Weirdo IRQ problems with early rev mobo

Wolfram · Post by **Wolfram** » Tue Oct 08, 2002 3:58 am

I assume your CPUs have the same stepping etc.? Since you´ve obviously tried a lot of variations, maybe it´s a SMP problem. Which version is enabled in the BIOS? 1.4 or the earlier one?

What about ACPI? Enabled in the BIOS or not?

Wolfram · Post by **Wolfram** » Tue Oct 08, 2002 4:43 am

uhoh wrote:The CPU steppings, i haven't looked at - do BP6s have any history of having stepping revision problems?

As you were probably getting to, i haven't tried a different pair of procs as yet - i'm kinda reluctant to take apart a working machine.. it's starting to look like the next step though. Bugger.

I'll suss out the steppings, and post them when i clear some desk space.

I only know that _different_ steppings can cause trouble in a SMP setup.

You can check out the steppings without disassembling the machine, with Sisoft Sandra or some other tool.

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Wed Dec 04, 2002 10:49 pm

My advice to all who are having stability or flakeyness issues with the BP6 is to retire your HPT-366. This is one of your best first steps in troubleshooting many BP6 problems. With all three of my BP6 systems, serious problems have vanished by merely replacing the HPT366 with a Promise/Maxtor ATA100 PCI controller. I will no longer connect anything except CDROM or DVD-ROM drives to the HPT366. The BP6 already has enough quirkyness to deal with without adding the heavy baggage of the HPT366 controller in the picture.

Snugglebear · Post by **Snugglebear** » Thu Dec 05, 2002 4:21 pm

^^^^ Very good advice. HPTs hate me, I hate them. Went back to the standard 440BX IDE controllers but even then I had issues after hacking the board for dual P3s. Dropped in an old Adaptec 2940U2W, a SCSI DVD and a 10k rpm drive and problems vanished. SCSI speeds up I/O significantly, so the machine is much smoother than with IDE. Besides, Solaris and FreeBSD like SCSI better... now only if I could magically replace the x86 Intels with PowerPCs or SPARCs and make UNIX really happy.

Wolfram · Post by **Wolfram** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 12:04 pm

rwwood wrote:Is this a possible cause of keyboard/mouse lockup problems?

I doubt that. While I would always agree that the HPT366 is not exactly the most reliable and uncomplicated onboard component ever, I think it is not responsible for mouse lockups, acid rain or smelly feet.

When do these lockups occur?

InactiveX · Post by **InactiveX** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 1:42 pm

Those KB/mouse lockups can still occur if you don't use the HPT.

If the instructions on the main page don't work, try disabling all unnecessary ports in the BIOS, eg. serial, parallel, USB (if you're not using them).

If that fails, see if bumping up the VCore helps.

Worked for me!

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 12:17 am

I have had good luck using USB mouse & Keyboards on all (3) of my BP6 systems. This also frees up H/W IRQ12 too, if you disable the PS/2 moise in CMOS setup; what slot is the LAN card placed? have you moved it around? Avoid Slot3 as I believe it shares IRQ with the HPT controller & sharing is not good for a Bus Mastering LAN card.

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 2:09 pm

The USB KB & Mouse must plug in to the USB on the BP6 mainboard to allow the BP6 BIOS to initialize them at boot. They should work at the POST stage, at the DOS level & in Windows, if the onboard BIOS+USB detects & initializes them properly. There may be a BIOS setting to make the system look for USB I/O devices - I can't remember for sure.