[ltp] T60 "lemon" issues appear to be resolved...

[Richard Neill]

Whil Hentzen wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> Just a heads up for anyone following my saga over the last few days 
> about this T60 that didn't want to load any version Linux that I tried 
> to throw at it.
> 
> I pulled the 2nd SDRAMM out of the machine (PC Connection stuffed a 
> second gig in before shipping), and since have had zero problems:
> 
> - SuSE 10.1 install - flawless
> - FC5 install - flawless
> - Knoppix 5 loaded onto a ramdisk ("knoppix toram") - so far, wonderful. 
> (a lot faster than running off the CD, too :)
> 
> So I guess I gotta call the folks at PCC and ask for a switch or a 
> refund. I sure hope it's just a bad SDRAMM and not an issue with putting 
> a second bank of memory in my specific box.

Glad it works. You can distinguish the cases by

1)Run memtest (both banks installed)
2)Record the address(es) which fails. (is it in bank 1 or 2?)
3)Swap the banks over
4)Repeat memtest.

If the failure is now in a different bank, it's the DIMM. Else, it's the 
motherboard.

Linux also has, iirc, a "BadRam" option which lets you map the bad pages.


RAM issues cause so many problems!  Usually, they are very weird ones, 
sometimes repeatable, and not always fatal. Eg dropped network 
connections, misbehaving scripts, segfaults, compile errors....
It depends on which part of userspace or kernelspace gets corrupted.




Richard