P18 AMI BIOS Problem Puzzling- Need Advice 1

[WheeDoggy]

iD850GB w/ AMI P18, S423 P4 1500, 2 X 256MB SyncMax ECC RDRAM, nVidia GeForce2 400MX 64MB, Creative SB128

This system is up every day for 18+ hours.

Approx 1 time, every 1 to 3 days, the box will let out 1 or 2 short beeps signifying either a DRAM Refresh or Parity error (whether or not ECC enabled). This has occurred for the past 2-3 months. No known trigger - can occur when idle.
Basic BIOS configs are good, Extended configs are at default-have not yet moved the jumper and gone in there.
Have reseated RAM and continuities 2X which have always been in the proper RIMM sockets.

What I find puzzling is the fact that there have been no RAM related (or any other) system failures - before, during or after the BIOS beeps advising of a RAM error. The system continues on and remains very stable.
Also, BIOS error logging is enabled, and there has not been anything noted.

Any help in resolving this annoying problem is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[1zman]

Can you swap out the ram and try the new in yours and the old in another to see if the problem remains or moves with the ram. Had something like this and it turned out to be a ram chip that failed only when HOT.

Let us know
1zman

 

[WheeDoggy]

Hi 1zman,

Thanks for the reply.

Forgot to mention,

I did try some spare Samsungs 2X64MB for a few days I had lying around and still eventually got beeped at.
I don't have any other mobos around that use RAMBUS to try them in but like I said, I can't see any actual failure- the system continues humming along.

Temps are good, per iActivMonitor, - the fans in this box could fly a small plane.
After 3 months I am starting to think that the best way to remedy this is to pull the internal speaker!
(Sorry for the humor if not funny)

Best Regards

 

[1zman]

Right now I am stumped. Will think on it. Maybe someone else has an idea

 

[WheeDoggy]

Hey 1zman,

I think you had something with the RDRAM being hot.

Even though, like I said, there are enough fans to fly a small plane, the relocation of a fan seems to have remedied the problem.

Star from me.

Rgds

 

[Dingusm]

Have you thought about updating the bios? This is a fairly easy process on most modern mobo's. make note of your bios version. You can usually see this version number during boot up just before post starts. Go to the American Megatrends website and search for your version. Carefully follow the instructions on the website. If this doesn't work, or you don't feel particularly adventurious to try it, disconnecting the speaker is actually a good alternative!

Good Luck

 

[WheeDoggy]

Spoke too soon!

Happened again today.

RAM parity error (2 Beeps - ECC is not enabled)- Happened approx 1 hour ago - The system is still solid - have punished it to see if anything and the only thing that happened was w/ IE -shortly after, cursor stuck while loading a web page 1-2 secs (believe it or not, this does not typically happen on this machine)

Dingusm- FYI - AMI does not support their own bios on this (d850gb) and some other Intel boards - updates must be DL from Intel site.
Bios was updated Nov. 2002 - shortly after this beeping annoyance began.

Also, this board bios does not allow for any access to RAM settings - jumper seems pretty worthless.

Now that I've had my rant, I can go on to more important projects.

If anybody has any other insight regarding this issue, please let me know.

TIA

 

[GulfBreeze]

I liked the speaker idea!