CPU upgrade!

[bruinwar]

OK I know the 1st thing is that this is a useless upgrade. But it was cheap & these days thats a good thing.

My employers had a computer giveaway, Dell GX260s. I got one, a 2Ghz (Northwood 478 400Mgz 512k cache) & planned to use it as a Home Theater PC. Turns out that maybe the CPU is lacking for HD playback. So I grabbed up a 3.06Ghz (Northwood 478 533Mgz 512k cache) popped it in (carefully) & after I finally figured out there was a toggle in the BIOS from "normal" to "compatible" it lit right up.

Problem is the O.S. took about 15 mins to boot. Once at my desktop, it was beyond slow, CPU pegged at 100%... but with patience I was about to run CPUID & it all showed normal, as did the device manager. But I could barely move the pointer with the mouse. Something very wrong!

So the first thing I am in the middle of attempting is the re-load WinXP using the repair option. This is going slow, each percentage on the process bar takes a bit to get through. =/

Any ideas? Anyone ever see this before? Can it be fixed or should I just go back to the 2Ghz & give it to Gramma?
I really would like a HTPC!

Thanks in advance!

Regards,
Joe S.

More info: I changed out the PS to a 400 watt I had, added a gig of RAM, changed the video card to a 7600GT I had. Updated the BIOS, changed the battery! This was all done successfully before the CPU upgrade. CPUID output below, from before I added the RAM & CPU change. After the change it showed it as a 3.06Ghz.



CPU-Z 1.47 report file

Processor(s)

Number of processors 1
Number of cores 1 per processor
Number of threads 1 per processor
Name Intel Pentium 4
Code Name Northwood
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz
Package Socket 478 mPGA
Family/Model/Stepping F.2.7
Extended Family/Model F.2
Brand ID 9
Core Stepping C1
Technology 0.13 um
Core Speed 1992.6 MHz
Multiplier x Bus speed 20.0 x 99.6 MHz
Rated Bus speed 398.5 MHz
Stock frequency 2000 MHz
Instruction sets MMX, SSE, SSE2
L1 Data cache (per processor) 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Trace cache (per processor) 12 Kuops, 8-way set associative
L2 cache (per processor) 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size

Chipset & Memory

Northbridge Intel i845G rev. A1
Southbridge Intel 82801DB (ICH4) rev. 01
Graphic Interface AGP
AGP Revision 2.0
AGP Transfer Rate 4x
AGP Side Band Addressing supported, enabled
Memory Type DDR
Memory Size 512 MBytes
Memory Frequency 132.8 MHz (3:4)
CAS# Latency (tCL) 2.5 clocks
RAS# to CAS# (tRCD) 3 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 3 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 6 clocks
DRAM Idle Timer 16 clocks

System

System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Name OptiPlex GX260
System S/N CP5Y521
Mainboard Vendor Dell Computer Corp.
Mainboard Model
BIOS Vendor Dell Computer Corporation
BIOS Version A09
BIOS Date 11/01/2004

Memory SPD

Module 1 DDR, PC2100 (133 MHz), 512 MBytes, Micron Technology

Software

Windows Version Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (Build 2600)
DirectX Version 9.0c

 

[humanure]

what temp are you getting for the CPU? Sounds like it might be throttling.

 

[bruinwar]

hmmmm.... throttling crossed my mind. But then I don't know a way of measuring it, although I know it's running hot, HS is hot.

But if it was throttling wouldn't that cause system props & CPUID to measure the Ghz smaller? I don't know at all, I could be completely wrong, but before I invest the time to find a better HS that fits this thing, I would like to be sure. Stock HS is crap.

Thanks for your reply BTW.

 

[funkymatt]

check your temps using mbm5 or everest home edition

 

[bruinwar]

OK will try one of them in the morning. I am familiar with them, just haven't used either in years due to the utilities that MB makers provide these days. You think mbm5 or everest will work with a Dell MB? One way to find out but it won't be easy, as this machine is extremly slow.

Thanks for your reply!

 

[Dillybob]

15 minutes is exceptionally slow for ANYTHING.....probably the fact of airflow. The 3+ GHZ CPUs for the 478 boards were the reason that intel created the BTX case standard.
They get exceptionally hot, because they basically took the same chip and overclocked it.....then overclocked it some more.....and more still. They really screwed themselves
with that plan, and, on the more recent end, you end up with a slow PC. You need more fans, and possible a bigger cooler. If you have the option,
maybe give it more voltage, as the motherboard may still be supplying the amount needed for the 2ghz.

Hope it all turns out in the end! (I'd get at least an AMD dual core anyway....they're better. )

 

[cubby1223]

The 3.06ghz P4 was the first with hyperthreading, and the chipset / motherboard / bios revision may not support it.

 

[Lemon law]

To Bruinwar,

The first place to start is always your motherboard specification and Dell. They should be able to tell you if the new CPU is supported or not. Your second step should be booting to your bios and not OS. Check all your bios settings and I am guessing some bios option will tell you what temperature you are running on your CPU. My guess is that if you are running more than 78 C at idle, you can stop there, because at that or above that temperature, internal circuitry will slow your cpu to a crawl. You can also see if a newer bios revision will do anything.

But if you want to boot into windows, wait the 15 minutes, and then use some third party temperature monitoring, that would be OK also. But realize that you have really worked your cpu, and now is the time to
give it a rest. Because there are two temperatures to worry about, cpu temp at idle and cpu temp under load. And once the load is removed, you have to wait quite a while to let things read accurate at idle.

If cpu temperature is the culprit, your first option is a better cpu cooler. A bunch of extra case fans only become needed if heat is building up inside the case. And that latter type heat buildup usually takes at least a half an hour to become apparent.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: Dillybob
15 minutes is exceptionally slow for ANYTHING.....probably the fact of airflow. The 3+ GHZ CPUs for the 478 boards were the reason that intel created the BTX case standard.
They get exceptionally hot, because they basically took the same chip and overclocked it.....then overclocked it some more.....and more still. They really screwed themselves
with that plan, and, on the more recent end, you end up with a slow PC. You need more fans, and possible a bigger cooler. If you have the option,
maybe give it more voltage, as the motherboard may still be supplying the amount needed for the 2ghz.

Hope it all turns out in the end! (I'd get at least an AMD dual core anyway....they're better. )

Actually only the prescotts caused this, if hes running 533 bus its unlikely that its a prescott

 

[mujizac]

Double check that the hard drive is running in udma. Sometimes windows goes into stupid mode because of errors on the drives. You will find this info under the device info for your ide controller. If it says that any drive is in pio mode, remove the controller from device manager and reboot to force it to reload. I total nuke and load of windows will also fix it. I realize that this is an out there idea, and probably the cpu is your culprit. I have however seen many a frustrated tech spend hours trying to figure out why a system is running mega slow only to find out this was the cause.
Thanks and good luck!

 

[bruinwar]

Wow, go outa town for a couple days & look at all the great replies!

Let me take them one at a time.

Yes, I suppose it could be the fact that HT is not supported & that is somehow causing the CPU to peg out at 100%.

Yes I suppose it could be heat, but I wouldn't know for sure, no place to get the CPU temp. Everest failed to get a reading. Me thinks Dells (at least this Dell) just don't support getting the temps out of the CPU. Nothing in the BIOS either. However, all the being said, wouldn't it being throttled down show up when measuring CPU speed with stuff like CPUID & Everest? Would they not show it as slower?

I doubt that it is a UDMA problem. I did reload WinXP, took nearly 24 hours to do it.

Last attempt, one I shoulda started with, good ol' Knoppix! Same exact issue. Knoppix CD took 15 to 30 mins to boot to it's desktop. Everything was choppy, like the CPU was pegged at 100% took a very long time to open a browser. The "info" showed, just like all other measurement tools, a Intel 3.06Ghz running at 3.055Ghz. Again, temps do not show up anywhere.

Unless someone has another idea, my final guesses, are this is either a bad CPU (no way for me to test) or it won't work on this motherboard. =/

Thanks everyone for all your replies.

 

[myocardia]

Your problem is that you're trying to run a P4B in a motherboard that only supports P4A's. There is no fix, unless there happens to be a BIOS update for your board, which I highly doubt, since Dell doesn't want you upgrading their computers, they want you buying new ones. Anyway, if you want the fastest CPU your board can handle, you should be looking into a 2.8A: http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=542 As you can see, those are a bit overpriced, but the 2.6A is fairly reasonably priced: http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=115

 

[bruinwar]

Is the only difference bettween a P4a & a P4b the bus speed?
I mean, are there any P4a's running at 533Mgz? This motherboard with a BIOS flashed to the A9 version (9 BIOS updates? From Dell?!) is able to POST with the 533Mgz. So it can at least run the bus at 533.

The guy I bought the 3.06Ghz CPU wants me to try a 2.53Ghz, also a 533Mhz bus, but no hyperthreading. I am hoping it's the hyperthreading that is giving me the grief.