PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Help! Before I throw the damn computer out the window...
Old 22nd January 2002 | 11:49
  #23 (permalink)  
Evo7
 
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 871
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From: Chichester, UK
Post

Scroggs

Might me a long shot, but there has just been some news about an Athlon bug.e.g.

<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/23749.html" target="_blank">http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/23749.html</a>

<a href="http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-01-21-001-20-NW-KN" target="_blank">http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-01-21-001-20-NW-KN</a>

Symptoms involve random lockups when using AGP - sound familiar?

[quote]. .Here are the details. As you may know, x86 systems have traditionally managed memory using 4K pages. However, with the introduction of the Pentium processor, Intel added a new feature called extended paging, which allows 4Mb pages to be used instead.

&lt;snipped&gt;

Many Athlon and Duron CPUs experience memory corruption when extended paging is used in conjunction with AGP. . .<hr></blockquote>

It is mainly reported as affecting Linux users, but that is because a Windows fix already exits - however, it is a CPU bug rather than a bug in an OS.

From The Register:. . [quote]. .AMD issued a patch for Windows users in Fall 2000. .<hr></blockquote>

Are you patched?

Alternatively, if you can, try swapping in a PCI graphics card and see if that helps - the problem occurs only with AGP.

All the best...
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