Well I've done my CPU UPGRADE my 3yr old Intel Core2 Duo E6300 (1.8GHz) to a new (cost GBP 57 delivered from eBuyer within 2 days) Pentium Dual Core E6300 (2.8GHz) and here's how I got on to help others:
775DUAL-VSTA already had latest 3.19a BIOS - ie that explicitly says it supports the PDC E6300 2.8GHz (which it DID prove to do at the expected 10.5 x 266 !).
Unclipping the old CPU was easy - ie screwdriver twist the 4 clips 90degrees to left and lifted it off (as reminded in new CPU booklet!). Thermal paste was quite well spread out. Some dust lurking on the motherboard around the CPU. lifting out old CPU easy. Fitting in new CPU really easy (though still puzzled why they don't make 100.00% obvious for the less informed about "the" corner! Clipping on the new fan (far lower depth than old Intel CPU fan) = the usual not 100% sure that all 4 legs had clipped on - so took 3 or 4 goes before was confident that properly seated. Really is a silly design!
While had system case open (and hoovered some of the dust out), I took the opportunity to replace the original 3yr old CMOS CR2032 battery (old one was Newsun brand) - easy to unclip and press in a fresh one!
PC started up first time without any worrying beeps BUT it took me 3 attempts to get into the BIOS before I remembered about my MS Natural keyboard needing the "F" key pressed at startup so the F2 is an F2 press and not an 'undo' press. Had me rather worried for a bit!!!!
Did a load optimal defaults on last BIOS page.
Then corrected date/time.
Saw the CPU correctly ID'd and speed'd.
Set IDE SATA to non-RAID and set H/W Monitor fan Quiet Fan to Enabled at default 50 and then rebooted.
On second boot set SATA to SMART enabled and updated the boot order to get SATA drive at the top.
On third boot (system had been on for 10mins+ by now) I went into H/W Monitor to ensure CPU temperature was still reasonable - ie check heatsink/fan was working! Was 41C degrees and fan settled from c2500 down to c850 as I watched. (Subsequentially checked the BIOS temp display a few times over next 1.5hrs and still in 41/43/43C range = good to see.)
On start up of Windows Vista Home Premium - where I use the Media Center application with a DVB-T card - I got loads of errors that appeared related to the Media Center. Did a bit of Googling and found this posting and followed it and suppressed the problems for me!
http://www.vistax64.com/networ...ed-working-closed.html
ie chucking away the DRM stuff that was worrying about my CPU having changed.
This is a problem I had NOT been expecting but in hindsight should have expected.
About half an hour in I had a BSOD with something about an IRQ but it vanished before I could write it down and so far not recurred in next 1.5hrs - though has me worried a bit - though after my 4GB RAM upgrade I had one BSOD after but then nothing over last 6 months.
I updated my Vista Windows Experience and CPU (my lowest rating) from 5.0 went up to 5.6! Windows still shows as Activated = good.
PS: Just noticed my MEMORY score went up from 5.1 to 5.3 too!
I looked at the Device Drivers display and no alert icons there. I did notice the Via Serial ATA Controller 0591 entry and as my Via AllInOne updates haven't worked for a long time I did try an Update Driver which proceeded to find/install one and then asked for reboot and THEN Windows wouldn't start up and I had to do a Last Known Good reversion! The Via driver shows as 03/04/2008 6.0.6000.252 - if anyone knows if/how to update properly let me know!
That's all I can think of to relate at the moment. Will have a go at an Everest benchmark later (I did one pre upgrade, but can't spot which menu option I did yet).
One question I have is about the RAM. I have 2 x 2GB sticks running at default 1:1 266 at 4/4/4/12-2T as per SPD. The SPD for 333 shows 5/5/5/15. Did we ever reach any conclusion about whether running at default 1:1 266 or 333 was optimal ?
Otherwise if anyone has any related questions/hints/tips/observations do chip in please.
Keeping my fingers crossed for some reliable computing over the next month before I put in a new 1TB drive and install a fresh Windows 7 on it instead of all the residue of 3 years of XP-Home upgraded to Vista HP when it hiccuped
MKD