Re: SuSE 10.0 boot problems with CPU changed


Aragorn wrote:
On Sunday 27 August 2006 13:17, composlinuxmisc stood up and addressed the
masses in /comp.os.linux.misc/ as follows...:

Hi guys. One of my SuSE Linux 10.0 i586 boxes recently had its AMD XP
2500+ CPU damaged, perhaps by my recent overclocking adventures.

The computer seemed to initiate a thermal shutdown soon after bootup --
sometimes even in/before the BIOS menu at stock speeds -- and the
motherboard (Abit NF7) gave a two-tone siren.

Whilst it is being RMA'ed, I took an old AMD XP 1500+ CPU out to at
least get that box running, if more slowly. The BIOS detects the CPU
alright and when I shelved the 1500+ it was known to work.

Upon booting SuSE, I get a black screen and nothing else.

Does SuSE require a reinstall if the CPU is changed, or is it more
likely that other hardware on the comp. is somehow damaged?

Most likely the latter, I'd say. I don't see why you would need to
reinstall an entire distribution only because a CPU has been swapped for
another one, especially if the new CPU is of the same brand and generation
as the original CPU.

In your case, it wouldn't even make a difference if you were running Gentoo
- which is entirely compiled for your specific hardware, rather than to go
with a generic "one size fits all" binary code for everything in the
distribution.

As a sidenote, I've known entire installed distributions to work when the
hard disk was simply moved to another computer, which included moving the
disk from an Athlon XP based machine to a Pentium III. This variety of
target computers is exactly why distribution vendors typically compile a
"one size fits all" distro - this is of course less so for /x86-64,/ since
there are only two major types of CPU's in this class: the Intel EM64T and
the AMD64 platform.

OK thanks Aragorn. I thought it might have been something like me
needing to somehow change a config file for the CPU or something.

Sort of like how you won't get telinit 5 and will only have a minimal
boot system if you had an entry in /etc/fstab out of place (e.g. a
removed hard drive and fstab tries to point to what doesn't exist)


Most stock distribution kernels for /IA32/ have been compiled to work on a
generic /i586/ or perhaps a /i686,/ and they contain enough generic /x86/
code to keep the kernel happy whether it is running on an Intel Pentium 4
or on an AMD K-6. The Athlon XP is an /i686/ and should therefore be able
to handle any generic /i586/ or /i686/ stock kernel and distribution. I
believe SuSE is compiled as /i586/ code.

There is a good reason as to why overclocking is generally discouraged, and
you are now experiencing that reason... Most likely you've burned more
than just your CPU...

I hope not. The reason why I overclocked was because I can't afford a
faster stock system to start with as a PhD student, even though I
*really* need it for my computationally-orientated research. My tuition
fees alone are £15000 a year and my annual income is ~£0 apart from
some odd tutoring jobs for undergrads, you do the math :-)

I only need the systems to last for another year or two, then my
research is done and I will probably after that get a salary where I
can afford some spanking hardware :-)

Anyway, we shall see once I hopefully get a replacement XP 2500+...

With a bit of luck, it'll only be the memory modules, or perhaps you've
accidentally disconnected something or knocked something out of the socket
while you were replacing the CPU, but I suspect a lot more damage has been
done... :-/

I also accidentally knocked my Radeon 9800 Pro whilst the system was
on, causing a shutdown and for it to be destroyed. Replacing it seemed
to fix the system though, so fingers crossed this did not cause any
hardware damage either.

While it is true that Intel CPU's can take less heat than a comparable AMD
CPU, an Intel CPU has an overheating protection, and most recent Intels all
have thermal throttling. As far as I know, AMD's don't have that and will
allow you to toast them.

Yeah. This is why I am moving to Intel, apart from their really cool
dual core Intel D 805 CPU :-)

Intel nags and freezes, but AMD goes all the way until it burns up. And
that's apparently what happened to your original CPU. However, imagine
what such a thermal torture does to the rest of the chips...

I myself have only had one machine going "black screen" on me before - even
the POST information didn't appear on the screen - and that was because the
machine had suffered a lightning strike through the cable modem. Needless
to say that most of the hardware was toast, all except for the floppy
drive, the Adaptec 29160 SCSI adapter, the IBM SCSI hard disk and the
Plextor SCSI CD-RW device. A true testimonial of quality for the SCSI
stuff - I'm actually using all of it in this very machine now, after it was
all tested electronically - and it's already been running without any
problems in this machine here for about two years now.

On the other hand, the Intel Pentium III and the i810 chipset-based
Chaintech motherboard, the Chaintech videocard, the Hitachi monitor - which
was in standby mode at the time of the strike - the Creative Soundblaster
and the Iomega 2 GB Jaz - which was also SCSI, but Jaz drives were never
really that good - were all waste.

Back when I was a schoolkid, I had an old Zoltrix 14.4k external modem
that literally blew up after getting struck by lightning. Fortunately
the damage stopped there. Was your modem an internal one? AIUI internal
ones are more prone to cascading the damage to other components than
external ones.

Computers are very sophisticated pieces of hardware, and they're not exactly
given away for free in a pack of cookies either, so don't mess with the
clock speeds anymore... ;-)

I'm really trapped between the devil & the deep blue sea. Can't afford
stock performance of better hardware but really need the FLOPS.

Sorry for the lecture, but I guess it was necessary... ;-)

No problem, my friend. It was taken as friendly, constructive advice. I
didn't see it as a lecture in the slightest.

.

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