Installing W2K on a Proliant 3000 dual CPU Problem

[charlescosby]

I have a ProLiant 3000 (original board) with 2 - PII300 CPU's. Same speed, stepping, etc. This system ran for years with NT 4.0 server. I wiped the system with system erase, and started from scratch with SmartStart 4.9 (latest I have)

It installed fine but the first time it tried to boot the system it had a stop error of MULTIPROCESSOR_NOT_SUPPORTED (or something close to that. I checked with Microsoft and they say that error is because the processors have different steppings (which they don't).

So is there a way to run W2K server on this system with 2 CPU's or am I screwed?

Would I be able to pull a CPU, get it up and running and then install the second CPU or would I end up with the same results?

 

[diamondlod]

The last time I had that message, updating the system's BIOS solved the problem. You may want to give that a shot.

 

[charlescosby]

I have the latest bios on the machine but opened the box and found out inf act I do have different steppings on the CPU's. The other machien has the matching steppings, had the wrong box open. Is there an way to get W2K server to work with 2 CPU's of different steppings or am I stuck running on a single CPU? Do other OS's have problems with this (FreeBSD for instance)? I ran this box for 5 years with NT and had no problems with multiple CPU's

Thanks for your help

 

[diamondlod]

It is unusual to see steppings so far off that the latest BIOS won't correct the issue. I had an 8500 with 8 CPUs at four different steppings that didn't work, but the BIOS update fixed it.

Do you have the stepping revisions of the CPUs? I can do some checking and see if there is a known issue. (And if we have a 3k on hand, maybe I can help match one of them.)

 

[charlescosby]

Yeah I thought so too. The CPU's are as follows:
SL2HA - Stepping C1
SL2W8 - Stepping A0b

They were both bought directly from Compaq but about 2 years apart. I remember telling them I wanted the same stepping and ASSUMED they had given it to me. It was running NT 4.0 at the time and worked perfectly. Only had problems with the installation of W2K Server. I am in the process of installing FreeBSD on this guy and see what happens once I compile a kernel for it with SMP Support.

Thanks
Charles

 

[HPaq]

Hi,

Check this PDF file in the following link for Support for Mixing Intel P6 Processors in Compaq Industry-Standard Servers.

http://wwss1pro.compaq.com/support/...id=371&source=TC010204TB.xml&dt=21&docid=4395

HPaq

 

[jossmho]

Try to use COMPAQ SMARTSART 5.50 or greater...
My PROLIANT 3000 (last ROMPACK) with SMART431 on W2kSERVER works fine ...