APIC error

Rene Rebe writes:
 > Hi,
 > 
 > on a dual Pentium-mmx 233Mhz box (I got for free ...) I get many APIC
 > errors, like:
 > 
 > APIC error on CPU1: 08(00)
 > APIC error on CPU0: 02(00)
 > ... ...
 > 
 > I also sometimes got 04(00).
 > 
 > Those errors only seem to happen during high disk-io (SCSI or IDE).
 > What specific meaning do those errors have? Are they dangerous?

They are defined in Intel's IA32 manual set, volume 3,
"System Programming Guide", downloadable from developer.intel.com.

These errors mean that APIC bus messages are lost or have checksum errors.
You don't say which kernel you're using or which chipset, but chances are
your mobo's APIC bus is noisy.

 > Each CPU survives hours in memtest86 ... And with maxcpus=1 it also
 > does not seem to happen ... The BIOS is latest.

You can try booting with "noapic", that should let you keep using SMP
while avoiding your possibly buggy APIC bus.