Upgraded CPU. Now having major problems.

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dkh

New Member
A buddy was going to scrap his PC that had newer CPU than mine. Rather than him just throwing the whole package away, I decided to take the CPU to use in my system. I researched it on the web, including this forum, and came to the conclusion that is seemed do-able. We both have Dells. Mine purchased new in 2001, his in 2003. The CPU that came with my PC is a Pentium 4, 1.6 Ghz, 256KB L2 Cache, Socket 478. His is a Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 478. I know it's not much of an improvement, but I thought it would be worth trying since the better CPU was free. Other specs of my system are: WinXP, 512 RAM, 250GB Maxtor HDD, 40GB WD HDD. Here are some of the many issues that have occurred since installing the new CPU:

--Random Restarts
--Windows Explorer having problems
--IE needing to close due to problems
--Win Media Player needing to close due to problems
--ActiveX wasn't installed properly warning?
--XP needing re-authorization code from Microsoft (dude in India was nice and gave the code to me)
--general instability
--box on start-up saying "Windows has recovered from a serious problem, do you want to send report?"
--under CPU info in BIOS, speed is only listed at 1.8 GHz, not the 2.4 it should be; 512 cache is recognized correctly

So, the question is: what should I do? Is it that my MoBo isn't compatible with a CPU of speed greater than 1.8? Is there a way to make this CPU work or should I just switch back to the old one. BTW, when stable (like now) the PC is noticeably faster, about where I expected it to be. Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
 
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OK, that sucks. Found the BIOS upgrade on Dell's site. Downloaded it to floppy as instructed. Booted from floppy as instructed. DOS window opened, saying BIOS A04 was being erased OK, BIOS A06 was being flashed in OK. Then it stated everything went OK, and turned off. It started back up, fans on, LED lit, but no signal to monitor. Pressed and held power button for 5 seconds until it turned off and tried again, and again, and again... NOTHING! Opened up computer case and saw that the MoBo LED was lit, but still no signal to monitor. Fans will turn on, it sounds like it usually does when it turns on, but still nothing. Unplugged, let sit for 20 minutes, tried again... still no signal to monitor, no hard drive sounds.

So, now I'm at the nearest university library posting this because my computer doesn't work at all. Am I screwed? What do I do now?
 
dkh said:
OK, that sucks. Found the BIOS upgrade on Dell's site. Downloaded it to floppy as instructed. Booted from floppy as instructed. DOS window opened, saying BIOS A04 was being erased OK, BIOS A06 was being flashed in OK. Then it stated everything went OK, and turned off. It started back up, fans on, LED lit, but no signal to monitor. Pressed and held power button for 5 seconds until it turned off and tried again, and again, and again... NOTHING! Opened up computer case and saw that the MoBo LED was lit, but still no signal to monitor. Fans will turn on, it sounds like it usually does when it turns on, but still nothing. Unplugged, let sit for 20 minutes, tried again... still no signal to monitor, no hard drive sounds.

So, now I'm at the nearest university library posting this because my computer doesn't work at all. Am I screwed? What do I do now?
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See if you can find the CMOS clear jumper. Unplug your computer, turn the PSU off, switch the jumper and leave it for 10 minutes, then switch it back, replug everything, turn PSU on, power up, and it should work. I had the same problem when I flashed my BIOS.
 
Googled "CMOS" reset jumper and found that it can be accomplished by removing the small flat wrist watch battery from the Mobo for 2 hours. Is this true?
 
Update: It still doesn't work. Took wristwatch battery out for two hours after unplugging 20-pin and 4-pin power cables from the Mobo. Still same results.

Some more info- Before this crash, when the AC cord was plugged in but the power button had not yet been pushed, the Mobo LED was lit but the fans were not on. Now, when I plug the AC cord in, the fans come on and the LED is lit, which seems to me to mean that the computer is trying to start as soon as it is plugged in, not waiting for the power button on the front of the case to be pushed.

Where do I go from here?
 
The same thing happens to my dell when i plug it in- the computer will start to boot and the fans will spin up. however, this stops within a second or two. this is normal.

i'm not sure why your computer won't boot....try dell tech support. they may be able to help.
 
My fans don't only spin for a few seconds or minutes, they won't stop until I pull the ac power cord or hold down the power button for more than 5 seconds.
 
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