Upgrading CPU on P4B266-C

[Walt]

I have been trying to upgrade the CPU on my P4B266-C without success.

I currently have a P4 1.6G CPU, with a 16x multiplier. I have tried several
faster CPU's, and none of them will boot at all after installing. When I
switch back, each time, to my original 1.6G CPU, and boot again, I am taken
directly into BIOS's Advanced menu. In BIOS, on that menu, there is an error
msg saying that the previous boot failed because of a CPU multiplier error.

Does Asus store the original CPU's multiplier in, possibly, CMOS, and flag an
error if it ever sees a different multiplier?

Do I need to clear or change something in BIOS when changing the CPU?

Why does the CPU multiplier make a difference to the motherboard as long
as the bus frequency (400/100 MHz in my case) is right?

 

[Walt]

Oh, BTW...

I am using the BIOS beta version, 1007.002 (Asus Tw). I have also tried beta 1007.003 (Asus De)
and released 1006.

 

[The General]

I have been trying to upgrade the CPU on my P4B266-C without success.

I currently have a P4 1.6G CPU, with a 16x multiplier. I have tried several
faster CPU's, and none of them will boot at all after installing. When I
switch back, each time, to my original 1.6G CPU, and boot again, I am taken
directly into BIOS's Advanced menu. In BIOS, on that menu, there is an error
msg saying that the previous boot failed because of a CPU multiplier error.

Does Asus store the original CPU's multiplier in, possibly, CMOS, and flag an
error if it ever sees a different multiplier?

Do I need to clear or change something in BIOS when changing the CPU?

Why does the CPU multiplier make a difference to the motherboard as long
as the bus frequency (400/100 MHz in my case) is right?

Ignore the error message--have you upgraded the bios ? Which
faster cpu are you trying to run ?

 

[Walt]

I have tried a couple of different "current" BIOS versions, both
released and beta.

I have tried 2.2G, 2.4G, and 2.6G. All 400MHz FSB CPU's.
Asus's website, unfortunately, gives different max's, depending
on where you look on their site. I had hoped that at least one
of those pages was right. I guess it is possible that all of them
are wrong, and no 2.x CPU will work.

 

[The General]

I have tried a couple of different "current" BIOS versions, both
released and beta.

I have tried 2.2G, 2.4G, and 2.6G. All 400MHz FSB CPU's.
Asus's website, unfortunately, gives different max's, depending
on where you look on their site. I had hoped that at least one
of those pages was right. I guess it is possible that all of them
are wrong, and no 2.x CPU will work.

the first such board I had was sent back under RMA as it too
would not run the 2.6/100FSB with bios 1006. The replacement
board runs that cpu just fine.

 

[Ixnei]

the first such board I had was sent back under RMA as it too would not
run the 2.6/100FSB with bios 1006. The replacement board runs that cpu
just fine.

I'm running 2.5GHz/533 @132 stock 1.5V (set to 1.55 in bios) on my
p4b266-c 1007.002, so that I can get the 3:4 cpu:memory bus ratio
(~DDR350), nice and stable. I'm not sure that helps you, as it is using a
19x multiplier. This processor is an unlocked one, and I did run it very
shortly at 24x - 2.4GHz/400...

--
We HAVE been at war with Iraq for 13 years now, bombing their
country on at least a weekly basis.
"U.S.-led sanctions have killed over a million Iraqi citizens,
according to UN studies" - James Jennings
3,000+ innocent Iraqi civilian casualties can't be "wrong"...

 

[Walt]

Thanks for the reply! If I am reading your reply correctly, you have
a CPU which has a hardware 19x multiplier. Using BIOS, you have
up'ed it to 24x, but the hardware still read the same.

I have tried "jumperless" mode. I have tried "jumper" mode with the
jumpers set to 24x. I still get the same error.

I have just re-tested the new CPU in another PC (which has a much newer
MB), and it booted just fine. So, I am still sure the new CPU is good, and
hasn't been damaged inserting and removing it numerous times.

At this point, I am not sure if the problem is (1) with BIOS seeing the
24x multiplier as an error, or (2) with BIOS _not_ seeing the 16x multiplier
of my old CPU as an error.

I am still leaning toward the second one. I have this hutch that
BIOS is seeing the different multiplier, but doesn't realize that it is a new
CPU, and flags the multiplier changing as an unexpected CPU fault.

Ah well.... if anyone has any thoughts, I would appreciate hearing them.

 

[Ixnei]

Thanks for the reply! If I am reading your reply correctly, you have a
CPU which has a hardware 19x multiplier. Using BIOS, you have up'ed it
to 24x, but the hardware still read the same.

I have tried "jumperless" mode. I have tried "jumper" mode with the
jumpers set to 24x. I still get the same error.

I have just re-tested the new CPU in another PC (which has a much newer
MB), and it booted just fine. So, I am still sure the new CPU is good,
and hasn't been damaged inserting and removing it numerous times.

At this point, I am not sure if the problem is (1) with BIOS seeing the
24x multiplier as an error, or (2) with BIOS _not_ seeing the 16x
multiplier of my old CPU as an error.

I am still leaning toward the second one. I have this hutch that BIOS
is seeing the different multiplier, but doesn't realize that it is a new
CPU, and flags the multiplier changing as an unexpected CPU fault.

Ah well.... if anyone has any thoughts, I would appreciate hearing them.

Here's what I'd try as a sort of last ditch effort:

Make sure you're using the 2x2 4-prong 12V power cable from the power
supply to the motherboard (What wattage is your PS?). Might not hurt to
also hook up power to the connector on the motherboard that looks like
cdrom/hard drive. The P4-2.4 might be pulling too much current, causing
voltage rails to spike down too low. I've noticed that when I set mine to
1.55V in BIOS, the monitors report it set to 1.5V - and if I run a
cpu-intensive load like CPUBURN, it drops to 1.44V (512MB ~DDR350 and GF4
Ti4200 128MB).

Next, turn power switch off and disconnect power cord from box. Take the
battery out of the p2b266-c motherboard. Leave it out for a while, like 5
minutes or something... Here, I'm suspecting there's some sort of problem
with the configuration not getting reset, for some odd reason (battery
backed RAM area of bios).

Using the 2.4GHz/400 P4, place the battery back in properly (don't screw
this up and put it backwards). Reconnect the power cable, turn on power
switch, and try to boot the system. If it still doesn't POST, try hitting
the RESET button while the PS appears to be on (fans spinning, but no
video signal). Hitting the reset after it is powered on may allow the CPU
to boot up...

I'd bet it's a power issue - either the motherboard doesn't have the
capacitance to handle it, the power supply isn't "beefy" enough, or too
many things are sucking power off of the motherboard (do you have case
fans being powered from the motherboard 3-pin connectors?). You might try
using a "wimpier" AGP video card, or even PCI for testing this, yanking
some RAM sticks, etc. Obviously this is getting pretty far down the list
of return on investment...


--
We HAVE been at war with Iraq for 13 years now, bombing their
country on at least a weekly basis.
"U.S.-led sanctions have killed over a million Iraqi citizens,
according to UN studies" - James Jennings
3,000+ innocent Iraqi civilian casualties can't be "wrong"...