Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:19:41 -0700 From: Garrett Cooper <youshi10@u.washington.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Making a L440GX+ work (was "Trying to revive a server... AIC-7896 freezes pre-POST completion") Message-ID: <44908B7D.6000703@u.washington.edu> In-Reply-To: <44908B2F.6070103@u.washington.edu> References: <448F9A87.3070809@u.washington.edu> <6.0.0.22.2.20060614103744.0271cf10@mail.computinginnovations.com> <44907122.8000801@u.washington.edu> <6.0.0.22.2.20060614164104.026ac018@mail.computinginnovations.com> <44908B2F.6070103@u.washington.edu>
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Garrett Cooper wrote: > Derek Ragona wrote: >> The halt could be anything from bad RAM, or other IRQ issues. This >> begs the question as to why this board is not in use? >> >> You should be able to update the BIOS from a floppy or cd-rom boot >> disk. You can take your pick at bootdisk.org >> >> The general rule with ram is you can run faster ram than you need, >> just usually wastes money that faster RAM costs. But speed isn't the >> only issue with ram, some are ECC or non-ECC, plus the CAS timing can >> be different. So your RAM while it seems to work,may not be quite right. >> >> -Derek >> >> >> >> At 03:27 PM 6/14/2006, Garrett Cooper wrote: >>> Derek Ragona wrote: >>>> IF you can find the documentation for the motherboard, see if there >>>> is a reset jumper. That jumper should reset the BIOS to factory >>>> defaults to allow it to get through the post and into setup. Some >>>> motherboards actually take you into setup with the jumper moved to >>>> reset bad configurations. >>>> Also, unplug any cards and drives, leave the system board with just >>>> ram and cpu and video (unless it is built in) until you get it >>>> configured. >>>> -Derek >>>> >>>> At 12:11 AM 6/14/2006, Garrett Cooper wrote: >>>>> Hello again all, >>>>> I know this isn't a FreeBSD question really, but I just >>>>> started up a motherboard with onboard SCSI (Adaptec AIC-7896), and >>>>> for some odd reason it freezes pre-POST before it attempts to boot >>>>> and there isn't any way where I can get into the BIOS to change the >>>>> settings it seems. Does anyone know how I can maybe disable the >>>>> onboard SCSI controller since it appears to hang while detecting >>>>> disks? >>>>> Thanks a million! >>>>> -Garrett >>> >>> Thanks all for the help. It turns out after a bit of >>> researching and seeing some numbers on boot, I was able to find the >>> documentation for the motherboard. It's an L440GX+ motherboard which >>> does appear to still work properly, but here's the clincher. I read >>> that the processors I have installed are compatible (2xP3 600E CPUs), >>> _but_ only if the BIOS is updated past a particular version and I >>> don't know if that is true or not. Plus I don't know what is causing >>> the thing to halt because it appears to work on occasion--got the >>> system to boot once but halted it since I couldn't get into the BIOS >>> and change the settings. I cleared the CMOS--both by setting the >>> jumper and removing the battery, and all it appears to have done >>> superficially is make the original splash screen come up during boot. >>> So, my question is has anyone experienced anything like this >>> and if so how did you solve this problem, or does anyone know how to >>> fix this situation apart from (maybe) installing Windows and updating >>> the BIOS with a different processor? >>> Also, I have a horde of PC133 SD RAM and only one stick of >>> PC100 RAM, which doesn't appear to work in the motherboard, and the >>> motherboard is rated to _only_ support PC100 SD RAM. Is it all right >>> for me to use RAM which is rated 33MHz faster than recommended? I >>> think it's possible with some motherboards but I'm not sure about >>> this one. >>> Thanks again for all your help guys :). >>> -Garrett > > Thanks for your concerns. Supposedly when I received it last year in a > trade, this motherboard was a spare that was not used by the owner > because I don't think he had a reason to use the antique hardware. The > thing is that I need a replacement motherboard with working IRQ/PCI > slots because my previous motherboard (Tualatin ECS board) may have been > partially fried thanks to a bad PSU and a series of SCSI hard drives > drawing too much current within the case. Needless to say I fixed the > PSU issue, but the issue with the original motherboard still may linger on. > > I'll see about using a BIOS flash boot disk, but there is a list of > procedures that Intel gives on their website, which seems to involve > Windows a bit more extensively than I originally thought. > > Thanks again about the RAM part. I know that mixing and matching is the > only no-no in RAM-land, but other than that the motherboard says it > supports both flavors--either ECC or non-ECC. > > -Garrett Also, I have nothing plugged in (never did) and was strictly using the onboard components. -Garrett
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