[coreboot] Is PI-AM2RS780G supported ?

[David Hendricks]

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 12:30 AM, David Hendricks <dhendrix at google.com>wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 2:28 AM, Alois Schlögl <alois.schloegl at tugraz.at>wrote:
>
>>  The reason for asking is the bug as described here:
>> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13573
>>
>> The bug is affecting my research at the university.
>> It was suggested that a Bios-update could solve the problem.
>
>
> IIRC you can disable thermal throttling, but it's usually not a good idea
> if you expect to keep your machine running with reasonable performance under
> load. If the vendor BIOS had the proper tables (See section 2.4.2 on
> P-States in the AMD BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide for Fam10 processors),
> your CPU would slow itself down to avoid generating too much heat. If you
> disable thermal throttling and continue to run your workload, your CPU will
> hit "Tjunction" at around 116 degrees C and shut itself off abruptly,
> possibly after physical damage has been done to the CPU or the socket.
>
> I would suggest starting with something much simpler, like making sure you
> have quality thermal transfer compound applied in the proper quantity for
> your CPUs. I know it sounds stupid, but I have seen many machines from many
> datacenters with very powerful rack cooling overheat under heavy loads due
> to improperly applied thermal grease. There are many tutorials and videos on
> how to do this. Make sure you clean off the old thermal grease first with a
> high-concentration isopropyl alcohol (>90%) first.
>

Oh, and while you're at it make sure the heatsinks are securely fastened.
After you re-apply thermal grease, tighten the screws such that they will
not turn any more. The mounting points on the motherboard will ensure the
maximum threshold is not exceeded, though I suggest tightening one about
80-90%, then the second one 100%, then finish the first one to apply the
pressure more evenly.

Just another very silly thing that can cause unexpected behavior under heavy
workloads...

-- 
David Hendricks (dhendrix)
Systems Software Engineer, Google Inc.
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