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Intel processor vs Via circuits ?

Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2003 1:27 am
by lelle
Hi there !
My system : PentiumII 440BX slot1 400MHz at 100MHz fsb.
FIC KA31 mobo with VIA. Bios Award QN411.
128 MB Spectec 133 (tested OK).
The question is: I have to disable "external cache" in setup, then the computer is running OK. No hangs, no failure at all, and it´s NOT slow.
Should be ? If I try to use the computer with external cache on, it only works in non-graphic mode. It´s impossible to do a complete installation of W98, Mandrake, Suse, RedHat. Linux get kernel panic, and Windows tells me about "error writing AUX". The only exeption was an experiment with W95a. It wanted to be installed, and worked fine.
Well, why complain ? The computer works fine, I run w98se with no problems. I´m just very curious. Is ext.cache really disabled ? Is Intel not compatibel with this mobo ? Are there a cache on the mobo ?
Finally, before my discovery about ext cache I tried a lot of tricks. Also installing 4in1, in protected mode. Cannot try XP for the moment due to lack of harddisk-space.
Waiting for some suggestions or answers !
Lelle

Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2003 9:22 pm
by Rainbow
Looks like the L2 cache on your CPU is bad.

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2003 12:38 pm
by lelle
Thanks for answering !
You suggest a bad L2, well -bad or not bad-, it´s set to OFF in setup.
The computer should behave like a 286 20MHz, but it works fine.
One more little thing: English is not my first language. In my original
message I wrote "protected mode", instead of failsafe mode.
Lelle

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2003 8:27 pm
by Rainbow
No, disabling external (L2) cache is not a big performance loss. The first Celerons CPUs (266, 300) had no L2 cache. Internal cache is the thing that should be never disabled - this causes the system to be slow and almost useless.