[hemmerling] SIS630 Computers 2/4 - Clevo 2700c Notebooks with RAM Problem
- My Clevo 2700c ( in non-fastboot Mode ) crashes after Reboot from Linux
- Reporting of the Fault, Reports by other Users, Is the Reason for Failure a faulty RAM ?

[hemmerling] SIS630 Computers 2/4 - Clevo 2700c Notebooks with RAM Problem

My Clevo 2700c ( in non-fastboot Mode ) crashes after Reboot from Linux

I prefer to let the notebook execute a memory test after power-on. To do so, the BIOS option “Startup / Fast Boot” must not be marked. I am running the newest BIOS available at the time of writing this article. The trouble happens, if I run Linux 2.4.x and then execute the Linux command “reboot” ( or if press ctrl-alt-del ) as user “root”: The notebook does a cold boot, i.e. the memory test is executed. In opposite, when rebooting from Win98SE, there is just a warm boot, i.e. the memory test is not executed. Remember that any desktop PC does a cold boot when rebooting from Win98SE ! If I do not cancel the memory test by pressing the “space” key, the notebook crashes at a certain memory test address.
The memory test address displayed depends on
- The BIOS firmware version
- The value of the “mem” parameter
and that's why I don't think that I have a hardware problem. Indeed, the BIOS does not allow to control the BIOS shadowing. I assume that some relevant data is overwritten during normal operation of any operating system, which prevents the BIOS from doing another cold boot ! My notebook is equipped with 256 MByte RAM, 16 MByte video RAM, so that 240 MByte RAM is available for Linux. I activated the video framebuffer in the Linux kernel.
Now with the current BIOS version “SystemSoft MobilePRO BIOS Version 1.01 (2482-00)-(R1.11), SystemSoft Plug-n-Play BIOS Ver 1.17.01” ( download file name “2xCR111.zip” ), I get the following results:
- Linux loaded by LOADLIN.EXE with no mem parameter, or Linux loaded by a bootdisk:
```
Extended Memory 0232704Fatal -
RAM Error at Location E441080H :
WROTE : [55555555H]kip the memory test
READ : [0000841AH]
```
With the older BIOS version “SystemSoft MobilePRO BIOS Version 1.01 (2482-00)-(R1.10), SystemSoft Plug-n-Play BIOS Ver 1.17.01” ( download file name “2xCR110.zip” ), I get the following results:
- Linux loaded by LOADLIN.EXE with no mem parameter, or Linux loaded by a bootdisk:
```
Extended Memory 231744Fatal -
RAM Error at Location 353080 :
WROTE: [00010010001101011110101010011001]
READ: [01010101010101010101010101010101]
```

Reporting of the Fault, Reports by other Users, Is the Reason for Failure a faulty RAM ?

The bug was reported to Clevo on 2001-10-27, by E-Mail! I would be very pleased if you try this by yourself with your Clevo notebook and tell me the results !
I already got a report about two Clevo 2700s notebooks by Matteo Munerati and a Clevo 2700c notebook by Joaquim Carvalho with the same behaviour !!
Vojtech Jakes experienced the same effect and found out that one of the memory DIMMs was faulty !

notebook, notebooks, computer, computers, sis, sis630, sis630s, sis630st, clevo, 2700c, 2200c, 2700s, 2200s, 2700t, 2200t, ram, error, fault, failure

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