[ The PC Guide | Troubleshooting and Repair Guide | The
Troubleshooting Expert | Troubleshooting Specific Components
| Troubleshooting the Motherboard and System Devices | Secondary Cache ]
There is a suspected failure of the secondary (level 2) cache, or the system locks up
or crashes after adding cache to the system
Explanation: The secondary cache
is suspected of failing. This may or may not have occurred after adding more cache to the
system.
Diagnosis: Outright failure of the cache is unusual, especially on an existing
system. The most common problem when adding cache to a system is using the wrong kind of
cache, or adding it and not setting jumpers that the motherboard requires. You may also
have accidentally jarred something else inside the PC.
Recommendation:
- Try disabling the secondary
cache in the BIOS setup. If the problem goes away, then the problem is most likely the
cache or the motherboard.
- If you added more cache, make sure that you used the right sort of cache for your
motherboard. Cache "COASt" modules may all look similar, but they are not
universal. Consult your manufacturer.
- Ensure that the cache is inserted correctly into the board and is all the way into the
socket or slot.
- Check the motherboard manual for any jumpers that you may be required to
set or change when adding cache. Check in the BIOS setup for a BIOS setting that you may
need to change (though this would be unusual).
- If you added cache, or recently worked inside the machine on something else, check out this section that describes possible causes of problems after
working inside the PC, some of which may be unrelated to what you were doing.
- If the system is acting unstable, diagnose this here.
It is possible that the problem is unrelated to the cache, even if it showed up after
adding more cache to the system.
- After the PC has been on for a few minutes, touch the chips on the cache module. If they
are very hot, this is a signal that the cache module itself may be bad. If you can't keep
your finger on the chip for more than a couple of seconds without pain, the chips are hot!
If you replace the module and the chips on the new module get hot also, the motherboard is
implicated.
- Try to replace the cache module with another one. If the problem goes away, then the
module was bad. Otherwise, you should treat this as a
motherboard problem.
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