More about the 9500S-4 issues with the MoBo and FreeBSD...

[ray at redshift.com]

| Hehehe, "shorting the MoBo", eh? ;)
| No problem... However I didn't have the documentation yesterday, so I 
| have just requested it. If all goes well, I should have it tonight, and 
| then I can check to see if there are CMOS reset jumpers. If supported, 
| that should be a dooze. I hope it'll do any magic then.

There should be manuals in PDF on line.  Motherboards have a shunt or jumper
which you short that will erase the CMOS back to factory settings in the event
of a catastrophic lockup.
 
| BTW: in your opinion would you also suspect the FireWire controller to 
| indeed be clashing with the 9500S?

Anything is possible :-)  I've never had any problems with firewire in the past
however.
 
| > I know you aren't going to like to hear this, but perhaps a motherboard 
| > brand chance is in order?  In the long run, it may save time/money. 
| 
| I hear you, and what's more, I hear you really well. If I cannot get 
| this combination to run VERY soon, I'll recommend them to do so, as a 
| different MoBo should be a lot cheaper (and a better solution in the 
| end) than me having to spend a lot of hours on it. ;)
| Yet, personal pride and perseverance prevents me from throwing the towel 
| into the ring all too easily; I just can't stand it when I can't get 
| anything to work. But then, that might just be a personality issue. :D

:-)  Don't feel bad, I spent a week trying to resolve some strange SCSI RAID
conflict with FreeBSD and some hardware not too long ago.  Finally had to return
the server.  Never could pin down what was wrong exactly.
 
| Definitly, and indeed I have heard a lot of good things about the Tyans. 
| I'm not certain if they're very common over here, but surely they must 
| be obtainable from provider that deliver server parts. I don't think the 
| client's provider has them, but if Asus doesn't do the trick; Tyan it'll 
| be...

In the US - and this is strictly just my personal opinion - ASUS tends to be
your run of the mill motherboard.  I'm sure people will disagree with that, but
that is how I have always viewed them.  I have used ASUS motherboards in both
servers and workstations over the years, but a few years ago we phased them out
in favor of Tyan (for AMD) and Supermicro (for Xeon's).  That's the only two
brands we ever buy anymore and since limiting to those two companies, it's rare
when a problem shows up.

Ray