I'm trying to set up a new system, but have run into problems. The hardware setup is as follows: MSI KT6 Delta motherboard (VIA KT600) AMD Athlon 2600+ Barton TwinMOS 2GB Dual Channel kit (2 x M2GA016A-TT) Compaq Smart Array 3200 SCSI Raid DVD Reader My problems starts during installation, I've tried SLES9, SuSE Pro 9.1 and 9.2, all three versions does somewhere during the installation with a kernel panic. When I do an installation with another memory, one Kingston HyperX 512MB module, everything workes fine. Naturally I suspected memory errors, so I ran 25 loops with Memtest86+ v1.5 on the TwinMOS memories, of course no errors at all. Could the problem be that the MSI motherboard somehow can't handle the TwinMOS 2GB setup? If so, what recommendations for another mobo can you people give me? Anders Norrbring
Could the problem be that the MSI motherboard somehow can't handle the TwinMOS 2GB setup? If so, what recommendations for another mobo can you people give me?
I've never used that particular board but I've had good luck with MSI boards in the past. Did you check on MSI's site to see if the TwinMOS RAM is supported? MSI gives a detailed list of acceptable RAM for it's boards. You may also need to adjust the RAM settings in BIOS. MSI warns that the default RAM setting may not work for all RAM and they allow detailed RAM configuration. The RAM manufacturer may have recommended settings you can use for this. Jeff
Could the problem be that the MSI motherboard somehow can't handle the TwinMOS 2GB setup? If so, what recommendations for another mobo can you people give me?
I've never used that particular board but I've had good luck with MSI boards in the past. Did you check on MSI's site to see if the TwinMOS RAM is supported? MSI gives a detailed list of acceptable RAM for it's boards. You may also need to adjust the RAM settings in BIOS. MSI warns that the default RAM setting may not work for all RAM and they allow detailed RAM configuration. The RAM manufacturer may have recommended settings you can use for this.
The MSI board states that: "Note: PC3200 (DDR400) maximum 4 banks only." How would I know how many banks there is? I'll do some experimenting with lower memory speeds, like setting it to 266MHz instead of 400MHz. A cheap and quick fix is a newer mobo, perhaps with Nvidia's nForce2 chipset, apparently it's more tolerant with memories? Anders.
The MSI board states that: "Note: PC3200 (DDR400) maximum 4 banks only." How would I know how many banks there is?
You need to get that spec from the RAM manufacture. Most Kingston RAM uses 4 banks.
I'll do some experimenting with lower memory speeds, like setting it to 266MHz instead of 400MHz. A cheap and quick fix is a newer mobo, perhaps with Nvidia's nForce2 chipset, apparently it's more tolerant with memories?
A word of caution with RAM tuning. It's easy to enter a setting that makes the board completely unbootable which then requires a BIOS reset (don't even ask how I learned this) :-p Jeff
The MSI board states that: "Note: PC3200 (DDR400) maximum 4 banks only." How would I know how many banks there is?
You need to get that spec from the RAM manufacture. Most Kingston RAM uses 4 banks.
I'll do some experimenting with lower memory speeds, like setting it to 266MHz instead of 400MHz. A cheap and quick fix is a newer mobo,
perhaps
with Nvidia's nForce2 chipset, apparently it's more tolerant with memories?
A word of caution with RAM tuning. It's easy to enter a setting that makes the board completely unbootable which then requires a BIOS reset (don't even ask how I learned this) :-p
Yeah.. I know that.. ;) The weird thing is that Memtest86+ verifies every bit of memory as correct, but still the Linux installer barfes with a Kernel panic at some point. I'm baffled. Anders.
On Friday 11 February 2005 09:55 am, Anders Norrbring wrote:
The MSI board states that: "Note: PC3200 (DDR400) maximum 4 banks only." How would I know how many banks there is?
You need to get that spec from the RAM manufacture. Most Kingston RAM uses 4 banks.
I'll do some experimenting with lower memory speeds, like setting it to 266MHz instead of 400MHz. A cheap and quick fix is a newer mobo,
perhaps
with Nvidia's nForce2 chipset, apparently it's more tolerant with
memories?
A word of caution with RAM tuning. It's easy to enter a setting that makes the board completely unbootable which then requires a BIOS reset (don't even ask how I learned this) :-p
Yeah.. I know that.. ;) The weird thing is that Memtest86+ verifies every bit of memory as correct, but still the Linux installer barfes with a Kernel panic at some point. I'm baffled.
Anders. ==========
Anders, You can also check with the memory maker for your ram. They should be able to tell you whether the ram is usable in that motherboard/chipset. From what you have described, it appears that the memory is not suitable, since a single stick of 512Mb works without problems. I don't remember if you mentioned the newer ram was dual channel or not, but I'm pretty sure that chipset will not work with dual channel ram. Check with the memory manufacturer, they can better tell you what their ram will work with. Oh, each memory slot is divided into two banks, so you have two memory slots, thus 4 banks of memory. Lee -- --- KMail v1.7.2 --- SuSE Linux Pro v9.2 --- Registered Linux User #225206 "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." ...Mark Twain
The MSI board states that: "Note: PC3200 (DDR400) maximum 4 banks only." How would I know how many banks there is?
You need to get that spec from the RAM manufacture. Most Kingston RAM uses 4 banks.
I'll do some experimenting with lower memory speeds, like setting it to 266MHz instead of 400MHz. A cheap and quick fix is a newer mobo,
perhaps
with Nvidia's nForce2 chipset, apparently it's more tolerant with
memories?
A word of caution with RAM tuning. It's easy to enter a setting that makes the board completely unbootable which then requires a BIOS reset (don't even ask how I learned this) :-p
Yeah.. I know that.. ;) The weird thing is that Memtest86+ verifies every bit of memory as correct, but still the Linux installer barfes with a Kernel panic at some point. I'm baffled.
Anders. ==========
Anders, You can also check with the memory maker for your ram. They should be able to tell you whether the ram is usable in that motherboard/chipset. From what you have described, it appears that the memory is not suitable, since a single stick of 512Mb works without problems. I don't remember if you mentioned the newer ram was dual channel or not, but I'm pretty sure that chipset will not work with dual channel ram.
Check with the memory manufacturer, they can better tell you what their ram will work with. Oh, each memory slot is divided into two banks, so you have two memory slots, thus 4 banks of memory.
Lee
The MSI info say that I should be able to use Dual Channel setup, but I'll do some testing with a lower memory frequency to see if that helps.. Anders.
Anders Norrbring schrieb:
Could the problem be that the MSI motherboard somehow can't handle the TwinMOS 2GB setup? If so, what recommendations for another mobo can you people give me?
You may want to check whether msi provides a bios update to fix ram problems. The Polarizer polarizers at its best http://www.codixx.de/polarizer.html
On Friday, February 11, 2005 08:29 am, Anders Norrbring wrote:
My problems starts during installation, I've tried SLES9, SuSE Pro 9.1 and 9.2, all three versions does somewhere during the installation with a kernel panic.
When I do an installation with another memory, one Kingston HyperX 512MB module, everything workes fine.
Anders, The memory may be fine, but your motherboard may have an issue. I would (in order): 1. Install the latest BIOS update for your motherboard. After the install, use the BIOS setup routine to configure ALL of the "Default" settings, then go back and make any changes necessary to accommodate your other hardware. 1a. Check your mobo manual regarding installing additional RAM, there are sometimes specific requirements about which slots to populate, in which order, and possibly BIOS interleaving settings to tweak. 2. Change the BIOS settings to use manual memory configurations, and make them very conservative (e.g., if the memory is CL2, use CL3 for a wait state). Some Phoenix BIOSs also have a "performance" option, usually this is set by default to "Optimal" but a more conservative setting is "Normal". 3. Reduce the FSB speed. I have an old Asus A7V133 that runs fine with one 512MB stick at a 133 MHz FSB, but when I put a second stick in I get lockups unless I knock the FSB down to 100MHz. And the memory is from Crucial. Hope this helps, Mark -- _________________________________________________________ A Message From... L. Mark Stone Reliable Networks of Maine, LLC "We manage your network so you can manage your business." 477 Congress Street Portland, ME 04101 Tel: (207) 772-5678 Web: http://www.rnome.com
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3. Reduce the FSB speed. I have an old Asus A7V133 that runs fine with one 512MB stick at a 133 MHz FSB, but when I put a second stick in I get lockups unless I knock the FSB down to 100MHz. And the memory is from Crucial.
Hope this helps, Mark
I have this same MoBo. Bank 2 is dead on all of them, apparently. I read the forums and had to put the 2 512Mb sticks in slots 1 and 3 before it would read and use all the memory. Ed Harrison SuSE 9.1, Kernel 2.6.9-vanilla PolarBar Mailer 1.25a
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