571V70 Headache

[Nigel Taylor]

What a nightmare. Trying to help a friend sort her PC via the Phone!
Started with lots of errors and Fatal's. could not recover so fitted a new 10gb hard disc. Win 98 refused to install, loads of errors again. Eventually got it running. Has internal/external cache disabled but system starts to mess about if she enables. Also can anyone help with some bios settings, She's running a 233 128meg ram.
I'm trying to learn as much as I can about this machine from 200 miles away in order to help, but starting to feel like I'm clutching at straws.

[brad]

Was the machine working well previously and just recently start misbehaving, or has it been all messed up from the beginning?

Nearly everything you're likely to need to know about this board, including a user's manual to double-check jumpers etc, is available at:

http://home.directlink.net/~timmy/M571/M571.htm


Brad

[Nigel Taylor]

Hi Brad,
Thanks for the response. Yes the machine had been fine. This lady is disabled she's clever so I'm trying to find some answers. The system is running with the new HD but she can only get 16 colours up with no other otions available. If she enables internal/external cache in the bios she gets lots of Win errors. She loaded optimum settings some time ago so I've tried to set the bios to the best of my understanding but still not 100%
Can she run an alternative display driver for the onboard chip from Win until she can get the machine online for a download?
It's a bit of one step forward two back at the moment, getting there but really any advice would be gratfully received. The machine was very troublesome when she brought it but has been fine for three years till now.

Regards Nigel

[brad]

If you did a fresh installation of windows on the new drive then the problem of only having 16 colors is due to not having the SIS video drivers installed. You can download the correct driver from the links on Timmy's page in my previous post.

Brad

[Nigel Taylor]

Hi again,
The problem was getting the machine online. I always figure if you can get online first and foremost you stand a chance. Problem was her ISP software would not install at 16. Anyhow we've worked around it and downloaded the correct driver, thank you. She says the machine is very slow, so there are only a couple of things that I need to try and sort for her. Can you suggest how the irq's should be set? It just a basic machine no bells and whistles, just sound board modem scanner. The biggest question is this internal/external cache problem. Is there any way of checking the hardware or suggestions why she can't enable this without getting fatal's, errors and general refusal to run!

Nigel

[brad]

The M571 usually handles IRQ assignments automatically with very few problems so I don't think you need to worry about card placement or IRQ sharing very much. One exception is to not put anything in PCI-1 except a video card if possible because PCI-1 will try to use the same IRQ as the built-in video. I had all 4 slots full on both of my boards with no problems at all. That included an ATI video card and SBLive, the later often reputed to cause tons of problems but I haven't ever seen it. Just don't make the same mistake that so many people do, ie having EVERYTHING you want in the system physically present before installing windows. Instead, add your PCI cards (except video of course) one at a time after windows is up and running and there should not be any problems. Hope that helps.......

Brad

[Nigel Taylor]

Hi Brad,
Thanks for sticking with me. I followed that procedeure for the last install. I had the lady remove the cards. Seems like the only thing holding the system back now is the internal/external cache problem. I've been doing loads of research trying to find some angle on it. The errors she gets are the same ones she was getting when the system first went down. Many thanks for the IRQ comments, by process of elimination every little helps.
Again, many thanks.

Nigel

[brad]

You're welcome. Everything you have detailed about the on-board cache problem tells me it has gone bad. That causes performance to take a huge hit and unfortunately, replacing it is way beyond the means of most of us even if the chip was readily available.

Brad

[jim chase]

Something to try for possible bad cache. What FSB is this M571 set at (also what CPU is being run)? If the FSB is set at 75 or 83mhz for a Cyrix CPU, try setting it at 66mhz and then enabling the cache. Sometimes a slower FSB will alow the cache to run stable.

Apparently the ram was stable before but I would be tempted to try another stick, prefferably two 64mb DIMMs.

Jim

[Nigel Taylor]

Hi Jim,
As you have most likely gathered I'm not an expert, far from it. I'm an engineer and my depth of PC knowledge ran out about two weeks ago! During the transitional phase I sent off a 16mb card in the hope of ruling out the ram but it did nothing to help, one things that has been noticed is that sys properties is showing 127mb with a 128 card! Any Ideas? From what I've read it seems that this machine prefers ram in pairs I'll see if I can sort anything for that.
One last question.......FSB? I'm sure I'll kick myself.

Many thanks

[Nigel Taylor]

Jim and Brad thanks for doing what you can here, it really is appreciated, BTW its a 233 mmx I believe

[jim chase]

I should have noticed on your first post that a 233 was installed. the Front Side Buss would then be 66mhz and the multiplier 3.5. Considering that the cache causes problems at 66mhz it looks more like a bad motherboard all the time.

The M571 can run one simm module in slot one otherwise simms must be installed in pairs. DIMMs can be installed individually with the preffered method of reaching 128mb being two 64mb DIMM modules in order to avoid compatability problems with 128mb DIMMs.

If your friend has two DIMMs (or simms) installed to reach 128mb then they could be run individually to see if one is bad.

Jim

[Nigel Taylor]

Hi Jim,
Thanks for the response. I've made the 200 mile trip and I'm now sat at the machine in question. First thing, the cpu cooling fan was U/S fortunately I had one with me, I replaced that and next took your advice and reduced to 66mhz. Enabled internal and external cache and guess what? The machine has booted up fine, no errors, running at good speed and at this moment (about two hours) all seems well. Make any sense of that ???


Nigel

[jim chase]

Make any sense of that ???

Hello Nigel,

Sometimes it's hard to make sense of computers, hence video cards named Voodoo :-)

Any one or more of a marginal condition with ram, cache, cpu, and cooling could cause the problems you ran into. When I run into a problem like yours I usually go back to the basics and maybe even underclock the CPU to get stability, then if the os is still scrambled a reinstall never hurts.

You said you set it back to 66mhz, there are many M571's that aren't stable at 75 or 83mhz FSB.

Good to see you have had success.

Jim

[brad]

Jim Chase Said:

Sometimes it's hard to make sense of computers, hence video cards named Voodoo :-)


Love it!

Brad

[Nigel Taylor]

Ok,
After 2 days and several driver downloads later (arrggghh) this machine is behaving itself well. It was set at 75 before I set it down to 66 and sould I now make any alteraation to the multiplier because it has been decided to leave it at 66 for stability. The machine is running plenty fast enough at 66 for her use. It does look like the CPU fan was the governing factor in this saga, so it was thermal. All the fears of new cache, cpu or motherboard have faded away, but I dunno, maybe it's just me and window etc, but there's always that nagging feeling in the back of my mind, this half expextancy of a blue screen popping up of of the blue!!!

Loved the comment on Voodoo, are you saying that maybe the machine needed exorcising?? Someone fetch me a priest.

Jim and Brad, thanks again for all the help, how great that people like you take the time to share your knowledge with guys like me, what would we do without you.
Good health guys.

Nigel

[jim chase]

Two days huh, one more day and we might call the exorcism complete:D After a long period of instability it takes a while to trust a system.

With the change in FSB to 66mhz I would be looking at the multiplier. If the 233mmx is an Intel or AMD I would be sure the multiplier is set to 3.5.



Jim and Brad, thanks again for all the help, how great that people like you take the time to share your knowledge with guys like me, what would we do without you.
Good health guys.

Nigel

Your welcome, this is the place I learned how to get my M571 v7 working right, it's a challenge and rewarding to be able to help others with their computer problems and at the same time learn something.

Jim