Problems with Intel D915GAG board with 2 GB memory

[Billy Davis]

David Jansen wrote:

>I have a problem with a new computer here at work. It has a Intel
>D915GAG mainboard with 2 GB memory on it, and an on-board video card.
>All attempts to install the machine fialed at random moments, sometimes
>anaconda just got stuck, sometimes it lost its network connection (doing
>a nfs-based install) etc.
>Then I removed 1 GB memory, and all went fine.
>Putting back the 2nd 1GB module makes the system very slow, and it
>crashes at some random point during the boot. Usually with a totally
>messed up screen.
>
>BTW: the memory checks out fine when tested, and switching the first and
>2nd module makes no difference, while working with just one (either one
>of them) it works fine.
>
>Now my speculation is that this is due to the on-board video card taking
>some memory out of the total ram, but somehow without the kernel
>noticing it should not touch that part of memory.
>
>Does that make any sense, or am I looking at a wrong suspect here? Any
>known workarounds for this board?
>
>Note that this board only has PCI-Express and PCI connectors, no AGP, and I
>don't have a spare videocard to test if diabling the on-board video will
>solve the problem.
>
>David Jansen
>  
>

We had a similar problem just last week with a D915GEV board.  Turns out 
that the D915 board is so new that there were LOTS of problems with the 
bios, some specifically to do with memory over 512MB.  Check out Intel's 
web site and get the latest copy of the bios for your system.  
Installation is simple, and it fixed our problem.

BDavis