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Date:      Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:10:19 -0400
From:      "Dieter BSD" <dieterbsd@engineer.com>
To:        freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Server memory problems
Message-ID:  <20120719191020.298420@gmx.com>

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>> because the machine needs more electricity with the extra modules. If it
>> is at the limits without, it could go behind > with the additional modules
>> installed.
>
> Interesting. The chassis has dual 900W power supplies. Apart from simply
> replacing them, I am not sure how I can verify whether the power supply is
> the issue.

As a simple test, you could measure the various Voltages with a DC Voltmeter
and see if they are within spec. Finding problems like noise and ripple
require an oscilloscope.

In theory, you should be able to get specs on the maximum power
required by the mainboard from the various Voltage rails.  Add
the power requirements from any expansion cards, disks, etc.
See if any of the totals exceed the specs of the power supply.
In practice, Tyan would not tell me the power requirements for
my mainboard, just "use one of our recommended power supplies".
Which doesn't tell me how many disks I can add.  And sure enough,
eventually I added enough disks that I started seeing problems
and had to add a second power supply. Perhaps Supermicro will
tell you the power requirements for your mainboard?

If you can find out the power requirements for the memory, you could
add some other load that uses the same or more power from the same
rails instead of the extra memory. If the system runs fine with the
dummy load, then you aren't running out of power.

> The memory modules I added are listed on Newegg as Kingston 8 GB 240-Pin
> DDRS SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1333 Server Memory. So yes they have ECC.

Good. Look through the firmware/bios and see if there are any options
for turning ecc on/off. There might be an option for scrubbing.



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