the i840 - end of the road...beginning of the hell for the p

[arcus 0]

Well..the powers that be at intel have pulled the plug on the SRAM boards from both classes..

 

the 820's are already done..the i840's are going to be recalled in their entirety later this week.

 

How do I know.. had a problem with the tyan 2400. and a big and enduring problem with tyan over it. which is on the verge of going legal with their "remedy" to the situation.

to ship me two unstable (refurbished)1837 thunderbolt boards to replace my new 2400 thunder board. after jerking me around 8 days on the phone and costing me two contracts. Normally I'm pretty cool with things and I'm not going to say they didn't try entirely. but a huge phonebill, lost work and the replacement of the board with refurbished ones?

what the hell?

 

the terms of the settlement and where to send them back to is being worked out over the last week..

so they couldn't even tell me where to send it back to. figure I'll hear something eventually. personally, I hope theuir current development goes well..they've got some really cool stuff coming for the fall..

 

its just that that didn't and continues not to help me in the meantime..and for those wondering. It appears intels going with the same rambus swap they did on the 820's. upto 256 maxx..which leaves the professionals out in the cold..once again..

 

I say go with the serverworks boards when their available..the specs I won't discuss here but they look s*** hot and superior to the intel spec for the 840 in nearly every way.

 

I'm not going to pound tyan on this. not their fault. this like the 820 goes straight to intels doorstep. damn i miss andy groves some days (paranoid megalomanic was a ***** but damned if he couldn't keep the company on track and in most cases from shipping bullsh**)

[Ronin 0]

WOW!

 

That's interesting. I have the same MB and have not had any problems out of it. I did have a memory problem but that was due to the fact that I was trying to use ****ass memory. Sorry to hear you have had peoblems, but I will not be sending my board back. It's working great. No lockups, no hardware problems, not a single issue.

 

 

 

------------------

My Windows 2000 System:

 

Dual Intel 850's

Tyan Thunder 2400 MB

Onboard Intel 82559 NIC

512 Megs Ram

Adaptec 39160 Ultra 160

1 - 18 Gig Cheetah - U160

2 - 18 Gig Cheetah U2W

1 - Maxtor 60 Gig (IDE)

SB Live Platinum

Plextor 12/4/32 - Burner

Plextor 40x UW CD-Rom

10x Sony DVD Drive

Hercules Geforce 2 64meg

Dual V2 Cards, for D2

Viewsonic PF815 22" Monitor

...

My Win ME System:

 

PIII 733

Asus P3C4X MB

256 Megs PC133 Mem

Adaptec U2W Scsi Card

1 - 9 Gig Cheetah 10K

48x IDE CD-Rom

CL Geforce DDR

ESS 1371 Sound Card

[arcus 0]

You might want to keep this in mind though..

according to the tech dept..no forthcoming updates will be supported on either the firmare or bios of the board..meaning it won't be garaunteed for future expansion or capability and unfortunately acpi will have another revision with win2001...but the stance on things may indeed change depending on what the professional community does in reaction to all this..

 

hell they [intel] might even actually try to fix it...

[Ronin 0]

I'm curious? What problems are or where you having? I'll wait and see if and when there is an announcement on there web site regarding the problem. This is the first I have heard of the i840 having problems. Intel is not saying anything about it, Tyan is not saying anything about it. There was a post not to long ago on this board from someone who was having problems with his 2400 and he reported that tech support was going to release a bios update to fix his problems. I have not seen any such update on there site. The latest bios release is 2 months old. So not that I don't believe you but I'll wait for concrete news on the i840 being dead as you say it is. I'm real curious to know what the major flaw with the i840 chipset is???

 

..

 

...

[Ronin 0]

By the time Win2001 is out or whatever they are going to call it, most people myself included will already have upgraded to something better. Well at least the hardcore people will have. So this so called problem with the i840 will in no way mess up my plans for upgrading.

 

...

[arcus 0]

whole thing went a bit like this..ronin

you're blessed that you've had no problems..whether by virtue of luck or lack of hardware requirements..who knows..

I'm pretty demanding but I'm also a system builder..so I already know theoretically what the spec can support..but without proper bios support or anything else..what to do?

 

the 2400 had these problems out of the shoot. definitely not tested for pro use or much else for that matter. the config was unworkable and crashed incessantly.

 

configed as

2400 board..revision b

dual 667mhz 133mhz cpus

2 gb pc133 sram

creative geforce pro ddr (unworkable because of irq locking in the bios - bios problem 1)

creative sblive w/livedrive II 9onboard sound wouldn't shut off, even with bios fix and crashed the sblive - bios problem 2)

creative usb modem

creative drx3

promise fastrak66 with dual raid 0 configuration (raid card knocked out the onboard scsi - bios problem 3)

seagate 18.1 lvd hd

6 wd 20.5 gb hd - 4 on the raid controller

creative 8x4x32 cdrw - which didn't recognize on the secondary channel ide

creative 8x dvd

creative dvd-ram

seagate 20gb tape backup

iomega jaz -usb

iomega zip 250 -usb

hauppauge win-tv d

 

all bios related issues..now here's the funny part...ami refused to issue a fix.which tyan had already promised and hung me up almost 4 days for.which opened the discussion about lawyers and after that about intels plans to pull the chipset altogether from the person who did try to make the situation right for me or seemed to anyway at the time. the details of where and who gets the shaft and who covers what isn't worked out..which is why no post on the site I would expect.

 

they offered to and did ship two thunderbolts to fix the immediate downtime..but those were refurbs 9shocking to me-considering I didn't buy the 2400 as a refurb) and both are idiosyncratic (one with restart/reboot issues the other, simply doa) to the degree I'm not trusting either board and going to asus for a worthy replacement.

it's not that I want to grabass on their failure, its simply that I use these for my business, How the hell am I supposed to do much with any of that..?

 

truth be told..I think tyan licked the problem with the memory thing. but without intels support..ami or anyone else won't be able to much and it becomes yet another mess we can blame intel for.

 

a shame really...

still have faith they can make great boards but this has been one of those circumstances where it just didn't come together for me.

[arcus 0]

as far as belief in it..

 

I've been down for 15 days and lost about 20k over this so far. don't interpret this as a flam. it isn't.. simple to let you know it's on the horizon and what to expect. I don't know why they pulled it.. personally in anticipation of more memory issues or maybe to replace it with yet another bogus chipset or to further the rambus fiasco..who knows?

 

belief is simple..i've lost time, money and my nerves on this and been **** upon for my troubles.

I simply saw the tip of the iceberg, whether anyone has simlar problems results a\or even cares is irrelevant to me. simply letting it be known that its coming..is my ONLY point.

[Ronin 0]

Quote:

Originally posted by arcus:
whole thing went a bit like this..ronin
you're blessed that you've had no problems..whether by virtue of luck or lack of hardware requirements..who knows..
I'm pretty demanding but I'm also a system builder..so I already know theoretically what the spec can support..but without proper bios support or anything else..what to do?

the 2400 had these problems out of the shoot. definitely not tested for pro use or much else for that matter. the config was unworkable and crashed incessantly.

configed as
2400 board..revision b
dual 667mhz 133mhz cpus
2 gb pc133 sram
creative geforce pro ddr (unworkable because of irq locking in the bios - bios problem 1)
creative sblive w/livedrive II 9onboard sound wouldn't shut off, even with bios fix and crashed the sblive - bios problem 2)
creative usb modem
creative drx3
promise fastrak66 with dual raid 0 configuration (raid card knocked out the onboard scsi - bios problem 3)
seagate 18.1 lvd hd
6 wd 20.5 gb hd - 4 on the raid controller
creative 8x4x32 cdrw - which didn't recognize on the secondary channel ide
creative 8x dvd
creative dvd-ram
seagate 20gb tape backup
iomega jaz -usb
iomega zip 250 -usb
hauppauge win-tv d

all bios related issues..now here's the funny part...ami refused to issue a fix.which tyan had already promised and hung me up almost 4 days for.which opened the discussion about lawyers and after that about intels plans to pull the chipset altogether from the person who did try to make the situation right for me or seemed to anyway at the time. the details of where and who gets the shaft and who covers what isn't worked out..which is why no post on the site I would expect.

they offered to and did ship two thunderbolts to fix the immediate downtime..but those were refurbs 9shocking to me-considering I didn't buy the 2400 as a refurb) and both are idiosyncratic (one with restart/reboot issues the other, simply doa) to the degree I'm not trusting either board and going to asus for a worthy replacement.
it's not that I want to grabass on their failure, its simply that I use these for my business, How the hell am I supposed to do much with any of that..?

truth be told..I think tyan licked the problem with the memory thing. but without intels support..ami or anyone else won't be able to much and it becomes yet another mess we can blame intel for.

a shame really...
still have faith they can make great boards but this has been one of those circumstances where it just didn't come together for me.

What is that computer going to be used for?

Those specs are really strange. Hope it's not a server. I hope it's someones gaming rig or something. I'm not trying to be an ass just want to understand why you would be having such a problem. I know at least 4 people who have that board and are not having problems. Now they are using them in an enterprise environment.

...

[DrSchmoe 0]

Heheh...

 

No doubt, that is probably the strangest configuration I have ever seen.

 

Any gamer would be a little loopy (er, no offence). I mean seriously, what game requires 2GB of memory? And 120GB of hard disk space is a bit overboard. Maybe if you wanted to create a RAM drive and load your Diablo 2 installation into it, but that would still leave 512MB memory free

 

However, what is equally strange is that configuration isn't suited for rendering. GeForce hardware is an *extremely* far cry from professional quality rendering hardware. The output would be substandard, only really suitable for low-resolution. There would be way too much tearing and lots of lighting and edge problems.

 

As a server the memory makes sense, however the hard drives are all wrong. SCSI RAID-5 or RAID-50 would make a lot more sense. Not to mention, I don't know any servers needing a TV-tuner and GeForce =)

 

It looks like it could be used for video production, possibly as a NLE system slaved with an AVID or Play Inc. Trinity, but even then SCSI RAID and more capable video hardware would be *strongly* preferred. Not to mention NLE systems are actually fairly happy with smaller amounts of memory.

 

Also, interesting that the 56K USB modem is there! Gotta love that blazing Internet connectivity =)

 

Jack of all trades, but master of nothing, I guess!

 

[This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 13 July 2000).]

[Ronin 0]

Ya,

 

That's my point exactly what would you use that system for. I have 24 servers at my office all of which are either Compaq or clones built by myself. They are all scsi raid-5 and are either single PII or PIII and they are using high-end mb. They don't have the Geforce or any of that other crap. I would imagine if I threw all that stuff into them then they would not run right etiher. But you simply don't do that when building a server. The memory is right but all the other hardware is a problem. I'm not trying to start anything but...what the HELL is that system being used for.

 

My personal system uses the same MB, but I don't have all that stuff thrown into it. I think I'm going to go home tonight and try to replicate his problem on my system. I think I could grab enough stuff here at the office to make it happen, then I'll be posting a message with my problems in the morning. Na I'm just kidding.

 

I'm waiting with baited breath to see the news on Intel and Tyan's web sites regarding the recall of every i840 MB out there. The i840 MB has been out just as long as the ill faited i820 I think we would have known about the problem a long time ago. Still I'm not saying that's it not true, just think it's an isolated case.

 

...

[DrSchmoe 0]

[censored]... It has got to be [censored].

 

Whenever you don't know what something is being used for, isn't it always [censored]? That would explain the consumer quality hardware. [censored] never has a high production value.

[arcus 0]

video and audio development as well as vb and sql programming..

 

1gb ramdisk config..like I said a professional use machine..

 

you guys don't get out much do you?

[DrSchmoe 0]

Out? What's that? Is that where pizza comes from?

 

[arcus 0]

well, servers are overratted...and a bit burdensome for media authoring..though advanced server does seem like a nice option..maybe after I sort out the other silliness..

 

this is more of a workstation

 

the oddity of the wintv-d

 

hdtv monitoring on the input

 

the majority of the work is done in multitrack audio and midi

video is only for sync purposes and I can't justify a targa type board for simple monitoring

 

the geforce..simply for overhead..seemed the logical choice..although I really seem to not like those video cards that much..problems with irq locking and lack of compatibility but I guess mileage varies

 

the other components are simply practical..raid 0 pairs..

 

speed..not mirroring

 

the scsi lvd boot disk for the same

 

the dvd ram as a scratch disk for working

the cdr is obvious

 

the other components are just as they are..

the modem is a throwback..

never use it

 

dsl access..but figured it might be useful for something so I keep it around

 

and yes, pizza schmoe

[arcus 0]

btw...

 

schmoe..ronin...can either of you tell me why exactly the config seems unworkable to either of you...or suggestions on the state of it

 

1 agp pro slot

6 pci slots

and intels vaunted *compatibility*

 

seems like it shoud have been fine

the same config worked without a hitch in the 1837 thunderbolts in two previous workstations..minus the geforce (tnt ultra in those)

 

and schmoe I'm mildly offended with the [censored] thing. I'm asking a serious question and making a serious statement. Not looking for a flame or an inquisition.

 

Ronin, I offered up the original post to let you and anyone else know what was going on in this specific case and that it affected the rest of you. Not to advise going one way or the other with it or doing anything at all if you choose. and definitely not to catch a slam over the fact I have a limited amount of resources to do my work in or the choices in hardware that came because of it.

 

I spec'd this as closely as I could to what the 840 was designed to support. did the footwork on compatibility and still came up empty. I already feel **** upon by tyan and intel over it and while I'm sure it amuses the hell out of poeple to see others suffering with problems..I kind of felt bitten for trying let anyone know there is a problem and some sort of forthcoming action (whatever form it takes) coming on the possibly isolated or not so isolated issues with this.

 

feel good about yourselves gentlemen..

but my day hasn't improved much for it

[ComputerMan 0]

Kool, finally we will not have to steal money from others in order to buy new RAM memory.....

[Ronin 0]

It's been 2 weeks since Arcus told everyone that Intel was going to pull the plug on the i840 chipset. Well I have not seen a word of this massive problem with the i840 chipset and I myself have not had any problems with my Tyan 2400 so what do we do now? People who make false statements should be hung upside-down by there balls till they are dead,dead,dead.

 

hehe,

 

Just kidding, come on people let's get our facts straight before we say something.

 

...

[arcus 0]

you know,

I certainly admire an otherwise amazing ability to walk past the obvious. You got the forward of the mail I got. I only know what I was told by the vp of marketing and by a rep from intel. The last I was told was pretty much wait for a decision on where to send the board back to. I also have two rehashed thunderbolts to show for the trouble (not a good move on their part) and pretty much moved on from it.

 

resolved the problem with the board though, interesting design. even promising but not quite upto much.

 

I am glad you got through yours alright, and its otherwise great yours works as it should (or seems to) but no luck here. No future support for yours (and that's the word from AMI not tyan) and whatever. Gave it some thought. Maybe Tyan made a bad move on this with me. Maybe they simply fed me this to get rid of me. maybe they didn't really mean for it to happen and maybe , just maybe they sent me 2 thunderbolts because they couldn't produce another 840 that works like yours? who knows..but more..does it matter.

 

but I will ask this.

does it matter that much to you that other people did have problems with it. More to the point, why berate me on the issue. I didn't produce the chipset or the design. it simply didn't work on this side. Tyan isn't shipping them. and who knows what will happen with it, if anything. Likely nothing if intel follows their usual track. The GX had heat problems in the first fab, it was known but treated on a by incident. It got fixed and didn't become a publicity issue and in the end the fix part was what counted. And the only part that counts on any part of it.

 

btw..I have read your posts on the sblive problems others are having. ood that you're blessed..some (most) seemingly aren't

You seem to have great luck, because I doubt it seriously it has anything to do with config savvy.

 

So don't bother being an ass to me

don't be an ass to the rest of them either.

I have my facts straight. but then again I only have the word of a marketing vp. is it worth much to me or anyone? This isn't a debate. simply a post I figured should be made, if they decide nothing, if they fix everything. Does it matter? Only to those effected.

 

but apparently not you

[Ronin 0]

I got the e-mail you sent, but that is just from Tyan. Like I said you are the only person I know who has (on this mb) had any problems with that mainboard. The way I see it, if there was such a huge problem with the i840 as there was with the i820 chip then we would here about it all over the net. Tyan's web site is not saying anything about the problem not to mention that there will not be any support for the 2400 like you say.

 

I do care that people have problems but when just a few people are having problems with a motherboard that does not mean when you say in your original post that the end is near for the i840 are we all to just rush find out what the problem is. I like clean hard facts and so far all I have is an e-mail and you saying that there is a problem with the 2400. I'll still wait and see if something happens but it did not take long for the problems with the i820 to surface and the i840 has been out for the same amount of time. Like I said I will play the wait and see but I don't see a recall happening just because of a few isolated problems. If your statement and the e-mail turn out to be true then I will have no problems admiting that I was an idiot. But I don't see that ever happening. I just don't open my mouth about something unless I know it to be true and Tyan tech support and an e-mail is not proof that there will be a recall.

 

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