For those of you currently running or contemplating the K7 Thunder, DO NOT install BIOS version 2.06. It will cause all sorts of wierdness to your rig. My system would continually reboot by itself during all different times. I downgraded to 2.05, and all seems well. Keep in mind that Tyan has released a new K7 Thunder which has an updated AMD approved 462 socket. What does this mean? Who knows. This has to be serious enough to have AMD tell Tyan to change the 462 sockets that they use. As many of you know, I was supposed to provide the SCSI review of the K7 Thunder, but this system has never worked properly. I am talking with Tyan on almost a daily basis. I am trying to get my K7 Thunder replaced. I suggest you wait until this dual processor technology hoopla stabilizes itself. If any of you are running SCSI rigs, I can almost guarantee that you will have problems. The K7 Thunder has not been tested with many SCSI RAID adapters. The only ones that are certified are low-end Adaptec crap and one AMI controller.
If you are runnig the K7 Thunder, make this your resource centre. I will then provide this information to Tyan in California. Also, I will update this thread as more headaches develope.
It looks like I picked the wrong day to stop drinking...
Update
It is still crashing to DOS with BIOS version 2.05.
I just tried going back to V2.05 on my MB and it didn't make any difference either. It still reboots randomly. It will even reboot from the Adaptec SCSI BIOS screen too. I've also tried several configurations of enabling/disabling the USB/SCSI/LAN/Floppy/Serial/Parallel/Power options and doesn't seem to make any difference.
My system would randomly lock up on the v. 1.01 BIOS. Once I finally got Windows 2000 installed on this board, the board would produce a black screen with Nvidia's latest Detonator drivers.
Once I updated the BIOS to 2.06, the Detonator drivers work fine, and my system has been pretty stable.
This board DEFINATELY has some major quirks with it.
Originally posted by dieu For those of you currently running or contemplating the K7 Thunder, DO NOT install BIOS version 2.06. It will cause all sorts of wierdness to your rig. My system would continually reboot by itself during all different times. I downgraded to 2.05, and all seems well. Keep in mind that Tyan has released a new K7 Thunder which has an updated AMD approved 462 socket. What does this mean? Who knows. This has to be serious enough to have AMD tell Tyan to change the 462 sockets that they use. As many of you know, I was supposed to provide the SCSI review of the K7 Thunder, but this system has never worked properly. I am talking with Tyan on almost a daily basis. I am trying to get my K7 Thunder replaced. I suggest you wait until this dual processor technology hoopla stabilizes itself. If any of you are running SCSI rigs, I can almost guarantee that you will have problems. The K7 Thunder has not been tested with many SCSI RAID adapters. The only ones that are certified are low-end Adaptec crap and one AMI controller.
If you are runnig the K7 Thunder, make this your resource centre. I will then provide this information to Tyan in California. Also, I will update this thread as more headaches develope.
It looks like I picked the wrong day to stop drinking...
Update
It is still crashing to DOS with BIOS version 2.05.
This is an excellent thread. Keep up the good work. I will present this information to Tyan California this afternoon.
Update:
I have confirmed that the problems do NOT lie within the BIOS or my SCSI RAID controller. The problem is with the K7 Thunder architecture and or the Adaptec SCSI controller itself.
I would NOT purchase the K7 Thunder until you are assured that there is a revision B available. This board does NOT operate properly.
I will update/change this thread when more information develops.
So, What does this mean for us Owners of the board already?? More Bios upgrade to address whatever problems, a recall of boards from Tyan themselves? or were just stuck with it??
Quote:
Originally posted by dieu This is an excellent thread. Keep up the good work. I will present this information to Tyan California this afternoon.
Update:
I have confirmed that the problems do NOT lie within the BIOS or my SCSI RAID controller. The problem is with the K7 Thunder architecture and or the Adaptec SCSI controller itself.
I would NOT purchase the K7 Thunder until you are assured that there is a revision B available. This board does NOT operate properly.
I will update/change this thread when more information develops.
I'm afraid to say. Today, this board gets my thumbs down! Actually, I believe there are numerous problems with it. It failed to run with ONLY ONE hard drive and the on-board ATI video with the BIOS set to default. That’s' it. EVERY configuration I tried FAILED. There IS something wrong with this revision A. Personally, I believe there is some type of timing or ACPI problem. When I disabled ACPI the system failed to boot. Normally, ACPI can be disabled without a problem. In addition, the Adaptec SCSI controller is flawed as well. I realize that these are harsh words, but without some type of resolution, I will stand firm.
I can’t even explain the countless reboots, black screens, inactive blinking cursors, and error messages. These problems occur with such randomness, it is impossible to identify the problems. In fact, try disabling your SCSI ROM and LAN ROM, and see the crazy error message you get. Tyan couldn’t even figure it out.
I recommend contacting Tyan in the interim. The problem is, there are just not enough owners of the K7 Thunder to convey these problems yet.
Quote:
Originally posted by y2mi hey DieU
So, What does this mean for us Owners of the board already?? More Bios upgrade to address whatever problems, a recall of boards from Tyan themselves? or were just stuck with it??
It's gotten so bad with my Thunder that I can't even get into the BIOS setup anymore. I just hear this little clicking noise from the PC Speaker. I never get a POST screen.
If you can, please list your EXACT system configuration, BIOS, etc.
Quote:
Originally posted by BHayes It's gotten so bad with my Thunder that I can't even get into the BIOS setup anymore. I just hear this little clicking noise from the PC Speaker. I never get a POST screen.
Well...I guess all the fiddling has taken it's toll. The MB is now completly DEAD. I flashed up to V2.06 again and the flashing went fine. I turned off the computer and now nothing. Monitor LED never turns green no beeps from the speaker. I tried to do a CMOS reset, but it didn't do anything.
Right before I flashed up to V2.06 I got the system to start running semi-stable again. I think the seal between my Taisol heatsinks and the CPUs aren't very good. So I removed the little sponge feet from the CPU and re-installed the heatsinks with thermal grease(Be careful if you decide to try this...you can crush your CPU). After I did that I was able to get back into Win2k and the system seemed stable again. But alas...I had to tinker.
Originally posted by BHayes Well...I guess all the fiddling has taken it's toll. The MB is now completly DEAD. I flashed up to V2.06 again and the flashing went fine. I turned off the computer and now nothing. Monitor LED never turns green no beeps from the speaker. I tried to do a CMOS reset, but it didn't do anything.
Right before I flashed up to V2.06 I got the system to start running semi-stable again. I think the seal between my Taisol heatsinks and the CPUs aren't very good. So I removed the little sponge feet from the CPU and re-installed the heatsinks with thermal grease(Be careful if you decide to try this...you can crush your CPU). After I did that I was able to get back into Win2k and the system seemed stable again. But alas...I had to tinker.
I just got my Thunder K7 Rev. A today, and I am already having problems. For some weird reason, when I first turn on my PC it actually loads up to Win 2K (But reeaaally slowww). But whenever I do a warm boot, the speaker gives me a 1-2-1-2 error code, but then it proceeds to load perfectly fine except that it crashes as it loads Win 2K. I can't even flash the BIOS, because I cannot connect to Tyan's website or FTP in order to download it right now (I guess it's down?). Another bizzare note, I have stripped my system entirely down to nothing except the CPUs and an AGP video card (3D Prophet 4500), and this crap still happens! I tried using the onboard video and other PCI video cards, but I get nothing on my display (Yes, I have checked my jumpers). Well, I am really pissed right now, and I was hoping that you guys could give me some answers?
Just wanted to post a couple of thoughts 'bout this.
Seems that Tyan was working on this board for a LONG time and would (should) have ironed out most of the inconsistancies and general system incompatibilities.
Also there are people that have had little or no problems with the board as it is, so that pretty much eliminates serious design flaws.
The first and best suggestion I have is process of elimination-- start fresh and simple (as few components as possible) and see if you can establish stability. If that is possible, slowly add more components, testing as you go. If it is not possible to establish a stable "clean install" system then there is something wrong and you will have to try a few other things.
I would have to imagine that the components used on the boards are consistantly simular between boards, but it is still possible that, for example, a bad batch of resistors or whatever got into production and passed testing. If that is the case, and if no other solution works, then Tyan should send you a replacement that, (hopefully ) is from another batch and thus works.
Also, (and this is another distinct possibility considering my past experiences) there may be a problem with the power supply. I don't know any of the details or tolerances, but I do know that the Athlon's require plenty of clean power. It may be that the power supplies are even within spec, but they may still be causing a problem. (I imagine that an smp athlon system requires even more stable power.) Obviously it would be nice to try another supply but I don't imagine that you have one kicking around...
You could try making sure that the system is on it's own circuit, so that changes in voltage are minimal...(like having it on the same circuit as the fridge would be a BAD idea ) Also try a ups to stablize the power, preferably a decent one that will normalize both spikes and drops. (I think most of them do that nowadays...) I used to have "slight" brownouts where I live, (the voltage would drop) which caused my old k6 system to do all kinds of wierd things...a ups solved the problem.
Also, check the seating of all the chips (and cards and RAM) on the board by pressing them firmly into the sockets. And if you get a chance, check the stability of the Athlons on another system.
I don't know if any of that helps, I think having plenty of clean power could be a problem though, it has caused problems for me in the past, completely random and wierd hangs, boots, reboots, crashes, blue screens etc. at any time, 1 min. or 1 day after booting. I'm sure that these systems are WAY more sensitive than my old k6.
Other than that, good luck with it, and hopefully Tyan will sort it out for you.
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) is from another batch and thus works.
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