Processor or Motherboard failure :?: Pl. help

shankar · Sun Sep 15, 2002 5:27 pm

Hi,
I've a Soyo EMA+ motherboard with a AMDK6-2 450MHz processor. Recently, Windows 98 and Linux both crashed and I wanted to put it back together.
Last week, I upgraded memory(256 MB from crucial tech. for EMA+) and BIOS( from Soyo).
I repartitioned and reformatted the hard drive to install Windows 98 and had a hard time doing it.
The installation used to crash in the middle. After messing with the BIOS settings, I was able to finally install Windows.
Before I started the installation, I disabled CPU internal cache, UDMA and virus protection options(courtesy: microsoft FAQ ).
The installation took a long time, obviously but completed successfully.

The system comes up but it is kind of very slow because the internal cache is disabled. If I enable cache, the OS does not load.

Enabling the other options UDMA/virus protection seems to be fine.

So, I thought this could be a processor problem. Could the processor be dying ? Or, could it be the motherboard?
Thanks in advance.

Sun Sep 15, 2002 5:47 pm

First check the RAM http://www.goldmemory.cz - it might be bad.

shankar · Sun Sep 15, 2002 5:56 pm

I'm positive the memory is good. I bought it from crucial technologies specifically for my motherboard last week and it seems to works fine.

The problem I'm seeing is with respect to the BIOS SETTINGS.

Remember, that I could not even install windows 98 before disabling this option.

As soon as I enable the CPU internal cache, system won't boot.
My question again is :
If turning on the cache causes this problem, does this symptom indicate
1) the processor is dying? OR
2) the Chipsets on the motherboard have problems?

Thanks.

Sun Sep 15, 2002 6:12 pm

Try leaving CPU internal cache enabled but disable external (L2) cache. Then run GoldMemory test. If you get memory errors, most probably the RAM is bad. If you don't, the L2 cache is bad.

Mon Sep 16, 2002 2:19 pm

Rainbow -

As far as you know, does GoldMemory enable/disable the caches like MemTest86 does??

shankar · Mon Sep 16, 2002 4:51 pm

I'll try that later today.
Thanks.

Mon Sep 16, 2002 7:42 pm

GoldMemory does not enable/disable anything.

Tue Sep 17, 2002 2:37 pm

OK Rainbow...

But you would prefer GM over MemTest86? You can PM me on this so's not to muddle shankar's problem...unless you care to discuss it here...

shankar · Thu Sep 19, 2002 12:18 am

I disabled the external cache with the internal cache enabled. The system came ON but slow.

When I disabled both the internal and external caches the system comes up but extremely slow, obviously.

When I enable both the caches now, the system comes up(it never used to when I first started this thread).

But if I shutdown and start it up, SCANDISK always comes on complaining that I did shutdown the system properly, which is not true!
The system comes up, though.

However, this syptom is not seen if I just restart the system!

Thanks.
Shankar

Thu Sep 19, 2002 12:42 am

You need to install an update to fix Windows 98 shutdown bug with fast CPUs and HDDs - the problem is that the power is turned off before all data from HDD cache are written to the disk, resulting in ScanDisk after powering up.

shankar · Sat Sep 28, 2002 3:48 pm

I installed the patch and that seems to have fixed the problem.

However, my PC was not as stable as before. It crashed(not seemed like external memory problems) number of times when I was logged on to the internet and so I decided to buy a new 500 MHz processor which seems to have cured the initially reported problem of having to disable the internal cache on the old 450 MHz. Also, added more cooling fans to keep the box cooler.
It seems to be much much better and have not seen any crashes in a week even with multiple applications open.
Wish this PC lasts for atleast a couple more years.

Thanks guys for your help.

Shankar