Memory Parity Error

[Stephen Ward]

Hello,

Hope someone can tell me how to get my Prolaint 6000 back up.

I was having problems all week with it freezing and I assumed it was due to my boot drive, was getting drive errors on D drive. So I figured that one out, it was a bad power cable to the drive.

So I got the drive working OK now, but then another problem cropped up during the power cable fix.

Now when I try to start the server (Win 2000) it goes almost to start up, then a blue screen with fatal error, telling me there was a parity error in my ram and to contact the vendor.

I had purchased 2 GB in 64 MB sticks and they were running fine for many months. The server had come with 256 in 64 MB sticks originally, I took them out when I purchased the 2 GB of ram. They had only approx 100 hrs on them total.

So when I began having the ram parity blue screen errors, I swapped the 2 GB ram for the original Compaq ram (256) and still having the same parity error blue screen !!

I was sure that switching to the original ram would help, but I was wrong.

What could the real problem be ?

Thanks for any help

Steve

[Mark Cloutier]

Hi Steve,
This error does show when you have a bad peripheral board. Do you have an extra one to swap out with?
This might sound a little strange with the error you are getting but have you disabled any of the embedded controllers?
Please re-enable them.
Please clear NVRAM and let it auto-detect and say no to the backup SCI file. We want a fresh copy.
Is the BIOS up to the latest?
What is the firmware on the Smart Array controller?

Mark

[Stephen Ward]

Thanks Mike for the response.

First, no, I don't have a spare peripheral board to test with.

Second, no, I have not disabled anything at all.

Third, I used the dip switch to clear NVRAM. I also went into SmartStart and all looked fine there with auto configure setting things up as they were before, in particular, which drive to boot from.

BIOS is the latest available.

There is no Smart Array controller on this machine, I use an Adaptec 39160 with a lone 36 GB drive to boot to, also have a Mylex 1100 Raid controller that is configured proper which is not the boot drive, it is strictly set up as a Raid 5 array within the Mylex bios, used for storage only. It comes up perfect each time I boot.

So the question now is, when I used the dip switch to clear NVRAM, did it actually clear it ? I saw on the SmartStart option, there is a "Delete all data" (not sure of the exact term there) which said it would clear NVRAM and all system partitions, I did not do this in SmartStart, because I have tons of data on the Mylex array that I don't want to lose. I guess I could disconnect the cables from the Mylex and do the "System Erase/Delete All Data" option to do this safely, but I am under the impression that the dip switch cleared the NVRAM and when I went back to SmartStart and let it autoconfigure, I should be set to go.

I just went through another re-install attempt for Win2000, and the exact error report is as follows:

*** Hardware Malfunction

Call your vendor for support

NMI: Parity Check/MEM Parity Error

*** The System Has Halted

What should I do now ?

Thanks again

Steve

[JohnWRuffo]

Steve:

How many drives and accesories do you have powered in the box? I had some goofy boot problems that were finally resolved by replacing the power supply. It seems that when the system boots up, it is under a full load (i.e., fans spinning at top speed, drives initializing, etc.) the load on the power supply was drawing it down enough to cause errors on the main board. Try removing a drive or two (just to test) and see if the O/S will boot. Hope this helps...
-John

[Stephen Ward]

Thanks for the reply.

All drives, and I mean all of them are now off the machine with the exception of one lone(ly) IBM 36 GB drive, the one I had the OS on.

Still same error.

Someone hopefully can tell me what to do to get it back !!

Thanks

Steve

[Mark Cloutier]

Sometimes these errors at POST point to bad cache on the CPU. Please drop the server down to one CPU and if the error continues then start swapping CPU's.
Also remove all PCI cards and boot up with a smart start or any bootable cd to see if the error continues.

Mark

[Stephen Ward]

Thanks Mark,

But the error is not at post, it posts fine, goes through SmartStart fine, restarts when it is supposed to, goes through Win2000 install all the way to "Installing Devices". That is where I get the BSD. Or I get a BSD when it is loading an already installed OS just before the GUI kicks in. I will try with the processors though, need to get to the bottom of this !!

Thanks

Steve

[JohnWRuffo]

Steve:

Just a thought... install a PCI Video card (Set SW1 to Off) just to see if you are getting an error from the onboard components? Try another NIC too?

[Mark Cloutier]

OK...thanks for the info.
These erros can be generated by corrupted video drivers and old NIC drivers also. Install the latest SupportPaq.
Also, make sure the OS sees the NIC as a COMPAQ and not an INTEL during the install of the OS.
The peripheral board might be defective.

Mark