I built the system myself about a week ago and everything installed fine and is running with no problems at all. The mobo and processors are from Monarch Computer. Here are the system's specs:

Tyan Thunder K7 (S2462UNG) - bios ver 2.06, FSB 266 MHz
2 X 1.2GHz Athlon MP processors with Taisol CGK760.. HS
2 X 8cm HSF (36 CFM) with 6 -> 8cm adapters
3 X 256 MB PC 2100 Crucial Registered DIMMS
Sony FDD
Plextor Ultraplex Wide
DPT Millennium SCSI RAID card w/ 4 Cheetahs on three channels
ASUS V8200 pure GF3 card
Adaptec 2930U narrow SCSI card
100 MB internal SCSI Zip
NMB 460W PS
Lian Li PC 70 case
W2K Pro(sp2).

The onboard Ethernet is disabled, while the SCSI is enabled. I loaded Nvidia ref drivers 12.41 to run the video card. I've never had a problem with this system. It is very fast and stable. This is only a test setup right now; I'm going to rebuild it in a couple of weeks when I'm ready to optimuze drivers and settings. I'll let you know if there are any problems.

The majority of the issues reported have been one of the following:

1) BIOS mis-reporting CPU speed.
This is caused by not setting the CPU speed jumpers correctly. J52 & J53 were somewhat confusing in the manual. An addendum has been published. ftp://ftp.tyan.com/manuals/thunder/a_s2462_100.pdf
2) System not getting power when power button is pressed.
This can be caused by not having proper loading for the NMB power supply. NMB has an app note on their website & Tyan has published an FAQ. http://www.nmbtech.com/cgi-bin/htmlos.cgi/002031.1.1835820677
http://www.tyan.com/support/html/f_th_k7.html
3) System not functioning correctly, ie lockups, reboots or other instability.
In most cases this can be attributed to not using approved components;
for example CPU's, Heatsinks, Memory, Power Supplies etc.; or not using the latest BIOS version. I can't tell you how many times I have had trouble calls of instability and it ended up being the heatsink was not installed correctly on the CPU, using too much thermal grease or no thermal grease.
http://www.tyan.com/support/html/b_th_k7.html
Always remember to clear the cmos after flashing the BIOS by unplugging system power & changing J21.

As for your board Sander, perhaps one of the variety of power supplies you tested damaged something on the board. As you stated "I tried a whole variety of different powersupplies, as the Tyan board simply uses a WTX power connector, so just about any WTX powersupply goes. Even a 300-watt WTX powersupply wasn't able to power the motherboard with just the two CPUs and the memory, it wouldn't even boot properly."
I will contact you by email to resolve this issue

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for taking the time to respond in this thread, I know you're a busy guy so it's very much appreciated. But allow me to comment on some of your suggestions.

First off, let me just make sure I make it very clear that I've FIRST tried two different, new, 460W NMB powersupplies, both manufactured at a different date, so not from the same 'bad' batch, if any. BEFORE trying out other WTX powersupplies, one 350watts, from a dual Xeon workstation, and two 300watts, from two Compaq workstations. Only to find out that they had the same issues as the NMB powersupplies. So if something damaged the motherboard it was the NMBs, not the others. I just tried the others to see whether the NMB powersupplies could be the cause of our problems.

Furthermore I've rebuilt the entire system three times and you can be sure that I know how. I've been building computers for the past ten years and I'm confident I'm skilled enough to tackle any issues, whether hardware or software. All the suggestions you've made I've already checked into and made sure that those aren't a problem. The ONLY thing that we're using that is not on the compatibility list is the Crucial Registered DDR memory, but my contact at Crucial tells me that they've done extensive testing on their memory and Tyan's Thunder K7 and have seen no problems or compatibility issues. Furthermore 100s of people use Crucial memory in their Thunder K7s with no problems whatsoever, and yes, I've also replaced the memory already to see whether that could be the cause.

To me it all looks like I've got a defective motherboard that somehow passed all QA tests but still has quirks. Friends of mine have a similar setup like ours, even with the same Crucial memory, and have no issues at all. Like I mentioned I've replaced all parts one by one, to see what could be the cause of our problems, BUT the motherboard, so to my opinion all of our problems are just due to the motherboard and should be fixed once we get a replacement.

Looking forward to your reply.

Thanks and best regards,

Sander Sassen

CEO, Hardware Analysis
Email: ssassen@hardwareanalysis.com
Visit us at: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com

I have been investigating and testing the K7 Thunder two weeks prior to its official release with anecdotal results. I must say that this debate is quickly becoming more heated than politics, or religion itself. So heated, that I have received flame mail by users who claim that we unlucky users are nothing short of contemptuous witch hunters. Unfortunately, these few users are the minority. Regardless of the limited number of satisfied K7 owners, there lies an equally numbered group of unhappy customers. So great, that I have personally offered my telephone number to those who seem to be at a loss with the K7 Thunder. The areas of expertise range from system integrators, business owners, website owners, to end-users. This list is hardly to be considered by Tyan as simply end user-error. Are we all senseless fools who lack the basic intelligence to the proper design and configuration of an AMD based rig? Is it simply a coincidence that many websites are reporting the exact same phenomenon with this product? Is it odd the K7 Thunder is already at a revision “B” so early in its life cycle? Is it unusual that Tyan has changed some of the physical features of the motherboard? Is it odd that the K7 Thunder has had numerous BIOS upgrades the first week of its launch? Is it odd that Tyan is placing the weight of these issues on a power supply manufacturer; while in the same breath, denying that any of these issues exist? And secondly, where is AMD during all this unrest?

I have personally lived the nightmare that many of you are going through. The difference is, I reported these issues much before any of this became common knowledge. When I mentioned these problems to Tyan, they simply regarded all my concerns as isolated end-user error. When my first K7 Thunder failed to operate, Tyan refused to work with or replace said motherboard. Their comments were that they never experienced any problems with the K7 Thunder; therefore it must be user error. It is important to note that my problems where spontaneous looping reboots, black screens, and error messages that Tyan couldn’t figure out. To date, I am still baffled by the sudden death of my new Prophet III video card that failed to operate shortly after being inserted in the first K7 Thunder. Later, it was determined that the Prophet III was damaged and needed to be replaced. So, that was another $400.00 down the drain. Subsequently, the second K7 Thunder has worked with no abnormalities whatsoever. It is also interesting to note that no configuration changes were made between the first and second K7 Thunder. That is, I used the exact same equipment with a much different result. The result was that everything worked and continues to work according to any reasonable expectation. What does this tell us? It tells us that there are certain K7 Thunder’s circulating that provide a much undeserving end user experience.

Lets all hope you pull the long straw…

DieU
http://www.AMDmb.com

Finally, after no less than two nights of tweaking and prodding, I was able to get the Thunder K7 board to operate properly. This did require a BIOS flash, several CMOS clears, and some toying with Onboard Ati vs. The Gloria III card. Never the less, the board does actually work now, and is as stable as I have ever seen a motherboard.

I'm honestly not sure if the boards are flawed. This one, apperantly, is not. Instead Tyan has just made a board with lots of 'qurirks' rather than 'bugs' that is a configuration nightmare. Every time everything seems to work fine, some new 'error' pops up that refers to nothing you can manually change. So it's time to clear the CMOS again...

I've got two more, now. This time, revision B boards. I'll keep you all posted as to how those turn out. Hopefully, they will go a bit faster, but I will be attempting to set up RAID sripe sets on both of them using the very same Adaptec card everyone seems to be having problems with. Wish me luck.

If these go well, I'll stop posting my warnings about this board all over the web. If they do not... well, that's what test systems are supposed to determine. I'm just a little ticked off that Tyan would bundle such a finicky board with such a poor manual. Honestly, the manuals they used to send with super 7 systems were far superior. I have set up hundreds of machines, and this thing had me baffled for about 12 hours! In the end, all my problems were what Tyan would call 'user error.'

What about people with less experience? If I'm generating this much 'error' what about the people who decide that THIS will be their first home built system? Of course Tyan's going to hear about it.

I know a WS/Server board like this isn't supposed to go to home users, but what did AMD and Tyan thin would happen? For many, this is the most anticipated Mobo release in years!

I have been using the K7 Thunder since early June as part of the pre-release program with AMD and had very few problems with this setup. Granted, all of the systems I am building are being used as servers so problems with various video cards etc. are not something I would encounter. Currently I have either built or performed final QA on 15 different systems and had no problems with the exception of one board having a DOA Adpatec controller (would not POST with the controller active)

Allof these boards were from the original runs that shipped with BIOS 1.1. Upgrading to 2.06 resolved most problems that I encountered.

As far as power supplies go I am using the NMB's and again have had no issues with these either. I will state that this board is extremley picky about how the DIMM slots are populated due to 'loading issues' but this ws resolved with one call to Tyan's west coast office and a conversation with the field engineer.

The majority of problems I encountered were either improper jumper settings for the bus speed resulting in either no POST or improprer CPU speeds, instability due to overloading the memory bus (corrected by changing memory vendors while waiting on a updated module design fro Dataram), and ipmproper BIOS settings by production staff.

Here is a list of components being used in these servers.

K7 Thunder board Rev A. and Rev B
BIOS 2.06
Dataram 256 and 512M registered ECC modules (1G in testing now)
1G and 1.2H Athlon MP CPU
JMC 400020 H/S (listed up to 1.4G on AMD recommended list)
Netgear G620 Gigabit ethernet card
AMI Elite 1600 and Enterprise 1600 RAID cards
various IBM, Seagate, and Quantum U160 SCSI hard drives
Seagate and Sony DAT drives on second Adaptec channel
Sony AIT drives on second Adaptec channel

Operating systems:
Windows 2000 server and advanced server SP2 with pre-SP3 hotfixes
Red Hat linux 6.2 (w/modified 2.2.19 kernel)
Red hat linux 71.(w/modified 2.4.6 kernel)
FreeBSD 4.3

The kernel modifications are specific to our companies needs, the systems were also tested with stock kernels with no issues.

I find this board to be as good as can be expected for a first run on a new design. I have a few friends who are building systems around the K7 Thunder for 3D animation and CAD work. I will post more info about how they fare as soon as I hear from them

Receintly I ordered parts for 3 servers (so, everything listed x 3):

Generic 19" rackmount case
NMB SD025A460WSW 460W PS (tyan recommended)
Tyan 2462NG (no scsi) bios v2.06
2x 1ghz Athlon MP w CoolerMaster heatsink/fans (amd approved)
512 Kingston pc2100 ddr ram (tyan approved)
Adaptec 1200A PCI raid card
2x 40G ATA100 7200 rpm WD400, running raid 1
OnBoard Video
OnBoard Nic
Creative Labs 52x CDRom
Mitsumi 3.5" fdd

----------------------

To make a short story long. This same story goes for -three- systems. Each one has the -exact- same problems.

I get everything installed hardware wise and I go to power up the system for the first time. I plug the power in (which is off of a APC 1000UPS) and the only thing that happens is the nic leds flicker for a second. No fans turn, nothing. I unplugged everything and still the same result. I finally found a FAQ on a site and found that if I did the "Clear CMOS" jumper then about 2 seconds after I plugged the system in it would come on.

Then I noticed that none of the LED's on the chassis were working, nor the reset or power switch. I removed power, studied the jumper leads for the leds, etc, flipped them around for the heck of it, and tried again. Still the same problem. None of the LED's came on, nor would the power/reset switch work. I know the HDD LED's work, because they work fine when I plug them into the RAID card. Maybe since I only have the cdrom as on the ide channel that's why I don't get a HDD light? *shrug*

If I remove power for too long, then I have to reset the CMOS to try to get it to power back on. So far we haven't had a blackout here so I'm lucky. I hope we don't lose power here for more than 5 minutes after the UPS would die....

So, to combat these problems, I figured I'd try to upgrade the BIOS to the 2.08 thats out. Bad idea. I used a Win98 boot disk (removed everything out of the autoexec and config so nothing would be loaded) and ran the flash utility (phlash16.exe) off of Tyans web site. I used the 2462v208.rom file with the util. About 30 seconds into the actual flashing, I got an error:

"Undefined error -8956 Please reboot with crisis diskette"

So, I followed some other directions for a recovery. I put the 2462v208.rom on a blank disk, and held ctrl+home as I applied power. Unfortunately it doesn't even -try- to read the fdd. Now I know the fdd works, because how could I have gotten to the flash part if it didn't? Now the board is dead. No activity other than the fans coming on, but it still has the same power problem as listed before.

I've emailed Tyan, about the LED and switch problems, but they haven't gotten back to me (and it's been a week). I also mentioned the BIOS update problem. I'm thinking I'll just have to RMA the dead board, but what about the other two?

On one of the other servers I went ahead and loaded win2k/exch2k and it seems to be -very- stable. I just pray the power doesn't go off for too long.

Anyway, I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has any other input as to what to do. I'm scarred to flash the other two boxes to 2.08 because of what happened to the first one.

Thanks
James

This is NOT a MOBO or Power supply problem.

Jumers ju-52 and ju-53 are backwards.

Just switch the jumper settings on the mobo and your problem will go away.

I had two xp1800's posting at 1350 mhz.. did the jumer switch and they now post at 1533.