Dead AMD 3200+, Dead ram, and possibly Power supply

Sol

Storage is cool
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I'm pretty sure every mainstream and server CPU AMD produced in the last 7 years or so has an on-die memory controller . I've never heard of one failing though...
 

Santilli

Hairy Aussie
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Jan 27, 2002
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REALLY strange that the two other cpu's I have, the 3200 and the 3800, both won't see the memory, dual sticks, as well. I had both of them in the Asus board, for the time it was working, and neither saw all the memory. Likewise in the Gigabyte board.

So, I have two other chips that won't see the memory that is working fine now, with the X2 64 3800+.

We'll see how long this setup lasts.
 

BingBangBop

Storage is cool
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Rather than saying that you have been incredibly unlucky, compared to others, with the CPU memory controller, I would contend as the more likely scenario that the different CPU's are configuring the BIOS with slightly different RAM settings and your old motherboard has developed issues with the RAM bus timings that makes it very picky. User error, flaky MB's, power supply issues, and/or flaky RAM are incredibly far more likely than CPU's with failed memory controllers where the CPU works otherwise.

But then what do I or others know -- You're the computer god that knows it all.
 

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
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I'm pretty sure every mainstream and server CPU AMD produced in the last 7 years or so has an on-die memory controller . I've never heard of one failing though...
You're correct, AMD introduced the IMC with the original Athlon64 and Opteron (Clawhammer and Sledgehammer CPUs) back in 2003.

I've never seen just the IMC fail, it's always been the entire CPU fail. Mind you, if the IMC is flakey, the internal POST (within the CPU) should have picked that one up.
 

Santilli

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Party isn't over on this one. As I said, we'll see how it plays out. BBB may well be right, and, the motherboard may well be flaky.

It is nice having everything work, at least for a little while.
 

Santilli

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Just wondering: Does anyone else think that updates from MSFT for XP might be designed to fail, forcing users to upgrade to 7?
 

Mercutio

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Just wondering: Does anyone else think that updates from MSFT for XP might be designed to fail, forcing users to upgrade to 7?

There are too many enormous Microsoft customers still using XP for them to slip up on that.

But for cases where the same Windows installation has existed in-place for six or seven years, no it wouldn't shock me if there were issues even on a pretty vanilla setup.
 

Santilli

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Seems either the Xerox Xd130 drivers, or the picturemate drivers work fine, until SP3 is installed, then it starts blue screening. Remove them, and it works fine.

After going through all this, it took lots of time, invested lots of money, most of which I did get back.

That said, it could fail tomorrow. I can see where as IT guys, unless you have a huge box of parts from that time, it is MUCH wiser to get rid of the entire setup, and move to a new platform, even if it is much more expensive.

In particular when you use consumer grade parts you are more likely to really be better off
dumping the entire setup, and moving to another, more modern platform.

Watched movies for a couple hours on it, no problems.
 

CougTek

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Jan 21, 2002
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I have an old Pentium 4 2.8GHz on a cheapo s478 µATX motherboard with a VIA cheapset. I would put it in a standard mid tower (I have a few used ones here), but the only good AGP video card I have is a GeFarce 6200 128MB low profile, and, with a DVI output. I can't waste all that good vintage stuff. I have a few 40GB hard drives (IBM's, noisy as Hell) and even a spacious IDE 80GB drive. Should I get a 100$ Antec NSK1480 or limit myself to a 63$ In Win BL631? Of course, I can get business-class used P4 3GHz for 60$, but I just can't convinced myself to dump worthless (but still working) hardware just to save a few bucks.
 

Santilli

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Jan 27, 2002
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Update:
The X2 3800 plus memory controller allows the 2 gigs to be recognized.

All is up and running, except, it's currently headless. Thinking cheap craigslist monitor, rather then Costco...

Either that, or a 50" Panasonic 1080P Plasma...
 

Howell

Storage? I am Storage!
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Feb 24, 2003
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Chattanooga, TN
I have a retro 8G seagate x10 if somebody wants to pay shipping. I may even have an adaptec to go with it.
 

Santilli

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Jan 27, 2002
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I'm waiting for a 50" 1080p to come around, at a price I'm willing to pay.

So far, only Panasonic 50" 780's are in the price range I'm after.

I'm too close to the 37" Vizio, so right now, the HTPC is headless, and, my gf is jumping out of airplanes...
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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Feb 1, 2003
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If you are too close to the 37" TV, what is the purpose of a larger TV used as a display?
 

Santilli

Hairy Aussie
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The 37" is in my bedroom, along with a 27" Samsung dual setup.
I moved the chair and some surfboards out, so I can back up.

Not much point in a HTPC running, when I use mine in my room. If I need to, I'll move the Vizio to the living room. 50" would be better, but, I can move it closer to the couch, since the monoprice cable is pretty long, and we have a coffee table I can put it on.

Longer I wait, the more the prices drop. Don't see much reason to tie up 500-1000 dollars for something I never use.

My girlfriend is hardly ever here. Between her friend's dieing medical needs, and constant trips to the hospital, and jumping out of airplanes, it's going to be awhile before we spend much time here.

I'm also working 6 to 7 days a week, so I'm not easy to catch up with.
 
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