Recently at work we've ran into problems using the P4 processors with 1MB L2 cache. To be more precise, the ones we're currently using are the 2.4a 533FSB 1MB cache and the 2.8e 800FSB 1MB cache processors. The systems we build generally consist of Supermicro or Intel boards using the Intel 865, 875 and 7210 chipsets. Whenever we install the 1MB cache processors, the system would not load memtest86 (v3.0 and v3.1a). Everytime it tries to boot it up, the system would automatically reboot. We have tried using various boards, various memory (including samsung, infineon, corsair, transcend, and a few CMTL pieces). As soon as we replace the processor with a different P4 chip with 512k cache (2.8c), memtest would load fine and run without any errors. Sometimes on the 7210 chipset boards memtest would reboot the system while trying to load about 3-5 times, and then finally load up and again run without any issues.
We've been contacting Supermicro tech support for over a month with the issue and they have been very helpful in trying to figure out a solution. They have been able to recreate the problem and actually tried compiling a new BIOS for us to try and use on one of the boards. The new BIOS did not help, however. They said they do not want to alter the existing BIOS any further without getting an answer back from Intel about what was changed with the 1MB cache processors that would cause this behavior. They fear that altering the BIOS now to make it work with the 1MB cache processors would cause conflicts with the previous 512k processors.
We went through well over 100 various pieces of memory (of all kinds of manufacturers) in the past weeks trying to find one that would run memtest with these processors. Sometimes we would find a piece or two that would work and we would order more of that memory thinking we found one that works. Of course, that is wishful thinking because the problem would surface again. We have tried loading Redhat 9.0, WindowsXP, Windows 2003 Server STD and Windows 2000 Server on various machines with the 1MB processors and they all seemed to be running OK, except for the Win2k Server machine (875P chipset) which locked up every few hours. We have replaced everything on that system - new motherboard, new hard drives, new processor, new power supply, new memory, all without any results. We then replaced the processor a third time, this time with a 2.8c (512k) CPU it stopped acting up. We tried contacting Intel today to see if they could help us, but they were very rude and denied any problems with the processors. After 30 minutes of arguing we simply hung up.
I'm hoping someone in this forum would have an idea of what may be going on, because we're running out of options and are considering not using the 1MB cache processors in the future machines.
Thanks in advance,
Roman
We've been contacting Supermicro tech support for over a month with the issue and they have been very helpful in trying to figure out a solution. They have been able to recreate the problem and actually tried compiling a new BIOS for us to try and use on one of the boards. The new BIOS did not help, however. They said they do not want to alter the existing BIOS any further without getting an answer back from Intel about what was changed with the 1MB cache processors that would cause this behavior. They fear that altering the BIOS now to make it work with the 1MB cache processors would cause conflicts with the previous 512k processors.
We went through well over 100 various pieces of memory (of all kinds of manufacturers) in the past weeks trying to find one that would run memtest with these processors. Sometimes we would find a piece or two that would work and we would order more of that memory thinking we found one that works. Of course, that is wishful thinking because the problem would surface again. We have tried loading Redhat 9.0, WindowsXP, Windows 2003 Server STD and Windows 2000 Server on various machines with the 1MB processors and they all seemed to be running OK, except for the Win2k Server machine (875P chipset) which locked up every few hours. We have replaced everything on that system - new motherboard, new hard drives, new processor, new power supply, new memory, all without any results. We then replaced the processor a third time, this time with a 2.8c (512k) CPU it stopped acting up. We tried contacting Intel today to see if they could help us, but they were very rude and denied any problems with the processors. After 30 minutes of arguing we simply hung up.
I'm hoping someone in this forum would have an idea of what may be going on, because we're running out of options and are considering not using the 1MB cache processors in the future machines.
Thanks in advance,
Roman
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