SUMMARY : Parity error

From: Mahesh Garg (mkgarg@shakti.cis.uoguelph.ca)
Date: Wed Jan 29 1992 - 15:20:59 CST


My original posting :-

>
>
> I saw the following memory error on the console of my
> SS2 (OS 4.1.1b, 32MB RAM - 16MB from Sun, 16MB from ClearPoint) :
>
> Parity error reported at 0xffad9db8, actual address is 0xffad9db0.
> Parity Error, ctx = 0x4, virt addr = 0xffad9db0
> pme = e2000842, phys addr = 842db0
> Parity Error Register 98<ERROR,CHECK,ERR00>
> bad module/chip at: U322
> parity error at 842db0 is transient.
> page 842000 back in service.
> System operation can continue
>
>
> I have found out that this particular 4MB-SIMM (at U322) is the
> one from Sun. This SS2 is not under any maintenance contract
> (we baught it in June 1991). Should I change this SIMM immediately
> or should I wait till this error reappear ? This is the first time
> I have seen this error.
>
> Thanks for you help.
>
> Mahesh
>

==================================================================

I got several replies to my query and they are so different that it is
difficult to summarize. The following responses represent all the
replies I got.

==========
>From : fetrow@biostat.washington.edu (David Fetrow)

It'd be a good idea to start shopping for memory. It will almost
certainly happen again and again buyt perhaps only 1/month or
whatever.

==========
>From : david@msri.org (David Mostardi)

This is NOT fatal. Transient parity errors occur from time to time on
SPARCs. I've only had 2 or 3 in the past two years.

==========
>From : exuksm@exu.ericsson.se (Karl Morgan)

If it continues to be a problem, I would swap it with one from another
location. Or, it might just need to be reseated. Either way, at least
it corrected itself and didn't panic the system.

==========
>From : davee@lightning.mitre.org (David N. Edwards)

I would guess that the SIMM in question has seen better days. However,
you might try pulling it and re-seating it in its socket - this has
worked for us before; especially on X-terminals. Good luck!

==========
>From : jon@jaguar.ncsl.nist.gov (Jon Fiscus)

We just had a similar error on our gateway machine. At first, we could
just reboot it and it would work, but the system crashed more
frequently as time went on. If I were you, just buy a new SIMM and
swap out the bad one, you'll save yourself a lot of money

========================================

Thanks to :

fetrow@biostat.washington.edu (David Fetrow)
david@msri.org (David Mostardi)
exuksm@exu.ericsson.se (Karl Morgan)
davee@lightning.mitre.org (David N. Edwards)
jon@jaguar.ncsl.nist.gov (Jon Fiscus)
Jay Lessert {decwrl,cse.ogi.edu,sun,verdix}!bit!jayl
eckhard@ikarus.ts.go.dlr.de (Eckhard Rueggeberg)

(I know that I missing some names from this list.
 Sorry ! I deleted some emails by mistake.)

Thanks for all you help.

Mahesh

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mahesh Garg
Department of Computing and Information Science
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1

PHONE: (519) 824 4120 x8131
FAX: (519) 837 0323
INTERNET: mkgarg@shakti.cis.uoguelph.ca
--------------------------------------------------------------------------



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