[SunHELP] re: cpu problems

[Fletcher, Joe]

Err, fraid it's not reassuring if you've got all the current patches in. All
the aggregate
patch kits contain the "fix" for the ecache problem. In effect SUN took a
shortcut when designing the UII and didn't use ECC on the cache memory. The
result is you can get uncorrected cache errors and the thing baarfs. The fix
is a cache scrubbing mechanism which does a sort of cleanup to try to reduce
the error rates. If you have all the patches on and it's still crashing with
ecache errors then you I'm afraid you may have another problem. Based on my
recent experiences and what to me is a significant group of other users at
other sites the Ultra II is a seriously ropey bit of kit. I've just had both
CPUs and a motherboard swapped out in an E420R with another machine due to
get it's chips swapped as soon as I can get it scheduled. I have 9 other
confirmed sites who have experienced the same symptoms as me on their
E220/420 hardware with anecdotal indications of several more.

Right now I wish we'd bought Compaq DS20s instead.


-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Wallace [mailto:andreww51 at totalise.co.uk]
Sent: 30 March 2001 18:33
To: sunhelp at sunhelp.org
Subject: [SunHELP] re: cpu problems


Thanks Joe that's kind of reassuring ... I think.

We've got all recommended patches installed.

Is there a specific patch we need?

What are the workarounds you mention?

Andrew

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