Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:53:23 +0000 From: rondzierwa@comcast.net To: angie@alphabox.net Cc: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Subject: FreeBSD 6.1 problems on AMD64 Athlon 3800 - crashes from day1 Message-ID: <110320061753.23377.454B8212000EFABA00005B5122007614380E999D0A07960B02019D@comcast.net>
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I read your email on the amd64 list, and have some experience that may help. I have been upgrading my athlon boxes to amd64 by just changing motherboard, cpu and memory. I have found, however, that many power supplies that work just fine in other environments fail miserably when powering an amd64 machine under both FreeBSD and Windoze. After talking with several tech support people from both tyan and dfi, i did some research. i found that most of the power supplies that i had been using did not meet the +12V requirements of the new cpu's i was trying to use. This wasn't something i could measure using a volt meter, or even the onboard health monitoring hardware. It appears to be some sort of transient "sag" in the +12V that is related to system loading. High performance video cards increase the load, and temperature seems to aggravate the problem as well. It was reccomended to me that the power supply should have more than one +12V regulator (or "rail"), and each one should be capable of supplying 20 amps or more. This specification is independent of the raw wattage value. One power supply i was trying to use was rated at 550 watts, and it worked fine everywhere i used it, but it only had a single +12V regulator and that was only capable of 15 amps. The amd64 rig would boot and install just fine, but when it was put under load (I was doing video editing, but its about as demanding on the system as a large compile), it would consistently lockup or simply reboot. After trying several swaps (memory, disc, graphics card), i replaced the power supply with one that had dual 25 amp +12V rails, and the system has run fine ever since. I'm not saying this will solve all your problems, but its a simple thing to check. Most power supplies have the amp ratings for each voltage on the label stuck to the side of the unit. If not, the manufacturer's website should have the information. If you can't find the information anywhere, you probably got a generic commodity power supply that most certainly is not up to spec and should be replaced. good luck, ron.
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