Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan (More info?)

Quick one, I have a tyan tiger mp s2460, bought in november 2001.
Memory is Crucial registered ECC 256mb chips (4 of), one in each slot
power supply is a 500w affair,
I have cooling fans one each of the 2 AMD 1.2GB MP chips, and front
and rear of the case.
2 creative sound cards, audigy 2's, creative CD writer, and creative
DVD player, 2 floppy drives and a Maxtor 60GB hard drive 7200 rpm.
Parhelia-512 256MB AGP Dual DVI video card.

Now over the last year, starting at slot 4, one of the memory chips
has blown every three months, in order 4, 3, 2, the last one has just
blown, I have sent them back to crucial for replacement.

BTW The reason I didn't flash the bios is because I couldn't, to flash
the BIOS I would have to remove the operating system, WIN2000, as I
can't get to the prompt screen with it on, and I havn't had the time
to do it. SO it stayed as it was.

Now the issue, when this new memory arrives is it likely to work in
the board, as this is a very strange problem.
Can't contact the original distributor of the board as it's dabs.com
and the board is only covered by a one year warranty, so what's
happening, has anybody else heard about this? Do I need to replace the
board? and most importantly, why has it happened, will it happen
again? and finally, if this is a board fault shouldn't I get a new one
;-) ?

Regards
Shaine

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan (More info?)

"Shaine Fisher" <shainefisher@madasafish.com> wrote in message
news:aaebfe71.0408020347.c9b5088@posting.google.com...
> Quick one, I have a tyan tiger mp s2460, bought in november 2001.
> Memory is Crucial registered ECC 256mb chips (4 of), one in each slot
> power supply is a 500w affair,
> I have cooling fans one each of the 2 AMD 1.2GB MP chips, and front
> and rear of the case.
> 2 creative sound cards, audigy 2's, creative CD writer, and creative
> DVD player, 2 floppy drives and a Maxtor 60GB hard drive 7200 rpm.
> Parhelia-512 256MB AGP Dual DVI video card.
>
> Now over the last year, starting at slot 4, one of the memory chips
> has blown every three months, in order 4, 3, 2, the last one has just
> blown, I have sent them back to crucial for replacement.
>
> BTW The reason I didn't flash the bios is because I couldn't, to flash
> the BIOS I would have to remove the operating system, WIN2000, as I
> can't get to the prompt screen with it on, and I havn't had the time
> to do it. SO it stayed as it was.
>
> Now the issue, when this new memory arrives is it likely to work in
> the board, as this is a very strange problem.
> Can't contact the original distributor of the board as it's dabs.com
> and the board is only covered by a one year warranty, so what's
> happening, has anybody else heard about this? Do I need to replace the
> board? and most importantly, why has it happened, will it happen
> again? and finally, if this is a board fault shouldn't I get a new one
> ;-) ?
>
> Regards
> Shaine
You don't have to 'remove the operating system', to flash a BIOS. You
either make a boot floppy (if you have a floppy drive), or a boot CD.
The most likely thing is a batch memory problem. The odds are that all the
modules are from the same batch, and occassionally, there are batches that
fail. Seperately though, get a voltmeter, and check the supply rail to the
RAM modules. I seem to remember there was an issue with some boards slight
overvoltaging the memory modules (don't rely on the monitor program to
test this).

Best Wishes

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan (More info?)

> You don't have to 'remove the operating system', to flash a BIOS. You
> either make a boot floppy (if you have a floppy drive), or a boot CD.
> The most likely thing is a batch memory problem. The odds are that all the
> modules are from the same batch, and occassionally, there are batches that
> fail. Seperately though, get a voltmeter, and check the supply rail to the
> RAM modules. I seem to remember there was an issue with some boards slight
> overvoltaging the memory modules (don't rely on the monitor program to
> test this).
>
> Best Wishes

Thanks for your input, yeah I understand that flashing the bios thing,
but everytime I tried it, and it went to PC world twice, we couldn't
get the PC to a prompt screen to run the flash utility from the tyan
site, always came up with an error or froze, the only time it ever
does it.
Anyway, great news all round, I've stripped it out now and flashed it,
the memory was from the same batch and my crucial customer service
girl did admit there may have been a problem with some memory chips
way back when I bought them, so we'll see tomorrow when the new ones
arrive.
The voltage test, I'll give that a go tomorrow too, thanks for that,
if it's a problem what's the solution, new board? Or really push the
lifetime warranty on these crucial chips and keep sending them back
when they break.

Thanks again.
Shaine

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan (More info?)

"Shaine Fisher" <shainefisher@madasafish.com> wrote in message
news:aaebfe71.0408021615.7288a8b9@posting.google.com...
> > You don't have to 'remove the operating system', to flash a BIOS. You
> > either make a boot floppy (if you have a floppy drive), or a boot CD.
> > The most likely thing is a batch memory problem. The odds are that all
the
> > modules are from the same batch, and occassionally, there are batches
that
> > fail. Seperately though, get a voltmeter, and check the supply rail to
the
> > RAM modules. I seem to remember there was an issue with some boards
slight
> > overvoltaging the memory modules (don't rely on the monitor program to
> > test this).
> >
> > Best Wishes
>
> Thanks for your input, yeah I understand that flashing the bios thing,
> but everytime I tried it, and it went to PC world twice, we couldn't
> get the PC to a prompt screen to run the flash utility from the tyan
> site, always came up with an error or froze, the only time it ever
> does it.
> Anyway, great news all round, I've stripped it out now and flashed it,
> the memory was from the same batch and my crucial customer service
> girl did admit there may have been a problem with some memory chips
> way back when I bought them, so we'll see tomorrow when the new ones
> arrive.
> The voltage test, I'll give that a go tomorrow too, thanks for that,
> if it's a problem what's the solution, new board? Or really push the
> lifetime warranty on these crucial chips and keep sending them back
> when they break.
>
> Thanks again.
> Shaine

the s2460 eats crucial ram - they've not been on the recommended list at
tyan for over 2 years now
i'd recommend samsung or kingston
dr ratt

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan (More info?)

> the s2460 eats crucial ram - they've not been on the recommended list at
> tyan for over 2 years now
> i'd recommend samsung or kingston
> dr ratt

I must be insane, OK I've bitten, went to kingston this morning and
order 4 1024 chips, sold the Crucial chips to a p4 user at work, lets
give it a go, thanks for all your help guys and girls greatly
appreciated.
Still like this board, maybe upgrade the processors at the end of the
summer to the 2.18 and upgrade the fans too.

One final thing, the memory slots, I heard I'm not suppposed to use
all four with 1024 chips due to supporting only 3gb memory, so which
slot should I leave free, I always heard it should be 3, but 4 makes
more sense, is there a slot your supposed to leave free when only
using three chips, or am I had bad advice.

Regards
Shaine

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan (More info?)

"Shaine Fisher" <shainefisher@madasafish.com> wrote in message
news:aaebfe71.0408030348.3f5f6ca9@posting.google.com...
> > the s2460 eats crucial ram - they've not been on the recommended list at
> > tyan for over 2 years now
> > i'd recommend samsung or kingston
> > dr ratt
>
> I must be insane, OK I've bitten, went to kingston this morning and
> order 4 1024 chips, sold the Crucial chips to a p4 user at work, lets
> give it a go, thanks for all your help guys and girls greatly
> appreciated.
> Still like this board, maybe upgrade the processors at the end of the
> summer to the 2.18 and upgrade the fans too.
>
> One final thing, the memory slots, I heard I'm not suppposed to use
> all four with 1024 chips due to supporting only 3gb memory, so which
> slot should I leave free, I always heard it should be 3, but 4 makes
> more sense, is there a slot your supposed to leave free when only
> using three chips, or am I had bad advice.
>
> Regards
> Shaine

i've been using slots 1, 2 & 3 for about 2 years now but the mobo manual
does have recommendations for how to install ram - this could be the root
cause of the odd instability i've had with a pair of xp-m2400s
also, i think 1024 sticks are all dual bank [sandra and other utils will
help you ascertain whether this is the case] and the mp chipset can only
handle 6 banks in use - ie, 3 sticks
try 2cpu.com forums, as you'll find more advice & accounts of experience
that will prove useful.
dr ratt

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan (More info?)

"Shaine Fisher" <shainefisher@madasafish.com> wrote in message
news:aaebfe71.0408020347.c9b5088@posting.google.com...
> Quick one, I have a tyan tiger mp s2460, bought in november 2001.
> Memory is Crucial registered ECC 256mb chips (4 of), one in each slot
> power supply is a 500w affair,
> I have cooling fans one each of the 2 AMD 1.2GB MP chips, and front
> and rear of the case.
> 2 creative sound cards, audigy 2's, creative CD writer, and creative
> DVD player, 2 floppy drives and a Maxtor 60GB hard drive 7200 rpm.
> Parhelia-512 256MB AGP Dual DVI video card.
>
> Now over the last year, starting at slot 4, one of the memory chips
> has blown every three months, in order 4, 3, 2, the last one has just
> blown, I have sent them back to crucial for replacement.
>
> BTW The reason I didn't flash the bios is because I couldn't, to flash
> the BIOS I would have to remove the operating system, WIN2000, as I
> can't get to the prompt screen with it on, and I havn't had the time
> to do it. SO it stayed as it was.
>
> Now the issue, when this new memory arrives is it likely to work in
> the board, as this is a very strange problem.
> Can't contact the original distributor of the board as it's dabs.com
> and the board is only covered by a one year warranty, so what's
> happening, has anybody else heard about this? Do I need to replace the
> board? and most importantly, why has it happened, will it happen
> again? and finally, if this is a board fault shouldn't I get a new one
> ;-) ?

Did your memory have micron-chips on them? There have been more reports of
sticks with these chips dying.....

One of my Corsair sticks died recently, that is ECC doesn't work on that
stick. ECC disabled runs fine....
That s*cks......
Paul.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan (More info?)

Sorry I have not replied, had my system in the shop getting a good
service, the news is, the Tyan board can only handle a maximum of 3GB
memory, and having 4 chips (total value less than 3 GB) doesn't seem
to do any damage. (Well others who have this board aren't having any
trouble.)
This as I see it is a bad decision on behalf of tyan, but that's my
opinion, as for the 6 banks maximum we'll have to see, I'm not taking
the chance again.

I have my system back on win2000 using 3x1024 chips, slots 1,2 and 4
(don't ask why, the guy who serviced said this was the way he was told
to do it by someone brighter than him) all Kingston memory, and we
upgraded the processors and fans, and this thing is faster than ever,
and still very stable, great for the sort of design work I do, I've
been losing patience with Flash MX2004 for being slow, but this aint a
problem any more, same for 3dStudio Max, dreamweaver, Swift 3D a whole
load of software performing better than I can ever remember it doing.

Big thanks to all again, I was ready to throw the board away and just
buy a new pentuim based thing, I hadn't realised these things happened
all the time, you gave me some good advice, and I appreciate it,
thank-you.

Regards
Shaine