can L2 cache (only) be fried on 2100 TBred B?

[Muze]

Dear all,

On a Gigabyte 7vrxp with Thunderbred B XP 2100 (and latest bios),
I am having boot up problems after my graphics card fried itself for some unknown reason (no OC by the way). I get no signal on the monitor and the monitor 'pangs'. This is after replacing the graphics of course. If I switch the CPU only to entirely different system, including different monitor etc. I have the same problems so I think it is the CPU. Sometimes however, it does boot, but when I run memtest it only reports an L1 cache. For the L2, it reports "unknown". Now, this is the latest memtest and it DOES report an L2 cache of 256 for an XP 1800, so I am wondering the following:

Does this sound like a fried CPU and it is possible to only fry the L2? So is the fact that memtest cannot report it REAL?

Thanks much,
Bridget

 

[LtBlue14]

L2 cache can often be disabled in the bios, so you'll want to make sure it's enabled there
if you're running winXP, check out the guides below (i believe it's the 2nd guide) because sometimes winXP doesn't recognize L2 cache and utilize it. you can make sure it does with these tweaks
hope you didn't fry your cpu =/

<A HREF="http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=120&dPage=1" target="_new">WinXP tweak guide</A>
<A HREF="http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=145&dPage=1" target="_new">WinXP tweak guide 2</A>

 

[Spitfire_x86]

I've heard Metalrocker frying his MMX/3D Now! units. So it's possible to burn only the L2 cache.

Submit your opinion <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=28537#28537" target="_new"> Should Tom Fire Omid? </A>

 

[Muze]

Thanks for your replies.

I run Win2k and as far as I know, you can't enable it through Win2k software. I also looked in the gigabyte 7vrxp bios but unlike EPOX boards, it does not seem to have an option to disable/enable the L2 cache. If anyone has found it though, please enlighten me. I have the bios of November 2002 which is the latest. (They say you can get into advanced mode by pressing CTRL-F1 rather than delete during start up but this does not work for me). I do get access to the screen with DRAM timings so I assume that is the advanced setup they are talking about, but still no caching options.

I will try and get a replacement today. Hopefully they will accept this!

Bridget

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

heh heh....that was on an old T-Bird 700....i still have it lying around sum where......i should take screen captures of SiSoft Sandra CPU and Multi-Media test...this thing pumps out better #'s than a Overclocked P4 3.06GHz.....and everytime u hit the UPDATE button the 3's rise more and more...lol...its funny....

the CPU itself still works, and woudl do well in like a server....but dont bother trying to play any music that requires sound decoding from the CPU, or playing DVD's, MPEG movies, or looking at .JPG Pictures.......it wont work =) looks like a bunch of random coloured pixels.......and the audio u can only really hear out of the right channel, the left channel comes out as a bunch of computer noises and static...hard to explain....its funny though....

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>