From: rab@ariel.its.unimelb.EDU.AU (Richard Alan Brown) Subject: Re: AMD/motherboard experiences... Date: 15 Aug 1992 06:18:39 GMT
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NOT from rab@ariel.etc.etc
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actually from alistair scott afs@tuaon.ph.unimelb.edu.au
I have had some peculiar experiences with the AMD 386-40 chip, so
here's my $.02 worth.
I first installed Linux on my AMD 386-40 based machine with 4M RAM, it ran
perfectly, albeit a little slowly under X with only 4M.
When I upgraded my motherboard to 8M RAM, I was told that my motherboard
was part of a bad batch that could not handle having every SIMM slot full
(grrrrr! I wasnt told when I bought it), Anyway, the dealer replaced the
motherboard with another (still with the AMD 386-40) but of a different
brand, one I had never heard of. Neither the chipset, or the manufacturer
was familiar (I am sorry I didnt note down the name). Anyway, after firing
it up quite happily with 8M on board, I realised that I had a hardware problem.
After about 20 min use, I could *not* reboot without getting kernel panic
errors, or failing swapper task errors. I can only assume that there was some
hardware problem, that was becoming visible when the motherboard heated up.
Needless to say, I took it back, and asked for a motherboard of the same
brand as my original (with functioning SIMM slots), and even though the
motherboard they had given me passed every DOS diagnostic (but failed
under Linux) they happily ordered me another motherboard. Now the one
I have is a 'Chicony' brand with Opti chipset AMD 386-40 with 8M RAM,
and it runs flawlessly.
The 40 Mhz AMD chip runs as advertised. So to me it sounds like the problems
with the AMD chip might be motherboard related. Even between the same m'board
manufacturer it is possible to have variation in quality and presumably
reliability.
Thanks to all involved in Linux. Its so nice after that brain dead application
launcher MS-DOG.
Alistair Scott
afs@tauon.ph.unimelb.edu.au
BTW: Kudos to the guys in the PC dealership who put up with me coming in and
saying "look, I dont care if it passes every DOS test in the book, it wont run
Linux"
Seems Linux is the perfect hardware tester.