Struggling with a CPU Upgrade...

[Aztech]

I bought an AMD Athlon 64 4000+ chip to upgrade my Sempron 3200+ Socket 939 system. When I swapped the CPUs, the computer wouldn'b boot right. I got a message that Windows system files couldn't be found, etc. A strange error IMO for this scenario.

I went back to the Sempron and everything worked again. Any ideas? What BIOS changes or what else do I need to do to use this new chip?

Thanks.

 

[iBPJohn]

Have you updated the bios yet?

You might want to look and see if you have any AMD CPU drivers installed or something like that .

 

[Aztech]

Originally posted by: iBPJohn
Have you updated the bios yet?

You might want to look and see if you have any AMD CPU drivers installed or something like that .

Do you mean flash the BIOS, or make a change to some setting? I've done neither. I've never upgraded a CPU before.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Aztech

Originally posted by: iBPJohn
Have you updated the bios yet?

You might want to look and see if you have any AMD CPU drivers installed or something like that .

Do you mean flash the BIOS, or make a change to some setting? I've done neither. I've never upgraded a CPU before.

Your motherboard manufacturer should have a list of what BIOS you need to properly support a given CPU. If you don't currently have that BIOS (or a later version) on your board, you'll need to flash it.

 

[mindless1]

First try clearing CMOS, and boot to Memtest86+ to see what speed it reports, if correct for the 4000+, and let it run for a few hours to see if there's any memory instability.

While I suppose it's possible a bios update could be needed, it seems strange to have the system work enough to boot windows then fail with missing file errors. Seems almost more like a general instability like you'd see with overclocking, so I'd wonder if bios setting for speed, voltage, were correct. I'd also wonder if the motherboard is flaky delivering more power.

You might try underclocking the processor temporarily. If it was at the right speed in memtest86+ AND if it runs stable underclocked, it isn't so likely to be a bios version/support issue.