Graphics Corruption & Crashes - Sam440ep-flex, 1024 MB RAM

With 512 megs of RAM, my Sam440 system worked fine.

I added a second 512M DIMM, the same as the other module, and now I get random graphics corruption, usually black lines or dots in the back of windows.

They repeat; for instance, if I get a pattern like:
| | | | |
in a window and drag the window bigger, the pattern adds on to fill it up.

I also sometimes get random black dots near icons.

It does it with Compositing turned on or off, though it does it a lot less without compositing.

And I'm getting a lot more random crashes.


The memory passes a memory test OK.


Using a 128 meg Radeon 9250 card.

Anyone have any ideas?

@jbni

http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/v ... p?topic_id=28999&forum=14

whole thread about it

@jbni

I wouldn't worry too much about that

@Slayer

... You wouldn't worry about 'lots more random crashes'? A computer isn't very usable if you can't trust it to not lose your data constantly!


It looks like the only real 'solution' is to remove half the RAM. And that sucks.

Switch your USB Mouse and Keyboard until it works .Normal?use USB behind for USB Mouse and Keyboard .UP is for mouse down for Keyboard.I had the same problem.

@jbni

Well I am typing this on a SAM Flex - see my sig - with 1gM and I'm not worried about it... my 667Mhz is still retired

My SAM Flex only freezes when I use IBrowse and that's just something I must accept until either IBrowse is updated or I stop using IBrowse...

I don't know why you or anyone else is having problems, all I did was follow instructions too...

@all

(same post I did on AW a few minutes ago)

there is an easy way to test if the board is fully functional, install Linux and test the Flex with it.
Just download Debian from here:

http://www.acube-systems.biz/download ... testing-sam440ep-CD-1.iso

If the board shows no problems (as we expect), then you have to wait for an AOS4.1 fix from Hyperion (which is under work already)
In case you have the same problems with Linux too, we'll replace the board under warranty.

Could the Memory Limit: 512MB option in uboot be causing problems?

@All

On my Sam Flex 667 System I tried as another suggested. Disconnecting the SATA cable from the DVDR drive solved the graphic corruption issues for me totally with the full 1 Gig Ram installed, even with compositing turned on. As soon as I connect the SATA cable it all comes back.

Perhaps those of you that aren't having the problem with 1 Gig installed are using a different brand of CDRW/DVDR drive? Mine is an LG 22X DVDRW.

I also tried limiting the memory in U-Boot Prefs to 512 Megs instead of the full 1024 and that didn't work.

@Jeff

I think it's a power drain problem,

CDROM+1GRAM = Does not work.
CROM+512MB = Does work.
No CDROM+1GRAM = Does work.

I can't see any other logic the PSU being the problem.

Is it possible to use 1 1Gb ram memory module instead of 2 512Mb ones ?
It should maybe fix the problem.

@freddix

I was thinking more along the lines of the memory chips
themselves it would be interesting to see if these problems could be related to the Brand, speed of these modules Are we all using the same modules? and what ram modules is Slayer using.
Food for thought.

@jbni
I've had a SAM Flex for about 2 weeks now and have the same or similar problems. I can get rid of the vertical black lines in my windows by changing the SYS:WBPattern Windows Picture settings. I changed mine to an small old IFF image and set "Tile" for the layout. Other settings changes in WBPattern have been reported to help. My small black dots around icons and in text with 1GB remain. AmigaKit seems to believe that this is a software issue (OS 4.1) but I ramain skeptical; especially when other users claim 1GB is working fine on their systems. I disconnected the SATA cable from my Optical drive (DVD/RW) and the small black dots disappeared. That sure makes it seem like a hardware issue to me. The system didn't seem any more stable but I'm going to try the SATA disconnection again just to be sure.

@Slayer
Quote:
I can think of a number of possibilities including the possiblity that you have a different Optical drive and power supply. However, I'd like to know a couple of other things about your system. What revision is your motherboard? Which PCI slot do you have your video card installed in?

@bigmac
Both of my 512MB modules work fine alone in either memory slot. I ran memtester on them and they checked out O.K. The fact that the graphics corruption clears up when I disconnect the SATA cable seems to indicate that somethings wrong other than the memory modules themselves. I suppose it might be possible that they are not compatible with each other or something. I don't want to wait 6 months for a software upgrade only to discover it doesn't solve the problem. I don't see any of the OS 4.1 devs on these forums telling us that it's a software issue that will eventually fixed. It seems like they would be speaking up if that were the case.

@m3x
Quote:
It seems most would rather speculate, complain and come up with wild theories instead of doing your test but to each their own I suppose.

@m3x
I started to D/L your Linux ISO but when I noticed that it was over 700 MB. That would probably take about 3 days to D/L on my dialup connection, especially when the hardware handshake to the modem doesn't work because of the 4 wire serial port. Is the CD for sale on your site? I'd be willing to pay to get it in the mail.

@m3x

Quote:

Which install do i use, to install this on my SamFlex ?

Its ok........I've Sussed it !

Have any new SAM Flex users installed ACube's Linux CD to see if that cures the 1GB graphics corruption? As I said earlier, I'm on Dialup and can't D/L the disk until I find someone to D/L it for me and burn it to a CD.

@m3x

Unfortunatly a full CD ISO is too much for me to download. (This is a high speed connection, but I'm limited in how much I can use per month. Sucks, but nothing I can do about it!)

I'm going to have someone else download it and mail the disc to me.


Is this just a Sam440 Linux distro, or is there some sort of test application on it? If it's a test app, perhaps the disc could be pared down some? :)