SiSoftware Sandra Read Me! document








SiSoftware Sandra - The Diagnostic Tool, Q & A Document

This document provides some frequently asked questions about Sandra. Please read the Help File as well!




Q: Sandra does not recognise my chipset.
A: Let us know so we can support it in the next version.


Q: How do I tell the 850/850E apart in Sandra?
A: All these chipsets have the same PCI ID and revision ID (Doh!). Internally Sandra is able to tell them apart but cannot display this as we'd need to fake an ID. But you can tell them apart from the Max FSB / Memory Speed data:


850E - Max FSB Speed should be 4x 133MHz (533). Max Memory Speed should be 2x 533MHz (1066).
850 - none of the above.



Q: How do I tell the KT266/266A/333 apart in Sandra?
A: All these chipsets have the same PCI ID and revision ID (Doh!). Internally Sandra is able to tell them apart but cannot display this as we'd need to fake an ID. But you can tell them apart from the Max FSB / Memory Speed data:


KT333 - Max Memory Speed should be 2x 166MHz (333).
KT266A - Max FSB Speed should be 2x 133MHz (266).
KT266 - none of the above.



Q: How do I tell the P4X266/266A apart in Sandra?
A: All these chipsets have the same PCI ID and revision ID (Doh!). Internally Sandra is able to tell them apart but cannot display this as we'd need to fake an ID. But you can tell them apart from the Max FSB / Memory Speed data:


P4X266A - Max FSB Speed should be 4x 133MHz (533).
P4X266 - none of the above.



Q: Sandra displays incorrect information about my AMD 760/MP/MPX chipset.
A: Update to Sandra version 8.21 or later.


Q: The memory bank arrangement is incorrect!
A: While the total size of the memory may be correct you may be confused by the arrangement. This is because Sandra shows you the logical Chipset bank arrangement, not the physical memory module arrangement - which may or may not be the same depending on the specific Chipset.

While the BIOS may show you the real arrangement, this is because it is customised for your particular board, thus it knows the memory slot no/width and Chipset. Sandra does not have such a mapping for each particular board in order to generate the same information.

Say a computer has 4 slots and 8MB in the 1st bank (slots 0 and 1) and 16MB in the 2nd bank (slots 2 and 3), 24MB in total. Sandra shows 8MB in bank 1, 3 and 4. This is correct as it gives 24MB in total.


Q: Sandra reports that the SMBus controller of VIA 596/686 Bridge is disabled but other programs like MBM work! Why is that?
A: Unfortunately, it is not a bug in our software, but in the BIOS itself. While Sandra 8.27 or later contain a work-around, the proper way would be to fix the BIOS.



Only Windows NT4/2000/XP/.Net are affected, not others.
The SMBus I/O range is not reported by the BIOS (no entry in Windows Device Manager) and it is not included in the PCI Bridges I/O forward range.
Thus, the I/O range is part of ISA legacy instead of PCI address range (as it is a PCI device). When Sandra tries to map it as PCI, the request fails.
Other programs like MBM do hard/direct IO which does work since the SMBus I/O range exists even if it is mapped incorrectly. Since Sandra uses the kernel API, the request fails.





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