: Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: FreeBSD Questions <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>, FreeBSD Hackers <hackers@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Does FreeBSD have a problem with some AMD processors? Message-ID: <20011228115744.A1908@tisys.org> In-Reply-To: <20011228181009.F95692@monorchid.lemis.com>; from grog@lemis.com on Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 06:10:09PM %2B1030 References: <20011228181009.F95692@monorchid.lemis.com>
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On Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 06:10:09PM +1030, Greg Lehey stood up and spoke: > I've been using AMD processors almost exclusively in my main work > machines for over 4 years, and I've been very happy with them. I'm > currently running a K6/233, a K6/333, an Athlon 750, a Duron 850 and > an Athlon XP 1700. Last August, though, I bought a machine which gave > me a lot of trouble, the Duron 850 mentioned above. I found that it > would freeze for no apparent reason. I established that it wasn't the > memory by taking the memory of another machine and running it like > that; it made no difference. I ended up also changing the motherboard > and the processor, but the hangs continued. I could expect a hang > within 8 hours when doing 'make release' Using a Duron processor, it is likely that you have the 686B as a Southbridge. I've read a little about the problem with that Southbridge yesterday, and indeed, the machine locking up is one thing that has been reported in conjunction with that chip (although the information on most websites deal with the bahavior of the Southbridge under Windows...) Another thing I read is that for a short time, VIA obviously shipped a few faulty Southbridges that would not work properly except if their core voltage gets increased by avout 0.5 V or something. It's been said that these chips were only sold to OEMs and not landed in boards that were actually sold to customers directly, but who knows! Generally, I've also been using AMD for many years. I think their processors are quite good, but the folks making the chipsets and mainboards are - well - sometimes plain idiots. A lot of stories about problems with Socket A boards can be found all over the web. Here's what I've been through earlier this year: I bought an AMD Athlon 1000 Mhz and a Chaintech board. After assembling the stuff, it just didn't work. Nothing. So I went to the place of purchase and got my mainboard replaced (I kept the CPU). After reassembling my machine with the new board, it *would* work, but after three hours, it would suddenly reboot, and then reboot over and over again when the BIOS passes control to the operating system. After three such reboots, I turned the machine off, and were not able to turn it on again. It just sat there, totally dead. I then got my board exchanged a second time, and the new board's been running fine ever since then. Now, I have found a lot of similar stories on the web. I guess some mainboard manufacturer's (and even VIA as a chipset manufacturer) seem to care very little about quality assurance. That's actually sad: AMD's best processors aren't worth a dime if the components they depend on are cheap crap. As a side note: I have bought numeros board from Epox and never had a single problem with them, so in my opionion, Epox (together with ASUS) is probably one of the companies I would recommend people to buy boards from, but Chaintech and other cheapies should probably be avoided... Greetings Nils -- Nils Holland Ti Systems - FreeBSD in Tiddische, Germany http://www.tisys.org * nils@tisys.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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