Success with AMD

[India001]

Thanks chris
For the detailed info about your setup.

[Locke]

Christian,

Can you be more specific about the BIOS option you were changing?

What BIOS are you running - type and version?
On which BIOS screen is this parameter?
What is the exact name of the BIOS parameter?

Sorry to be so detail-oriented but I just think this is really important information for myself and others. Thanks for taking time to post your experiences.


[This message has been edited by Locke (edited February 15, 2001).]

[crs117]

***WARNING EXTREMELY LONG POST AHEAD***

Well as many people on the board may be aware, i recently bought a brand new athlon setup, and as soon as i tried running pt with my new system, i experienced many different types of errors. The type of errors that kept reoccuring where generally of the 6XXX type. I was really frustrated because i had a concert i had to record the weekend i finally got everything.

well searching for all of the different errors, and solutions on how to fix them, and after trying all of those possibilities, i decided to post what was going on, hoping to get some idea of how to fix it. Well I posted up here probly 15 messages detailing what was going on, and after a few failed suggestions, i got a response from eric, who told me that the types of errors i was receiving was common with an amd/001 setup. He then told me that it was most likely the way my processor handled the on board cache, and that some athlon's had this problem while others didnt. He told me that this problem was seemingly fixed in pt 5.1 which used a method to bypass the problem, but that i would probly have to wait till then. well i had just spent just over 600 dollars, and over 15 hours working with getting the thing up and running. Well I was crushed, but couldnt give up, because i new if it would work on athlon's at all, i could get it working on mine(and that most likely i had something set wrong to keep me from getting it running, especially after all of the success stories i had read about).

I had previously tried taking most everything out of my computer besides my 001, but that did not fix it. well my new mobo had a bunch of bios options i had never seen before, so i started changing the settings of some of the options, the ones i didnt know what it was affecting. Well i changed 3 settings the first time, booted up expecting to get the pt error/crash to reboot again, but alas it worked. I went back to the bois changed each setting back to the original setup, rebooted and crash at pt le setup. So I narrowed my search till i found the one setting that kept giving me errors. There is a setting in the asus a7v133 mobo that is set to optimize, and when it is set to optimize(at least on my system) it will not allow pt le to fully initialize without booting up(or if you manage to get it booted through various techniques, it will not play audio without crashing). Well i changed that setting to normal, and i have not had another digi error.

I waited this long to post for several reasons, i wanted to make sure that i would not eat my words later regaurding this setup, and i can pretty safely say that my system is incredibly stable, i have had no crashes, and it allows me to do whatever i could ever want to do in pt.

I recorded my band this past weekend, and i could not get 14 channels from my soundboard to my 001 so i simply used my board for the preamps, and ran everything else through my 001 and pt. I dont want to hear people complaining about latancy at 128 because nobody in my band complained about noticing it. I used the mixing console on my 001 to mix live, and i used sends to 3 of the outputs to run moniters on stage, and the 4th to run the subwoofer. I was able to actually run some rtas pluggins while recording our show. I had spent a lot of time running my 001 with my pt setup, but it still took a lot of faith in my system (lots of guts) to base the mixing to my new setup. I mean if my computer had crashed once then we would have lost everything.

Well 3 hours of playing and recording, no crash, no problem, no complaining of any delay or latency from my band members. They actually liked the fact i was able to run some pluggins live.

Basically i am saying that if my system could do this, and not crash, then i would have to say that my athlon setup is more stable then my previous older intel setup (333lx 66mhz fsb).

Since then I have had time to go in and do a lot of mixing and editing to our show, and again no crashing whatsoever. I did have to defrag my hard drive, but aside from that my athalon 001 setup runs beautiful.

Now I cannot guarantee that everybodies athlon setup will work, nor that i will run tech support for it, but my system (in which i was informed that the cause of my problems was probly my amd setup) runs wonderfully.

My system
amd athlon 800(easily overclockable to 1000)
asus a7v133(running at 100mhz soon to try running the fsb at 133 and processor multiplier at 6)
256 meg micron 133 mhz ram
old cdrw
dvd 2x
8.4 gig old ibm system drive (5400)
20 gig old ibm deskstar drive (7200)
new 45 gig ibm deskstar 75 gxp (7200)
sound blaster live (disabled in pt setup)
network card (disabled in pt setup)
diamond v550 agp tnt video card
dvd decoder card

I can run pt le with my sb live, and my network card, but i disabled them to ensure no crashing this past weekend.

By the way i recorded 27 gigs of audio saturday with this setup (with some rtas running, and use of many many sends for moniters and subwoofer). This i would consider a major workout.

Sorry for the long post but this is my story thus far.

Christian

[crs117]

Well it is the newest bios version on the asus web sight, I cannot recall the number at boot up. My computer is still at the church because i am able to do my mixing there, but i cannot hook my cable modem up in there. So i cannot just look at it and tell you right now. The version i am using just came out like feb 5 or so (if I remember correctly) but the option was on the boards original bios.

The option i have mentioned exaclty in a previous post on the protools le for win 98, under "various problems with new system...please help". Again I am in our schools computer lab, and I am about to go out of town for the weekend, but i will give a detailed answer when i get back. Sorry to be vague, but i did mention the exact setting last week when i got it running.

Christian

[Locke]

Christian,

Yes, I found your post afterwards. Sounds good and I hope it continues to work well for you. I'm pumped about getting a hot AMD system up and running!

[ZerO dB]

Anyone else having succes with AMD ?

[crs117]

i read a couple posts asking for my system config, and a couple of athlon posts dealing with 6xxx errors, so i am bouncing this old post for anybody that may need help with amd systems. Good luck amd daredevils.

Christian

[Carcaridon]

Christian.
Do you think that a -6042 error could be caused by an overheating chip? You've seen my post on the issues I've been having with cooling. And I've gotten a new heatsink fan, and it dropped the temp by 15, but I'm still running in the 150's, and I know that's not that good.

What do you think about heat and the dreaded -6042?


------------------
Heath
Anyone know a drummer in the Orange County, CA area?
http://www.endsanity.com

[This message has been edited by Carcaridon (edited March 07, 2001).]

[crs117]

My system temp right now is 100 f (38 cel). I have never had my system running hotter then 45c (110f) and that was when it got really warm in my dorm room(or sometimes when the big fan is off while recording). I dont know how hot amd chips can run so i dont know for sure.

I would recommend using a pt hardware profile that would disable everything (i am pretty sure you have done that) even though yes pt will run with sb live, and network card up and running. I would make sure to try to provide more cooling to the chip. As a chip gets warmer, the circuits in the chip get warmer, meaning the molicules that make the circuits bounce more(heat), making the friction within the circuit greater, which makes it harder to push electrions through the circuit, without bouncing into other objects bouncing around(which in turn increases the heat even more). Now if this is the case (i would not think so, cause you would be getting other errors i would think too), the problem is the effeciency of your chip is not what it should be if cooled adequately. it does not mean your chip is burnt out, but that it would be running too hot.

turning your computer off, allowing both the mobo and processor to cool off. Come back and open the case, point a big external fan in there (this may not be the best solution this is a hack solution, and how i usually run my system), and check to see if you can keep the temp within 50c. then see if you can run pt without errors. if this does not work then post back.

Christian

[This message has been edited by crs117 (edited March 07, 2001).]

[Carcaridon]

Originally posted by crs117:
My system temp right now is 100 f (38 cel). I have never had my system running hotter then 45c (110f) and that was when it got really warm in my dorm room(or sometimes when the big fan is off while recording). I dont know how hot amd chips can run so i dont know for sure.

I would recommend using a pt hardware profile that would disable everything (i am pretty sure you have done that) even though yes pt will run with sb live, and network card up and running. I would make sure to try to provide more cooling to the chip. As a chip gets warmer, the circuits in the chip get warmer, meaning the molicules that make the circuits bounce more(heat), making the friction within the circuit greater, which makes it harder to push electrions through the circuit, without bouncing into other objects bouncing around(which in turn increases the heat even more). Now if this is the case (i would not think so, cause you would be getting other errors i would think too), the problem is the effeciency of your chip is not what it should be if cooled adequately. it does not mean your chip is burnt out, but that it would be running too hot.

turning your computer off, allowing both the mobo and processor to cool off. Come back and open the case, point a big external fan in there (this may not be the best solution this is a hack solution, and how i usually run my system), and check to see if you can keep the temp within 50c. then see if you can run pt without errors. if this does not work then post back.

Christian

[This message has been edited by crs117 (edited March 07, 2001).]

Yeah. The heat is really becoming an issue for me. I can't figure it out. I have a hedgehog heatsink and delta 60mm 38 cfm fan coming. If this doesn't do it, nothing will. The temp of the case is keeping at a cool 81f, so I know it's possible.

------------------
Heath
Anyone know a drummer in the Orange County, CA area?
http://www.endsanity.com