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Author Topic: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler  (Read 12691 times)

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mammoth

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Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« on: December 18, 2010, 04:58:51 AM »
I am trying to track down the source of an issue and find a way to correct it.

In System Profiler, under Diagnostics, the Power On Self-Test always has "Result:   Failed" with "Failure Type: Memory".

This is on an HP Pavilion DV8 laptop (DV8t-1100, VF836AV)

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-720QM 1.6GHz, 6MB, L2C
Memory: Installed: 4GB (2GB x 2GB) [Maximum: 8GB] Type/Speed: DDR3/1333MHz
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 230M GPU w/ 1024 MB
Sound: IDT 92HD75B3 Audio Controller
LAN: Realtek RTL8168D/8111D PCI-E Gigabit

Current BIOS version: InSyde F.25

- I have tried various versions of Chameleon (currently 2.0-RC5-r674)
- Many different SMBIOS.plist settings
- Running with no DSDT or SMBIOS.plist
- 1 module, each slot

Nothing I have done has been able to correct this.

When I set the machine in SMBIOS.plist as a MacPro5,1, I am able to run the Memory Slot Utility (shown in attached picture). If set to other models I am NOT able to run this utility.

When Chameleon boots, It IDs the two SO-DIMMs as Slot 0 and Slot 2. (Shouldn't this be Slot 0 and Slot 1?)

I know for sure many others with similar machines are seeing the same issue. The main concern is that it may be preventing OS X from running the memory in dual channel mode, or otherwise affecting performance.

I have attached a screen shot showing the errors, and also a zip file with an IORegExp, SysProf, Bdmesg, and DSDT file.

I am more than willing to help in any way to get this resolved.

THANKS!!!



« Last Edit: January 04, 2011, 05:27:01 PM by mammoth »

mammoth

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2011, 11:15:48 AM »
I've continued to try to track this problem down, but have still been unable to solve it.

I have been able to install the machine as a MacBook Pro6,2, and now the slots show up as BANK0/Slot 1 and BANK1/Slot 2, as they should, but still have the failure message.

I have tried many DSDT's, and current is completely clean, no warnings, and pretty much everything working.

I believe the issue is either with BIOS or Chameleon, or a combination. I think this is something Chameleon needs to address with the funky Insyde BIOS.

In System Profiler, memory always shows up as 1330MHz. If you look at the BdMesg output (in zip file, previous post), you will see Chameleon detecting memory Frequency at 665 MHz (1330) instead of 667 MHz (1333). I'm thinking this must be related to OS X believing this to be a failure with the memory not running as it should. In Windows 7 and in BIOS, memory is properly reported at 1333MHz. If I install 1066 modules, they are show incorrect too and we get the same error in SP.

Could someone on the Chameleon team look into this? I know you guys are REAL busy, but if you could help solve this, not only would it be great, but I am planning another guide and CD release for members of my thread on InsanelyMac and I would like to have this fixed for everyone.

Thanks.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2011, 11:23:20 AM by mammoth »

Azimutz

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2011, 05:54:24 PM »
Hi Mammoth,
there are indeed known problems with detecting memory slots on some laptops.
Did you tried Kabyl's branch? check this issue... not sure if it relates, but it's the only related stuff i know of :)

see ya...
 System & Patches: http://goo.gl/i961
 Chameleon:
- trunk builds: http://goo.gl/9G1Hq
- pref pane: http://goo.gl/OL2UT

mammoth

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2011, 01:01:01 AM »
Hi Mammoth,
there are indeed known problems with detecting memory slots on some laptops.
Did you tried Kabyl's branch? check this issue... not sure if it relates, but it's the only related stuff i know of :)

see ya...

Thank you very much Azimutz for your time and expertise. I was not aware of known memory slot issues with Chameleon, and knowing that now is very helpful. Thank you. I will start looking into the Kabyl branch now. I'll report back here my results.

Thanks again,

very appreciative,

Mammoth

mammoth

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2011, 04:10:17 AM »
Ok, so I tried it and it didn't work. Maybe there is a later build somewhere of boot that would work, but I've never used makefile (I think that's how it's done) to create a version from source to try, but if someone can educate me, I'm willing.

I also tried PC-EFI 10.6 to no avail.

I posted all info I have to date on this in that thread.

Thanks again for all the help,

Mammoth

NetBoot

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2011, 05:01:58 AM »
Did you copy the new boot file to your root directory?

To compile just use: make

Then get the new boot file from /sym/i386 and copy it to your root directory.

I think you and do: make install

But, I haven't tried that myself.

Net....

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2011, 05:25:42 AM »
Hold on, is that how you install your bootloader? If so, it's no wonder half the features of Chameleon 2.0 RC5 aren't working for you. You're probably using a mix and match of files from different boot loaders or different Chameleon versions.

Copying boot to / is not enough, there are two other files you must install as well, look here:
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649.0.html
10.9.5 - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - i5 3570K - GTX 660 - Chameleon 2.3 svn-r2xxx
How to...
Install Chameleon: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649
Make your own Chameleon boot CD: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,484.msg2131.html#msg2131

NetBoot

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2011, 06:26:25 AM »
Well, crap that changes everything now. 

What I read on the net, is that I only need to copy over the new boot file.

I think the clouds are starting to part!

The two files that your are referring to are boot0 boot1h?

Thanks!

Net....

mammoth

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2011, 04:30:05 PM »
Hold on, is that how you install your bootloader? If so, it's no wonder half the features of Chameleon 2.0 RC5 aren't working for you. You're probably using a mix and match of files from different boot loaders or different Chameleon versions.

Copying boot to / is not enough, there are two other files you must install as well, look here:
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649.0.html

Really? Wow, yes, this is "preached" far and wide on many threads and methods, "Just copy the new booter over your old one and you have the new Chameleon".

Ok, I'm off to try doing it the "right way" for the first time.

Thank you Gringo Vermelho for the important education!

mammoth

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2011, 04:50:08 PM »
Ok, wait a minute Gringo Vermelho... that is the EFI approach. There is a much simpler method where you never have to mess with EFI and this is what I'm using:

1) Create a separate, small partition for Chameleon (1 GB or less) and name it "Cham".
2) From Terminal, to find out your disk and slice info, do: diskutil list
3) Do: fdisk440 -f boot0hfs -uy /dev/rdisk0
   (This is for dual booting OS X and Windows)
4) dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk0s2
5) Last step: cp boot /Volumes/Cham

Correct me if I'm wrong, but using this method, all one does have to do is copy over boot.

My complete method can be found on my thread here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=221653

I acquired this method from BlackOSX here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=180954&hl=


mammoth

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2011, 05:04:01 PM »
Did you copy the new boot file to your root directory?

To compile just use: make

Then get the new boot file from /sym/i386 and copy it to your root directory.

I think you and do: make install

But, I haven't tried that myself.

Net....

Thanks for your reply and help. I will see if I can make this work.... pardon the pun. ;)

Blackosx

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2011, 05:13:36 PM »
Ok, wait a minute Gringo Vermelho... that is the EFI approach.

Hi mammoth.

As you know, Chameleon comprises a three stage process of stage 0 code, which finds & loads stage 1code which in turn finds and loads stage 2 code. The code is in files commonly known as boot0 / boot0hfs for stage 0, boot1h, boot1f32 for stage 1 and boot for stage 2.

All three files are needed for Chameleon to work and during Chameleon's life each file has been updated.

Gringo is referring to a problem where if the user only updates the boot file (stage 2) they might still have older versions of the stage 0 and 1 code. Therefore it's recommended to update all three files just to be on the safe side. Only if you know you are using the latest boot0 and boot1 code can you get away with just replacing the stage 2 boot file.

There is a much simpler method where you never have to mess with EFI and this is what I'm using:
The method you use works great. I made up the volume name of 'cham' when I was putting my guide together, but it can be called anything you want and I got the idea of installing Chameleon to a separate partition from reading this post by zhell at Project OSX.

But I think this subject has gone off topic. So can we please bring it back to discussing the original problem?
« Last Edit: January 04, 2011, 05:21:52 PM by Blackosx »
10.10.5 / 10.11 GM1 | Asus Maximum IV Gene-Z | i7-2600 3.40GHz | 4GB | Radeon 5770 1GB

mammoth

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2011, 05:25:09 PM »
Moderator Edit: No need to quote the whole post above then you're replying directly below it.

Thank you BlackOSX for your reply, it's really an honor as I have learned so much from you! :)

Thanks for the clarification, I have been only copying over boot, which brings us back on topic because the question now is, by not updating Stage0 and Stage1 (thanks for the correction BlackOSX ;) ), could that cause the fix for "improper memory slot detection" to NOT work?

I will do some testing on that now and report back my findings.

Thanks to everyone for your help thus far, I have been trying to resolve this issue for over 6 months now.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2011, 05:35:19 PM by mammoth »

Blackosx

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #13 on: January 04, 2011, 05:29:24 PM »
I think you mean stage1 not stage3?  ;)
As for your question - I don't know the answer but I doubt it. One way to know for sure would be to write all the latest Chameleon RC5 files to their respective places on your system and try it.

In System Profiler, memory always shows up as 1330MHz. If you look at the BdMesg output (in zip file, previous post), you will see Chameleon detecting memory Frequency at 665 MHz (1330) instead of 667 MHz (1333).
I'm sure this is just a rounding error in the code.

So what do you see in system profiler / diagnostics if you turn off auto memory detection and don't have any memory information in your smbios.plist? Does the power on self test pass?
« Last Edit: January 04, 2011, 05:39:47 PM by Blackosx »
10.10.5 / 10.11 GM1 | Asus Maximum IV Gene-Z | i7-2600 3.40GHz | 4GB | Radeon 5770 1GB

mammoth

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Re: Memory Failed Diagnostics in System Profiler
« Reply #14 on: January 04, 2011, 05:56:11 PM »
I think you mean stage1 not stage3?  ;)
As for your question - I don't know the answer but I doubt it. One way to know for sure would be to write all the latest Chameleon RC5 files to their respective places on your system and try it.

In System Profiler, memory always shows up as 1330MHz. If you look at the BdMesg output (in zip file, previous post), you will see Chameleon detecting memory Frequency at 665 MHz (1330) instead of 667 MHz (1333).
I'm sure this is just a rounding error in the code.

So what do you see in system profiler / diagnostics if you turn off auto memory detection and don't have any memory information in your smbios.plist? Does the power on self test pass?

You may be perfectly correct about it just being a rounding error. I have wondered this too, and that the real cause for the error is something else. There is another thread that talks specifically about a Chameleon bug with "memory slot detection" here:

http://forge.voodooprojects.org/p/chameleon/issues/32/
(I have posted all relevant info there as well.)

I tried the updated booter there, which solved the original poster's issue, but did not solve mine... and in fact when I used the booter that fixed his, it actually broke mine in the same way his was prior to the new booter.

So my thought now is that the original poster's issue is machine specific and requiring a specific patch (he doesn't say what his machine is), and our HP DVx machines require a similar, but also specific patch.

Question: How do we turn off memory detection? I would love to try that.

Thanks again!! :)
« Last Edit: January 04, 2011, 05:57:56 PM by mammoth »