Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 03:52:13 -0700 (PDT) From: jarkko.hietaniemi@nokia.com To: freebsd-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Subject: i386/14282: Using FreeBSD 3.* ThinkPad 600E doesn't recognize IBM's 64MB DIMMs Message-ID: <19991012105213.5948114E50@hub.freebsd.org>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>Number: 14282 >Category: i386 >Synopsis: Using FreeBSD 3.* ThinkPad 600E doesn't recognize IBM's 64MB DIMMs >Confidential: no >Severity: serious >Priority: medium >Responsible: freebsd-bugs >State: open >Quarter: >Keywords: >Date-Required: >Class: sw-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Tue Oct 12 04:00:00 PDT 1999 >Closed-Date: >Last-Modified: >Originator: Jarkko Hietaniemi >Release: 3.3 >Organization: Nokia Research Center >Environment: FreeBSD hotspur.research.nokia.com 3.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 3.3-RELEASE #0: Thu Sep 16 23:40:35 GMT 1999 jkh@highwing.cdrom.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/GENERIC i386 >Description: Using either FreeBSD 3.3-RELEASE or 3.2-RELEASE an IBM ThinkPad 600E doesn't boot if there are any IBM 64MB DIMMs installed. 32MB DIMMs work okay. Symptom: When booting from the 3.3 boot floppies (ThinkPad doesn't find 'kernel' from the 3.3 CD-ROM), boot proceeds fine (though there's one warning sign, of which more shortly) until the point Probing for PnP devices That's the last thing ever that happens: after that the boot hangs, in a major way: floppy drive keeps whirring, nothing happens on the screen, and nothing short of ripping the battery out resets the nirvana. No ctrl-c, no ctrl-alt-del, not even toggling the power switch of the ThinkPad. As long as there is power in the battery, the machine is completely dead. (After the battery removal, it's dead in another way...) The one oddity I mentioned earlier: the FreeBSD bootloader only ever reports 64MB, never more than that, even if there is 96MB (the base 32 + one 64 DIMM), or 128 (base 32 + 32 + 64). I had two 64MB DIMMs and one 32MB DIMM and I tested all possible combinations of having a 64MB or a 32MB on either socket, and using either 64MB. No difference. The only combinations that boot are the ones that have the (std factory-installed base) 32MB, and either nothing or just the 32MB DIMM. Install a 64MB DIMM anywhere, boot fails. Moreover, I had two identical ThinkPad 600Es to test this. So it is unlikely to be a ThinkPad/memory socket/64MB DIMM failure. Moremoreover, I tested this already in FreeBSD 3.2, and hoped 3.3 to work better. No, I don't know how a 64MB DIMM has anything to do with the boot freezing at the aforementioned point. That just happens. When I take the 64MB DIMM(s) away, boot succeeds just fine. The BIOS of the ThinkPad always correcly detects the amount of the memory. Windows98 booted fine, too. DIMMs: 20L0241 Non-Parity S0 DIMM Memory Upgrade 64 MB 66MHz 3.3SV SDRAM 4k Refresh 1- 8Mx64 144-pin (Au) Serial-PD low-power S0 DIMM >How-To-Repeat: Install an IBM 64MB DIMM into either of the two memory extension sockets. >Fix: Do not use the IBM 64MB DIMMs. >Release-Note: >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted: To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19991012105213.5948114E50>