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First post, by Sphere478

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In fact I’m having trouble with basically any operating system I try.
System specs: Dual socket 7 build

To make it simple let’s talk about 2k/xp and I’ve tried many isos and different cds and versions (32 bit of course)
I’ve tried everything I can think of, if I run setup it usually gets anout half way through the blue part of setup and stalls around 50% but how it does it is weird. It starts off copying fast then slows down to a crawl and by the time it gets around 50% it stops and after a few hours of sitting there says can’t read the file and it is a different file every time again, tried multiple cds, multiple drives even used sata and pata doesn’t appear to be drive related or iso related
I’ve also tried several different controller cards and hard drive setups it seems to be board related, also tried removing all cards except video and mass storage and tried different video cards all no effect.

So something seems to be up with the board.
I’m wondering if it’s a bios setting

I tried single and dual processor at one point but I could try again. Even tried a k6 which worked but still no go.

Also thought it may be memory so I pulled out 4 of the 6 sicks and still no go.

Idk what to make of it..

Here are my bios screens. Any suggestions on bios settings to try?

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Last edited by Sphere478 on 2021-02-23, 03:34. Edited 1 time in total.

Sphere's PCB projects.
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Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
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SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
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Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 1 of 7, by Sphere478

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Bios

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Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 2 of 7, by Jorpho

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Have you tried doing something other than installing Windows? Like installing Linux, or even just doing a surface scan of your hard drive using scandisk or another utility?

Reply 3 of 7, by Sphere478

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Jorpho wrote on 2021-02-23, 03:52:

Have you tried doing something other than installing Windows? Like installing Linux, or even just doing a surface scan of your hard drive using scandisk or another utility?

in fact I took the same cd and hard drive and stuck it in another computer and it copied over just fine. But when I moved the hard drive back it hangs on boot.

Yes I have tried many operating systems. See the link in above post

This time I’m trying 32mb simms instead of the 128mb simms in a theory that it doesn’t like the 128mb simms

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 5 of 7, by Sphere478

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Jorpho wrote on 2021-02-23, 05:31:

Okay, but what about the surface scan, then? Maybe the board is consistently failing when trying to access one particular sector for some reason.

I have tried different hard drives that have worked before and after in other conputers.

One of the many previous tests I have done is tried 32mb simms.

It did not work, install failed when I tried though I don’t remember the exact failure.

Today I tried that test again. Windows now installs.

It seems I had some other problem back then probably the glitchy onboard ide not liking my 120gb drive or windows not liking the sil0680 I forget.

But anyway whatever the error was back then I appear to have solved that one and now Today I solved the final error by not using the 128mb simms.

Unfortunately this probably means that I will have to use 64mb simms to get to 512mb unless someone has any ideas? Or maybe there is a memory setting I need to try? Or maybe I need 32 chip 128mb simms? Or simm stackers?

768mb passes memtest and posts and starts to boot but then the problems start.

But I’m kinda suspecting this is the same thing repoman11 ran into on his tx board where I can get 768mb to detect and run but not install or boot.

He was able to get 384 in his 256mb offical max tx, this is a hx which is supposed to be 512mb max. But what threw me was the previous failed 32mb simm test and the fact that only two 128s still failed.

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 6 of 7, by Jorpho

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Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-23, 05:51:
Jorpho wrote on 2021-02-23, 05:31:

Okay, but what about the surface scan, then? Maybe the board is consistently failing when trying to access one particular sector for some reason.

I have tried different hard drives that have worked before and after in other conputers.

Yes, you mentioned that already. I am not asking whether the hard drive is bad; I am asking if you can trigger the same sort of failure by doing something other than installing an OS. A surface scan while the drive is plugged into the board in question seems like a good candidate.

Unfortunately this probably means that I will have to use 64mb simms to get to 512mb unless someone has any ideas? Or maybe there is a memory setting I need to try? Or maybe I need 32 chip 128mb simms? Or simm stackers?

Have you looked at the motherboard manual?

Reply 7 of 7, by Sphere478

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Jorpho wrote on 2021-02-23, 15:23:
Yes, you mentioned that already. I am not asking whether the hard drive is bad; I am asking if you can trigger the same sort of […]
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Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-23, 05:51:
Jorpho wrote on 2021-02-23, 05:31:

Okay, but what about the surface scan, then? Maybe the board is consistently failing when trying to access one particular sector for some reason.

I have tried different hard drives that have worked before and after in other conputers.

Yes, you mentioned that already. I am not asking whether the hard drive is bad; I am asking if you can trigger the same sort of failure by doing something other than installing an OS. A surface scan while the drive is plugged into the board in question seems like a good candidate.

Unfortunately this probably means that I will have to use 64mb simms to get to 512mb unless someone has any ideas? Or maybe there is a memory setting I need to try? Or maybe I need 32 chip 128mb simms? Or simm stackers?

Have you looked at the motherboard manual?

Yeah, 128mb simms weren’t around when it was made.

I figured it out. The problem was two prong, first the motherboard while the first time I tried these simms only liked 6 of them in slots 3-8 with the updated bios it now likes them in slots 1-6 also. (As far as posting and memtest is concerned anyway). Also it only likes a max of 512 to be stable enough to boot windows. I’ve heard of this before it has something to do with when it trys to write above 512 it ends up writing to the 512 and memtest doesn’t detect this because the pattern is good so while 768 is recognized and seems stable in memtest it actually isn’t as I mentioned earlier the slots used also matter it needs to start with slot 1 and count up it seems to a max of 512.

Or... it is having trouble driving all of that memory and I need registered ram. But I think it’s likely just that it is mirroring back and erroring out or something like that. The next test I could do would be registered ram or combinations involving 64mb simms registered and non registered but I suspect they will all fail and only allow 512mb.

If anyone has some of these simms laying around though I encourage you to try it and let us all know.

As for your test since I appear to have figured the problem out and the system was stable over night so that appears confirmed.
I suspect enough copying or activity would likely cause the same error with your method as well but I have not run the test and now that it’s figured out there isn’t much point. Good idea though 😀

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)