Unstable Tyan Thunder k7 w/ AMD 2400 MPs

[artsycs]

 

[artsycs]

Sorry for the blanks post... I'll fill in the details here...

Got a Tyan 2462 Dualy about a year ago and put in a pair of 1800XPs ... and a Gig of memory and it worked fine with the old BIOS.

Tried to put in an AIW ATI 9700 board and that was when the trouble started.

In an attempt to get the new video board to work I went through all the usuall Bios upgrades and driver upgrades.... which ultimatley killed the MB because the new BIOS checks for MP processors. So now that it disabled one of my CPUs, I upgraded the CPUs to AMD 2400 MPs.

This is when the instability started. The machine just stops... the hard drive makes a terrible sound... like the head is running from end stop to end stop.... and the light just stays on. The screen goes blank and the keyboard is dead. In fact... even the power button doesn't work and I have to yank the plug out and plug it back in before it will do anything anymore.

I have tried running on only one CPU... and was able to reload the OS onto a "spare" HD. Put the other CPU back in... and seemed to work fine... left it on for a couple days... everything all set... ( didn't really have it do anything... jsut sit there with a fresh OS )

So then I wanted to see what it could do... so I downloaded WinBench 99 to get some performance numbers. I could tell it wasn't much faster then when it had 1800s in it... but wanted some numbers.

Then the instabiliy started again. Seemed to lock up everything I told it to restart. So I had to shut it down... and then start it. But then... it just starting locking up again for no explained reason.

I feel like I've gone through all the software options and that it must be a ardware issue. But I am not sure.

Could someone out there give me a list of things to check that might uncover this bizarre instability.... I call it bizarre cause I can't attribute it to anything.

I am going to install the Tyan monitoring tools... to see if they can tell me anything.

Thanks
Art

 

[mikeg]

What OS are you using? What other hardware do you have running on the system? Did you disable the onboard video? Did you also check to see that its not your memory? Give more details plz. Ive got on of these boards with a pair of 1700s moded to run at 2400 speeds and it is stable as any other system. Just to think of it does the PS have enough power to power all that hardware? I have heard of single CPU system running unstable because of the PS not providing enough current on the 12v rail. Just some of my thoughts
Mike