IGT Fam 20 error

[Techguy]

Hey,

Getting this error when trying to run diagnostic on a Fam 20 cpu.

Any one can help?

[Stayouttadabunker]

What onscreen message do you get if you try to boot up without the Diagnostic USB?
The message is telling you something is wrong with the BIOS.

[Techguy]

Ok

So I left the machine alone for a bit and when i came back the machine started up but when i was clearing diagnostics the machine froze and restarted. When it restarted i checked and the OS, Foundation and game packages was removed from my previous attempt to clear. So i proceeded to reload the OS Foundation and Game packages. It allowed me to and upon restart with the E KEy to set the machine up it reached to a point and then restarted and just continued to loop there.

Was not able to try anything as that was the time i had.

[sccarlso]

What OS and Ascent versions are you loading?

There are many where I had crazy issues with like random reboots and such, rebooting while loading game images, etc.

I'd recommend you do a full wipe and prepare the drive with the diag key.  Then loading these versions for your OS and Ascent Foundation if they aren't what you're currently loading.

OI020SH00403
AI020000N0003

These were the most stable for me without any major issues using a 660 brainbox with 4GB of RAM, which I upgraded a week later to 8GB and it ran much better with the extra memory.

Also based on the bios issue you experienced.  Might make sure both the bios chips are seated properly.   One loose contact and that could cause the bios error, as well a random reboots.

I did have mine reboot randomly a few times when booted with the diag key when installing a lot of game titles at once.   So I loaded just a few to setup, then went back to diag and loaded the others, but not all at once.  And if it rebooted, I reinstalled the last game it shows is installed in addition to the remaining titles I was loading, as sometimes it would be corrupt from the reboot but still show as installed ok.   Once all was loaded, it was fine.

[Techguy]

Can a 660 CPU hold 8gb of ram? I though the max was 4gb?

[sixcardmark]

Can a 660 CPU hold 8gb of ram? I though the max was 4gb?

Depends on the OS.  Fam14 uses different OS than fam20, 4gb max fam14, 8gb max fam20

[sccarlso]

Getting harder to find DDR2 memory.   But was able to get a 4GB stick from two different sellers for 8GB.  Identical chips and worked perfectly.

They all have the same pics, and it's exactly what they look like, and specify for AMD only.   Here is one, but there are a few sellers of the same memory.
Some can't deliver for 3 weeks though, so I got mine via Amazon sellers with prime.  But the remaining sellers there don't have many left available.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZQ3HN6Z/

Not sure if it actually would cause problems with 8GB in a fam14 OS.  But since fam14 is a 32bit OS, it wouldn't change anything as only like 3.3GB is actually addressable with a 32bit OS.   I only put 8GB in my 660 box with fam20 boots siince fam20 is a 64bit OS, so as Mark mentioned, 8GB works.  No reason to do so at all for fam14.   Pretty sure 8GB is the max supported memory in the AVP 3.0 motherboards (with a 64bit OS installed).

[Techguy]

With regards to the error, the PCI card had two of the lights not working. Changed it and put new batteries in and everything worked fine.

I will definitely upgrade my ram because some games run a bit jerky with the audio skipping. Dark and Stormy is one game that's doing that so i guess the extra ram should help.

I put 4 games on the machine but ideally i would like to put 9 games.

[sccarlso]

Dark & Stormy was fine for me with only 4GB.

It just had some audio clipping.  Going to 8GB improved that audio clipping.
Not flawless but much less noticeable.  Games loaded faster as well.

But you don’t want to load the latest & fattest OS & Ascent foundation either.  A 660 can’t use a lot of what’s in the huge versions anyway.  🙂

What OS & Ascent foundation versions did you load?

[Retro tech repair]

The error in the picture is because the boot 2 chips is faulty or in backwards.

[Stayouttadabunker]

So "Extended Bios" means the 2nd boot chip that's located on the PCI card?
Good info RTR...  I didn't know that. 
I learn something new everyday... lol