So here is the situation: I upgraded from a Athlon 1200 to a 2600+ Thoroughbred core, 266 MHZ fsb. Auto detect on bios (Asus A7S333) figures out right settings OK, Linux rh9 boots fine...run apache 2.0...come back an hour later, system if frozen. Cold boot, RH9 goes through startup...very early in the starup phase, it encounters some sort of fault, dumps the processor registers and halts. IIRC, the last message said something about the file system BUT - it scrolled off the screen so fast I cant be sure. Tried several times, one time it got to starting up the xserver and halted - something about some file wrongly configured...
(Eventho Apach was running, not connected to network so not hacked)..

What I could use some help on is:
1. Was/is there anything I should have done/do to RH9 to accomodate the new CPU? e.g. are there any processor dependencies in the system that I need to configure?

2. Is there a relatively easy way to rebuild RH9, or single step the startup so I can actually see where it chokes?
I really don't want to do a reinstall of RH9, time is an issue..but the way its failing doesnt necessarly point to bad sw.
According to Asus, I have the correct MB, new CPU, Asus certified memory with the processor, 256 MB 2700 RAM, and the latest BIOS. Bios has correctly ID's the CPU and adjusted settings. Still, the way it boots and flakes our makes me think its a memory problem...but I dont' know if I need to change anything in RH9

TIA - help is appreciated.
John

Hi,
Just taking a quick shot at your dilema I would get another 256 meg of ram atleast. Use top to see what processes are running after you reboot machine and shut off all things running that you do not need. Kill em. Sounds like processor and m/b are fine. I only use Asus there the best... You can never have to much memory.
Rick

what is kernel version. might not support correctly your new CPU.
to fix this you can just update your kernel and it might fix itself
check kernel with uname- a

I bet your CPU is fried. Could have been a lemon, since it ran for an hour the first time. If it had bombed out sooner would have guessed you didn't put heatsink on correctly.

uniquelogin: how did you go?

Have you tried to boot into runlevel 3 and use the commandline to see what is happening? You can also examine the syslog from the rescue mode.

Of course: there's the usual speal to use an up-to-date OS instead.

Thanks for your collective suggestions:
1. Memory may be an issue but I discounted it because it is a p/n that is certified by Asus for this board and CPU speed. But it could be out of spec, resulting in inconsistent timing issues when talking to the cpu..
2. I checked the temp with onboard bios after it punted running for about an hour. Seemed steady at 56 degrees C...about 4 degrees C warmer than the 1200. What I didn't check is the power rating of each CPU and note the difference.
3. I don't know how to boot to rl 3. A pointer would be helpful. Yea, the OS update seems to be what everyone throws out, but the fact is to my knowledge, the OS is compiled to target the 2600 ISA. There should be no architecture issues here.

So, am I correct in my understanding that there is no system 'tweaks' that need to be done when changing CPU? I've never had any issue like this when upgrading CPUs with the evil empire Windoz.
Again, thanks for the help
John

Right. Definitely soundls like a hardware issue. And since you only changed one piece of hardware... But if you want to prove it just boot a live CD like Knoppix and see what happens. LiveCDs re-detect your hardware on every boot.

I'm also willing to bet if you install windows on the box it'll lock up too.