• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

T-Bred B Cache Issue..?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

a c i d.f l y

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2003
Location
Austin, TX, USA
What can I do besides updating my BIOS to fix my L2 cache only reading 64Kb? When I boot up, it reads as Unknown CPU blah blah MHz or XXXX+.

Is the chip faulty? ..and is there any way to correct this? Would contacting AMD do any good? Benchmarks aren't that much different from the 256Kb L2 (only by like ~10-20 points on a 2500 scale). Should I even worry about this?

-Frank
 
I don't think this is something to worry about. It's just another bug. Having only 64Kb of L2 cache would give you way less performance.
That's what i think.

YviE
 
AMD's own software? As in what? Their CPU reader program? It gives me the same thing. But the program knows its an AthlonXP 1700+, but the same cache reading. And my BIOS is up to date, and all that... curious.

-Frank
 
There was a thread a while back where someone had this - they tried a different chip and it read the full 256k fine. I think it was a defective chip.

(That or you may have gotton one of those "new" Durons ;) )
 
have you tried using a cpuid in windows to read the chip? Also benchmark it and see how it compares to your chip.

And i did read a thread a while back (glock something was his name) about a guy who did have a defective chip, he got it rma'd.
 
Yep, try running GCPUID from my sig, and see if it says 64KB, if it does then update BIOS if it still does, the chip is propably faulty
 
RMA? I got it June 12. I emailed Excaliber, but I had to cancel that internet service, thus losing the email response I might have gotten... :(

Would AMD do anything?

-Frank

*Edit: PS. You people don't ****ing read, do you? i.e. I already said I have the most updated BIOS, it is 1.06, check Albatron's site, I have the KX-400+Pro (Like the sig says), and if its a Duron, which, btw, wasn't funny, it is a ~2.3GHz Duron...
 
Last edited:
Similar thing happened to me recently with my old 2400+. L2 cache showed up as 64K (but with no associated performance loss) and the CPU wasn't recognised. In addition, I lost multiplier control, it would randomly choose multipliers for itself. Did the same thing in two different boards. Dead chip.

Yours may be dying... :(
 
If you screw with the L9 bridges you can reduce your cache to 128K or 64K, for real.
 
I would try another chip to see if it's your mobo.....and if it's not that then I would rma it to amd.....if it's oem it gets a one year....and if it's box it gets 3......GoodLuck :)
 
It has been like this since the day I got it. I'm thinking its the motherboard, and I can't verify that because I have no other motherboard to put it into, nor another similar chip to test in this mobo. I purchased it on June 12, but I have no official receipt for it. I don't know where I put it. Got lost when I moved to Houston. Grrr...

RMA'ing to AMD will cause me to get a different stepping. What a hassle. Like I said, there is no apparent performance loss?

-Frank
 
If there is no apparent performance loss then I would suggest then it has indeed got 256 KB L2 cache - despite what the readings say.
 
My XP 2400+ chip suffered from this very same problem. Had to totaly replace the chip with a barton 2500.
 
You know what's crazy. I have a sucky *** heatsink (Volcano 6Cu) that only has the horrible thermal resistance of .33, and I can get 2,250MHz (180x12.5) at only 1.675V. After burning in for the past 24 hrs. my temps went from 46°C to 43°C load. Case temps of 24-26°C. I think that's pretty good. Especially having such old hardware over all (PC2100 Samsung ram, and 5400rpm drives). And my AGP/PCI/BUS do not have locked values. PCI bus is at 45MHz. Which is crazy to me... but it runs stable as possible (doesn't crash or have any glitches even during full load).

Too bad it isn't reading properly :(.

One thing I haven't done is e-mail my motherboard manufacturer and see what they have to say...

-Frank
 
In my case the cache was basicly broke when I took the CPU from 133 FSB to 187 FSB. the only cause I could think of for my case was the HSF wasn't makeing full contact on the area of the die where the L2 cache is.

About the best thing you can do at this point is replace the CPU with a xp 2500+ and then use a SK7/TT Smartfan2 combo to cool it. that'll cost you around $130 US at newegg.com. :(
 
Back