I just replaced my Sempron 3400+ with a 45W dual core processor on my combined BE/FE earlier this week. At the same time I added a GB of RAM (from a different manufacturer) to the system. Since then, I have had issues with it stalling during startup. It will start booting normally and randomly after finishing a line of text the cursor will just flash with nothing happening and no way out except for a hard restart. I have seen it happen two times so far, once right after saying it's uncompressing the kernel and once after it said it was starting the backend and once somewhere in between.

Any ideas on this? So far I have only noticed this during mythwelcome startups (I have it shutdown at night and power up in the morning). Everytime I have restarted it afterward, it has booted up fine and I do not have any more problems. This has never happened before this hardware upgrade.

I dunno about your specific hardware, but some motherboards can be picky about RAM voltage settings. Is that auto managed or can you select different voltages for the DRAM? I only ask because you mentioned that you added additional memory that might have a higher voltage requirements. You might wanna download and run memtest86+ (bootable CD). Let it run overnight and see if you get errors. I might be barking up the wrong tree on this one, but as you've pointed out: it didn't happen before your hardware swap.

While I'm thinking about it, are the CPU vcores managed by the MB automatically as well?

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Retired KM user (R4 - R6.04); friend to LH users.

Yessir, it's all controlled automagically in bios. I can change the RAM settings but not the processor. I forgot to mention that while the processor seems to be functioning normally it is detected as something like "Unknown AMD processor" I honestly don't remember and didn't even check the RAM timings or voltage requirements. I think the old RAM was 1.8-2.0V (G.Skill), not sure about the new RAM (Patriot) I believe they are both DDR2-800, but assumed that the motherboard would scale it to the weakest link. I had 512 MB before and added 1 GB for a total of 1.5 GB, except that the video shares from the RAM and I started with it at 32 MB and bumped it up to 256 MB. This issue has happened in both cases.

Motherboard is an ASUS M2NPV-VM. I have a PVR-500 and HDHomerun as tuners, and I am using on-board video, SPDIF audio, and networking. DVI->HDMI output to 1080p display. I can't imagine that it would make a difference but the TV is off when the KM box auto-starts, but the TV is on when I restart it.

I will probably run the memtest overnight tonight and see what it finds.

I would try backing out the 512mb and just running with the 1g. See if that doesn't take care of the problem.

I'm going to have to end up doing both. I tried to restart the machine to boot the CD and it wouldn't get to the POST screen so I took the 512 MB out and it booted up fine. I'm gonna MEMTEST the 1 GB overnight with the onboard video only using 128 MB instead of 256 and then probably run it that way and see if there is any detriment to the performance and if it boots normally from here on out. Thanks for the input.

2 nights ago I took out the 512 MB stick because when I was trying to reboot with the memtest CD in, I couldn't even get the BIOS splash screen up. Once I only had the 1 GB stick in it booted fine and memtest ran for 8+ hours with no errors. The only funky thing I noticed is that it was running as DDR2 840 at 421 MHz... seemed odd.

Yesterday everything ran fine, mythwelcome shut it down as usual last night and then this morning it turned on and froze on the bios splash screen. I restarted it and went into BIOS setup and manually set the ram to DDR2 800, so I will see if that solves anything. I can't tell yet if it's an issue with the wakeup or if it is an issue with the hardware. It's just odd that there have been no stability issues other than on startup.

For my money, it sounds like a voltage problem on the RAM.

Memory on auto doesn't always set the right volts. Which can cause huge instability problems. I would check the manufactures websites for the correct voltage. However, most memory can take more volts than they say. (Within reason.) I've been using Corsair lately in my pc builds an they recommend 2.1 v for memory auto on two defaults to about 1.8 despite the recommended settings on Corsair's website... while it works most of the time it can lead to instability.

The other issue you mention is that the cpu is not identified. If you think your motherboard supports dual core processors, I'd check the manufacturers website and update to the latest BIOS so your cpu is recognised / supported properly.

HTH

Chris

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Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

Thanks for your input. The options for RAM voltage are AUTO or 1.9V. The manufacturers website says 1.9V, I think newegg said 1.8-2.0V. Unfortunately in BIOS it didn't say what the voltage was at for the RAM...

I've never attempted to update a BIOS before for fear of bricking it or creating different problems. I'll have to do some research on what I have and what is available. And the ASUS M2NPV-VM website states:

so I should be good. The old BIOS might not recognize the 45W processors (BE-2350), though.

Again, there have not been any stability issues once the machine is past startup. That is the strangest thing in my opinion.

Hi,
I had a quick look at the asus website.
The latest BIOS for your motherboard appears to be the 1401 one. I took this from the info page about it:



If you search on the link in the quote, hopefully you'll have some luck.

Updating the BIOS is relatively easy. Do you have a floppy drive attached? Doing it via a usb stick is possible, but I've always found it a bit of a faff. Though last time I did that, formatted the memory stick via windows.

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Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

I just updated bios with a usb stick no problem. It now recognizes the processor, but it was still locking up. I set the RAM voltage to 1.9V and it booted up. That is only option for voltage other than auto so I'll see if that works.

Locked up again when starting this morning. Would underclocking the RAM to DDR2 667 instead of 800 help? Otherwise I could put the old RAM back in and see if that takes care of the problem. Would I see much of a performance difference between 1 GB and 512 MB for HDTV?

My personal recommendation is for 1 Gig w/ HD.

Thanks for the input cecil. I assume 1 GB at 667 or 533 is probably still better than 512 MB at 800?

Updating this ongoing saga... I clocked it at 667 last night and it rebooted fine and it successfully woke up for the first time since the RAM was installed a week ago. Hopefully that will close the door on this one.

With the RAM clocked at 667 it has woken up 3 mornings in a row with no problem. When it was clocked at 800 it did not wake up correctly any morning for 3 or 4 days. I will say that the RAM voltage/clocking was the issue and close the book on this one... for now.