CPU-upgrade on ancient MoBo (P2L-97)

[Ola A Johansson]

Hi all!

I just tried to put a P3-700/100 (SL3VL) CPU, through a PL-ip3/T
slocket, in my good ol' P2L-97 (currently with BIOS 1010 b004.)
It posts just fine, as a 522MHz at 7*75, but it stops dead just as
windows is about to start (W2k-pro).
Any idea what might cause this somewhat strange behaviour?
(it's been running just fine, as a 262 at 3,5*75, with a P2-350/100
(SL2U4) for ages).

TIA /Ola J

 

[Paul]

Hi all!

I just tried to put a P3-700/100 (SL3VL) CPU, through a PL-ip3/T
slocket, in my good ol' P2L-97 (currently with BIOS 1010 b004.)
It posts just fine, as a 522MHz at 7*75, but it stops dead just as
windows is about to start (W2k-pro).
Any idea what might cause this somewhat strange behaviour?
(it's been running just fine, as a 262 at 3,5*75, with a P2-350/100
(SL2U4) for ages).

TIA /Ola J

The tech support section of the Powerleap site suggests this:

-------------------------------------
System freezes during Windows boot up

Why is my system locking-up right before windows finishes loading?

Answer

Frequent lockups in windows or a lockup during the loading of windows
is most likely a driver error. To determine which driver is the problem,
you must use what is called "step-by-step confirmation". This is a way
to load windows features one "step" at a time. Please follow the steps
below.

1. Press and hold down F8 while the computer is booting
2. After a couple seconds you will be prompted with different
methods to load windows.
3. Please choose "step-by-step"
4. You will then be prompted with a yes or no to load each device.
5. Press yes for each answer, but be sure to do so at a slow pace.
6. This is because when the system does lock up, the last question
you said yes to is the faulty driver.
7. At this point replace the old processor and boot up normally.
8. Now do a system search for this file, this should help you to
determine what device is in error.
9. At this point visit the website of the manufacturer and download
the latest drivers
10. Now you should be able to install the upgrade normally.
-------------------------------------

Try that first, and see if the point at which it freezes is consistent.

Maybe your choice of bus frequency is leaving the PCI or AGP
out of spec ? At 75Mhz, I expect the PCI is at 37.5MHz, which
might be a problem for an IDE interface. The AGP is normally
more tolerant of an overclock of its 66MHz clock.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Ola A Johansson]

Hi Paul!

The tech support section of the Powerleap site suggests this:

-------------------------------------
System freezes during Windows boot up

Why is my system locking-up right before windows finishes loading?

Answer

Frequent lockups in windows or a lockup during the loading of windows
is most likely a driver error. To determine which driver is the problem,
you must use what is called "step-by-step confirmation". This is a way
to load windows features one "step" at a time. Please follow the steps
below.

1. Press and hold down F8 while the computer is booting
2. After a couple seconds you will be prompted with different
methods to load windows.
3. Please choose "step-by-step"
4. You will then be prompted with a yes or no to load each device.
5. Press yes for each answer, but be sure to do so at a slow pace.
6. This is because when the system does lock up, the last question
you said yes to is the faulty driver.
7. At this point replace the old processor and boot up normally.
8. Now do a system search for this file, this should help you to
determine what device is in error.
9. At this point visit the website of the manufacturer and download
the latest drivers
10. Now you should be able to install the upgrade normally.
-------------------------------------

Try that first, and see if the point at which it freezes is consistent.

Maybe your choice of bus frequency is leaving the PCI or AGP
out of spec ? At 75Mhz, I expect the PCI is at 37.5MHz, which
might be a problem for an IDE interface. The AGP is normally
more tolerant of an overclock of its 66MHz clock.

HTH,
Paul

Stupid me.
I should of course have RTFM.
But I'm still a bit bewildered at why it doesn't work, since it's been
running just fine at 75MHz for ages before (only with a lower multiplier on
the CPU(3,5 instead of 7)).
Now I only have to find me a new W2k-disc, in case any new drivers needs
some new systemfiles (a bad CD-ROMdrive ate my old one).

Thanks for your advice /Ola J

 

[Ola A Johansson]

Hi Paul (and others)

Hi Paul!

snip

end snip

snip

end snip

Stupid me.
I should of course have RTFM.
But I'm still a bit bewildered at why it doesn't work, since it's been
running just fine at 75MHz for ages before (only with a lower multiplier on
the CPU(3,5 instead of 7)).
Now I only have to find me a new W2k-disc, in case any new drivers needs
some new systemfiles (a bad CD-ROMdrive ate my old one).

Thanks for your advice /Ola J

Oh well.
I tried it at 66MHz as well, but it still locks just as the Windows
splash-screen appears.
So I never get as far as to loading drivers one by one.
But then again, that CPU isn't supposed to work with that old board. (according
to ASUS' compatibility-list)
I just thought I'd try it since I already had the CPU and slocket lying around
doing nothing.

Thanks anyway for your advice /Ola J

 

[Paul]

Hi Paul (and others)


end snip


end snip


Oh well.
I tried it at 66MHz as well, but it still locks just as the Windows
splash-screen appears.
So I never get as far as to loading drivers one by one.
But then again, that CPU isn't supposed to work with that old board. (according
to ASUS' compatibility-list)
I just thought I'd try it since I already had the CPU and slocket lying around
doing nothing.

Thanks anyway for your advice /Ola J

Is there any way to determine what voltage the processor is running at ?
I think there are two models of Powerleap, and one has VID jumpers while
the other doesn't. Since the processor Vcore is disconnected from the
motherboard, there is no way to monitor the voltage. Maybe it has something
to do with that.

The other thing it could be is some kind of AGP problem. I've had
trouble just as the screen changed from 640x480 BIOS type screen to the
Windows desktop at my normal resolution. So, I associate that with the
AGP driver starting up for the first time.

That isn't going to help you much.

A third option is Windows is confused about what kind of processor you
are using. Without a BSOD to go with the freeze, it will be difficult
to trace down.

Do you have another video card around, like a PCI video card ? Give
that a try and see if it works any better. Another alternative is to
try booting memtest86 from a floppy, and see if you can run memtest
without error. At least that will show that the processor can do some
real work, and points more towards some kind of software problem.
Maybe if you can get DOS running, you could also try a CPU intensive
program (something equivalent to CPUburn or Prime95).

HTH,
Paul

 

[gdp]

Hi all!

I just tried to put a P3-700/100 (SL3VL) CPU, through a PL-ip3/T
slocket, in my good ol' P2L-97 (currently with BIOS 1010 b004.)
It posts just fine, as a 522MHz at 7*75, but it stops dead just as
windows is about to start (W2k-pro).
Any idea what might cause this somewhat strange behaviour?
(it's been running just fine, as a 262 at 3,5*75, with a P2-350/100
(SL2U4) for ages).

TIA /Ola J

I can't find the support document that explains it, but evergreen
processor upgrades used to sell a upgrade kit to put a 766 MHz
coppermine celeron in the Intel AL440LX boards. In the support
document, it said it would not work with Win2K/WinXP. It also had
problems with video card drivers from certain card makers that tried to
make use of the coppermine's special features. So Win98/ME with a
Voodoo card was the way to go.

I upgraded a Gateway system with an LX chipset motherboard with one of
those processors and it worked great, but it greatly limited any upgrade
path (OS or vid card) for the user.

Powerleap has a coppermine celeron upgrade for LX mobos, but says this
"Can not use Windows XP or 2000 with this configuration".

This may not be your problem, but the symptoms sound like it might be.

George

 

[Ola A Johansson]

Hi GDP (and Paul, and others)!

I can't find the support document that explains it, but evergreen
processor upgrades used to sell a upgrade kit to put a 766 MHz
coppermine celeron in the Intel AL440LX boards. In the support
document, it said it would not work with Win2K/WinXP. It also had
problems with video card drivers from certain card makers that tried to
make use of the coppermine's special features. So Win98/ME with a
Voodoo card was the way to go.

I upgraded a Gateway system with an LX chipset motherboard with one of
those processors and it worked great, but it greatly limited any upgrade
path (OS or vid card) for the user.

Powerleap has a coppermine celeron upgrade for LX mobos, but says this
"Can not use Windows XP or 2000 with this configuration".

This may not be your problem, but the symptoms sound like it might be.

George

My PowerLeap has voltage settings (the CPU runs just fine in a BX board,
with the exact same setting), and the system POSTs perfectly fine, and
appears to be able to run DOS98 (w98's bootfloppy).
So it seems to be a problem with w2k.

Too bad I am kind of dependant on some stuff in that particular
2k-installation, or I would just kill it in favour of something more
stable/tolerant.

Thanks to all for your guidance /Ola J

 

[Don Slugg]

why dont you just swap out the motherboard?

its easy enuf and you can use that nice p3-700

 

[gdp]

Hi GDP (and Paul, and others)!

gdp wrote:




My PowerLeap has voltage settings (the CPU runs just fine in a BX board,
with the exact same setting), and the system POSTs perfectly fine, and
appears to be able to run DOS98 (w98's bootfloppy).
So it seems to be a problem with w2k.

Too bad I am kind of dependant on some stuff in that particular
2k-installation, or I would just kill it in favour of something more
stable/tolerant.

Thanks to all for your guidance /Ola J

The following explain problems with the LX chipset and Win2K better.
Now this may, or may not be specific to Phoenix based BIOS types.

http://home.earthlink.net/~billselk/al440lx/slockets2.html
http://www.roberthancock.com/dell/xpsdproc.htm