My hardware is: CPU: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU E3845 @ 1.91GHz and it supports EIST(Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology). OS: CentOS 7(kernel-3.10)
When I set the BIOS options "CPU configuration >> EIST" to "enable", it appears a kernel panic when the system is starting up. Here is what I am seeing: ...... Fast TSC calibration failed. [Hardware Error] CPU 3: Machine Check Exception: 4 Bank 0: 9000000020000003 ...... Machine check: Invalid. Panic - not syncing. Fatal machine check on current CPU. Rebooting in 30 seconds.
By reading the Intel-programming-manual, the MCE means: Machine Check Exception: 4 -- MCG_STATUS_MCIP Bank 0: 9000000020000003 -- 0x9000 -- 1001 0000 0000 0000 -- IA32_MCi_Status MSR register 0x0003 -- 0000 0000 0000 0011 -- External Error, The BINIT# from another processor caused this processor to enter machine check. and seems it is an external bus error.
If I DISABLED the BIOS option "EIST", there will be no error or panic. If I change to CentOS 6.5/6.6(kernel 2.6), there will be no error or panic even when "EIST" is ON.
So, it should be a bug in kernel source of CentOS 7(kernel-3.10). Ps: kernel source v3.10 from kernel.org is OK
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.