[ale] SMP kernel in slackware will not boot with over 500megs

[Joseph Story]

After having problems with booting my kernel 
originally 2.4.5 currently 2.4.18(didn't solve the problem). I recompiled it 
w/out multiprocessor support and found that it would detect the full gig of RAM 
with no problems booting or running.  Little about my system:
 
Tyan thunder 2 ATX.
Dual 333 Pent II
4 256MBÂ EDO DIMMs
Slackware 8.0
 
The SMP kernel boots fine with 512mb RAM.  
Anything more will cause a failure while initializing the IRQs?
 
Kernel booting process found at the 
LDP.

  Take a global kernel lock (it is needed so that only one CPU goes through 
  initialisation). 
  Perform arch-specific setup (memory layout analysis, copying boot command 
  line again, etc.). 
  Print Linux kernel "banner" containing the version, compiler used to build 
  it etc. to the kernel ring buffer for messages. This is taken from the 
  variable linux_banner defined in init/version.c and is the same string as 
  displayed by cat /proc/version. 
  Initialise traps. 
  Initialise irqs.      ****Usually gets right 
  here****Â  I'm guessing due to the error messages that I recall.
  Initialise data required for scheduler. 
I havn't written the exact output message from the 
screen, and I can't find it in the logs, i guess cause the logger doesn't 
get a chance to start.
I will be trying different distros to see if any 
others will work.
 
If anyone can direct me to documentation about 
issues related to this one, it would be most helpful.  I don't know enough 
about the kernel myself to really go any further in troubleshooting.  Any 
possible misconfigurations in my BIOS?
 
Thanks
 
Joe
 
I will repost with the error 
output.