Ok. I'm worried. Accidentally cleared my cmos.

An Eezak is a geek who just can't seem to quit typing!

As for the second question, generally if the CPU will fit in the socket type of a given mobo it should work. But check your mobo manual (or download one for any mobo you're considering purchasing) and look it over to see if there are any restrictions on the CPU -- maximum CPU speed and voltage the board supports for example).

All this assumes that, of course, the rest of your equipment meets the CPU's requirements (which you should be able to check at Intel or AMD, for example) -- i.e. enough juice from the power supply for the CPU plus the mobo itself, graphics card, hard drive(s), floppy and CD/DVD drive(s)/burner(s), etc.

The Athlon 64 is newer and more powerful compared to the Sempron. (For a detailed rundown do a web search on both processors and look for a good article comparing them.) But it's not out of the question that the fastest Sempron in a really good motherboard (or with more/faster RAM) might outrun the slowest Athlon, especially if it's in a crappy mobo or a motherboard with less RAM.

Overall system speed is a combination of a number of factors -- ultimately, not just how good each individual piece of hardware is alone, but how well all the hardware works together, and how good the hardware drivers are also. This latter sort of info can be hard to come by though and sometimes it's just a roll of the dice. My experience has been if I check the various hardware manuals online and note carefully the requirements and then stick to the middle of the price range (buying neither the cheapest nor the most expensive stuff) I'm seldom disappointed.

In addition, spend some time reading buyer's ratings and comments at places like NewEgg. Often there you may find out that a given brand and model of RAM apparently doesn't work well with a particular motherboard, for example. On the other hand, sometimes customers rate hardware poorly because they just don't know how to set it up properly, have unrealistic expectations or are unhappy about something else entirely (their dog just found the nachos on the kitchen table and ate them) and are just venting. So you sorta have to read between the lines, turn on your BS detection meter and weed out the whiners' comments.

You can have a really fast CPU, but if you have a small amount of slow RAM your system will poke along, as the CPU has to constantly wait on the RAM memory to cycle and the OS will make much more use of the swap file on the hard drive (which functions as virtual RAM when the system needs more RAM than it has) and that really slows things down also.

Tom's Hardware is usually a pretty good place to get info/reviews of various types of hardware. I read computer magazines also. Among my favs are PC World, Maximum PC (which focuses on hardware), and Smart Computing. Hardware reviews of computer parts (as opposed to cell phones and iPods which I don't pay much attention to, though I do own a Play Station Portable) always catch my eye and I pretty much read every one I see as I usually learn a bit from each review even if I'm not really looking, at that time, for a new hard drive or DVD burner or whatever the review is about. But I mean real reviews where they really try out the hardware and try to find it limitations and any problems it may have. Product announcements, which most computer mags also carry, just repeat the info that the maker has passed along to the magazine and probably won't teach you much though it may alert you to some new hardware of interest.

And last, but by no means least, there's MajorGeeks. Put together a list of hardware for a potential system and post it here in the hardware forum and ask people for comments. You'll often get suggestions for at least a part or two better than a couple of items on your list that cost about the same or even less. In addition, people may advise you that, given the other hardware in the system, you're really overspending on one item (say, a really fast graphics card) because it will be idled down waiting on your other hardware components too much of the time. (In the case of a really fast graphics card, the drag might be a too slow CPU and/or slow RAM, for example that keep the graphic card waiting. Which means, if you can't afford a better CPU and more and faster system RAM you might as well save your money and buy a cheaper graphics card as you won't notice the difference.)

For most of us, buying hardware isn't an exact science by any means. But if you read magazine and online reviews, read the product manuals (download them when possible and pore over them), ask for advice and help at sites like this, and read purchaser's comments at NewEgg about performance and compatibility problems you can usually get equipment that will work well together and give you pretty good bang for the buck. And especially if you avoid buying at either the very high or very low end.

 

Memory modules (RAM) not seated properly caused that problem on the laptop I am using today. The last creep who last worked it apparently lifted the wireless card, as well as some RAM.

 

I got tired of local computer shops wanting to charge me 40 - 45 dollars for old used amd sempron 2200+ cpu's that they'll probably throw into their trash can next year. So, I went onto ebay and ordered a 754 socket AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor yesterday. I wanted to get a decent upgrade from my 2600+ sempron, without overshooting my 755-A2 mobo and 350 or 500 watt power supply. I'm hoping it will be here within a week, but it could take up to 2 or 3 .

I'm assuming I should try to clean off the old thermal grease from the heatsink, yes?

 

Yes remove what you can mechanically first with a non metallic scraper and kitchen roll.

Then finish with more kitchen roll and white spirit or petrol or engine degreaser or plumbers pvc-pipe cleaner. Do this in the open air and leave to evaporate.

 

O.k. Here's where we're at. I just installed my new athlon 64 processor and it's still doing the same thing. Also, when I installed the new mobo it acted the same as well, even if the mobo didn't last but 10 or so minutes. But, that's not unusuall for the 755-A2. Atleast the one I have now still seems to be fine. So, let's just rule out the processor or mobo for the time being. I've replaced nearly every major component AND the video card and Ram, not to mention, it behaves the same way when I take out the 52k modem.

Though, it wouldn't make much sense to me, I'm beginning to wonder if it is a virus attacking my HD. If not I'd have to go back to a faulty case and/or power switch, but I don't really see how that could be it either. Any ideas, now?

 

Am I correct that you've tried two different CPU's (the older Sempron and the newer Athlon) in two different (but identical models) of mobo? And you're getting exactly the same symptoms? And you can't shut down any combination of mobo/CPU except by flipping that power supply switch on the back of the case? Is that correct?

If so, I'm not really sure what to suggest at this point. Maybe studiot will suggest something.

 

Well, for all practical purposes, that's basically correct Eezak, yeah. I didn't get a chance to do much with the new mobo because it was DOA, after only 10 or so minutes, but, I myself have pretty much ruled out that the mb is the problem. Which, I don't know what all is left really, but somethings not jiving somewhere, obviously. I mean, for the 10 or 15 minutes that I used the new mobo, it did do the same exact thing. Which, if it were just a mainboard problem, then it would have atleast given me a post screen for the short time that it lived.

 

For all nForce2 boards, the remedy for the BIOS bug is,

Disconnect the system from power,
Wait 1 minute
Hold down the Insert key on the keyboard
(this may not work with USB keyboards, though)
Reconnect power while holding the Insert key and press the start button.
The board will reset to defaults and allow entry to the the CMOS setup to change the settings to what is workable.

 

I'm still keeping an eye on this thread but really don't know what to suggest next. Can you tell us in detail what happened when the new mobo burned out after 10 minutes? Do you know whether the CPU might have been overheating? What were you doing during the 10 minutes of so before the mobo got fried? How do you know it was the mobo rather than your CPU that quit after 10 minutes? Were the monitor and keyboard working fine during the 10 minutes before the system died? Were you able to go into the BIOS and change any settings? If so, did you tinker with any voltage or clock settings in the BIOS? We really need some more details about what you did and what happened during that 10 minutes period.

 

Wow, so many questions to answer. I want to be as brief as I can. Let me just start by saying that I certainly cannot get into bios. I've tried repeatedly to do so. If I could do that, I wouldn't have much of a problem, as even I know my way around Bios a little. I have tried rebooting with the main key my mobo uses to force a reboot, which I can't remember right now. But, I did try it several times with several different keys. However, not as Bullchit has directed or Studiot's way for the Bios bug. So, I suppose I could try those.

"We really need some more details about what you did and what happened during that 10 minutes period." Eezak
There really wasn't any more to it. I just powered the new mb up and it ran the fans and lights just like the old one did. I sat and watched it for about 10 or so minutes while I was brainstorming and it just went out like a light bulb. After I realized it wasn't going to come back on, i just put the other mobo back in.

"the insert key will force the computer to boot.." Bullchit
Is that the case with most all computers? I mean, if my mb is really fine, just playing dead, then all I had to do all along was hold in a stupid key? I really have tried to force reboot into Bios many times. Besides, I wouldn't have had to do that with the brand new mobo installed would I? Remember, even with a brand new mobo of the exact same type, it still just ran the fans and lights. No beeps, no post screen.


"Tell me what you have for cpu,mobo amd model I think I read it has sdram, psu you are using now (model and watts) and hard drive" MK

AMD Athlon 64 or Sempron 2600+ socket 754
Mad Dog SurePower 350 Watt Power Supply
Or, alternatively, an @-Power 500 Watt PSU

nVIDIA Gforce 7600 GS DDR2 512MB AGP
1GB single stick DDR 400 SDRam
Samsung 40 Gig 7200rpm HDD
16x DVD ROM
Mad Dog 8x cd Burner
56k modem
2 fans on psu, 1 case fan, 1 fan on processor and 1 small fan on video card
ps2 keyboard and mouse

This is really all I can give for info.

Sorry it took so long, technical difficulties login on to web yesterday.

 

OK, so nothing has really changed, but you didn't tell us that until I asked. Details, details...they're important so we don't start making erroneous assumptions.

I don't think holding down the <Insert> key is going to make that thing boot, but it's certainly worth a try.

I'm sorry, but I'm stumped for now. I'll keep an eye on this thread and let you know if I think of anything else. Meanwhile, if you gain any more info or think of anything you've left out that may be helpful, do post it of course.

Anybody else got any ideas or suggestions?

 

Are you sure that the motherboard was actually fried? I'm wondering if it's possible that some sort of circuit breaker in the power supply got overloaded and that caused everything to power down. Before you uninstalled that motherboard did you try just turning the computer off and unplugging the power for a few minutes. Then powering it up again? If not, that mobo may be fine and something could be causing your power supply to shut down to prevent possible electrical damage to the components.

 

there should be a jumper labeled clearcmos or csmos reset a jumper looks like this [:]

there are 3 pins the jumper connects 2 of them then moveing it over one pin let it sit for 15 sec then move it back pulling the battery is not enough on the new board do this with the system and the power unplugged after hit the setup key to open the setup page its usely del F1 F2 or insert or F8 it should tell your what key to hit to access the bios setup from there you may need to config that drive to boot from it should be
A CDROM C: or with some C: CDROM A: I don't think anything is fried as long as your didn't mess with it when it was on

it should show what looks like diagnosis screen on boot up try hilting esc or tab

 

It's confirmed. It was the motherboard. I had it in the shop yesterday. The technician said that it was the mb right off the bat. When I asked if he was sure, he said he was positive. That's nice, that means the other mb I ordered was actually worse. Anyway, I would like to know what kind of mb I could use instead of the ecs 755-a2. My components are pretty standard, as far as the ram, video card, cpu, etc. I've posted my specs 3 different times in this thread if you'd like to see them. GF thanks again.

 

Sorry, GF. I apparently didn't get an email notifying me you'd posted to this thread again. Very sorry to hear that both mobos are apparently out of commission, but given your extensive problems that makes sense. You might want to think about starting a brand new thread, listing your usable hardware, including CPU and RAM and hard drive, and asking for mobo suggestions. Many of the most knowledgeable people here are, I think, less likely to look in on a long thread unless they've already been contributing to it. And this is really a new topic -- what other mobo to buy so you can use your old salvageable hardware, so that's a legit reason to start a new thread, I'd think.

 

I'd just like to let everyone know that I did recently get a new mobo installed. I'm not sure how good it is but I think it might be a little better than the one I had in, which was the ecs 755-a2. If you'd like to follow along, I certainly wouldn't mind the extra eyes. I am going to hardware, I've posted under "agp versus pci graphics card". please refer to that one, as I am very done with this chapter.

 

Here's the link to the new thread GF started:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=152975