Why disabling CPU Level 2 Cache is a fix?

chilled

XP wont start when CPU Level 2 cache is enabled in BIOS.

I recently upgraded to XP from 98se.
When xp is first installed everything seems to be working fine. Then next time i turned on the computer i started getting blue screen of deaths at seemingly random times while i was using my computer.
Then it got worse and i would get a BSOD just as xp starts.

The blue screen of death said

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
"The problem seems to be caused by following file ntfs.sys"

Been at this problem for three days now, search the net its seems as though its related to some driver not being compatible but i am not sure. I installed asus pc probe and it says my power fan and chassis fan are below threshold. I don't know what this means, could it be a power issue that my processor can't handle using level 2 cache?

Ive done memtest and it didn't find errors.

Since i disabled cpu level 2 cache everything works, but its annoying because i am losing some performance. Anyone know Why disabling CPU Level 2 Cache is a fix?

motherboard: asus a7v333
512mb ram
amd xp2000
nvidia geforce 4 mx 460
xp

astrofool

Is this a fresh install (i.e. hard drive format), or an upgrade directly from 98se?

XP is generally a bit more picky about system settings than 95/98 would have been, that PAGE_FAULT error is 'usually' a memory problem.

chilled

Yes its a fresh install, i have formatted the hard drive twice actually since started getting this problem.

Yeah page_fault sounds like its memory but I've used memcheck and it found no problems.

smeggle

disabling the L2 cache 'cleans' it out basically. If you disable/format and re-install the system/then re-enable the L2 cahe your prob should clear up.

chilled

So is cpu level 2 cache memory a kind of hard memory like on a hard disk? Because if it isn't and its like RAM surely cleaning it out wouldn't do much as it would be "cleaned" everytime you switch off computer.

paddy

L2 Cache is the onboard cache memory on your processor it is physically built into it, not on your motherboard or sdram memory modules.

djmarkus

Could be that your L2 cache is faulty but that doesnt usually happen without the whole CPU croaking

astrofool

L2 cache is volatile RAM, haven't heard of it ever having to be flushed as it's cleared every time the PC loses power anyway.

paddy

djmarkus wrote:

Could be that your L2 cache is faulty but that doesnt usually happen without the whole CPU croaking

Not necessarily, all that it takes is one bit to get stuck high or low and the processor might not be aware of a fault and your system will just crash frequently, also Esd damage will exhibit similar characteristics, random crashes, reboots etc..

smeggle

astrofool wrote:

L2 cache is volatile RAM, haven't heard of it ever having to be flushed as it's cleared every time the PC loses power anyway.

supposedly yes but I had this same problem on my old P2 400meg. It wasn't a regular problem but showed up every 4-5 formats (Was an old comp - served me well though till it's end wipes tear lol;) ) installing a stable xp (pro) system would be impossible with all sorts of errors, losing the ntldr etc - fix was go into bios and disable the cahe, do a fresh install and then re-enable after.

I read stuff on it over at lurkhere.com I think it was a 2-3 years ago. Sometimes the cache gets clogged up, generally on the older cpu's apparently and caused this problem. Also I've only known it to happen with xp and haven't read or heard of it happening on previous nt systems.

As to why? Heh thats computers ....