replacing/upgrading CPU

jepherz

do i just pull out the old one and plug in the new one? or is there some other things i have to do?

im planning on buying these
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2GHz Socket 754 Processor - OEM
Newegg.com - Rosewill RCX-Z940-SL 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail

i had a amd athlon 3200+ newcastle(i think it was 3200+). my computer died on me suddenly one day, and it wouldn't start up again. I don't know whats wrong with it, but im just guessing its the processor, is there a way to check? i can turn it on and the fans would run, but it can't sense that the monitor is plugged in and you don't hear the beeping noises the computer makes everytime you start it up. i know, thats not too distriptive =/

so anyways...i was just wondering how complicated it might be to put in a new different processor into a computer.

Tipstaff

Actually, there are 2 possible problems that jump to mind: bad power supply (not supplying enough juice), or your motherboard is bad (or a part installed into it), which would be my first assumption.

The first is pretty simple: try another PSU to see if it works.

The second is a little bit more tricky. The motherobard issue could be related to one of the other parts in the system, be it ram, hard drives, video card, and so on. If you remove the ram the board should beep like crazy at you. If it doesn't then it's more than likely the mobo. You might also consider detaching all the IDE/Floppy cables from your motherboard to see what happens, as well as removing everything down to the bare essentials: 1 stick of ram, video card (or onboard video if you have it). One last thing to try would be to reset your bios via the jumpers for it on your motherboard. For that it's best to check the manual for your board. In any case it should be pretty obvious which jumpers on your board do this. Usually it's done like this:

- Turn off the power switch to your PSU
- Unplug the power cable to the PSU
- Remove the battery on your motherboard
- Change the jumper to clear your bios, and wait 30 seconds
- Do everything in the reverse order
- Startup your computer, go into the bios, load the Setup Default (either F5 or F6 within the bios), and then make the changes you need to

As for switching the processor, it's pretty straight forward. In your case that fan only has one clip that will clip onto each side of the CPU socket. If anything you might want to give AMDs site right HERE a shot. On it you will find videos on how to install the processor, and how to install/remove the heatsink for each of the types of sockets they have.

jepherz

thanks for the advice 0.o

ill give the the mobo and psu thing a try, maybe not the psu cuz i dont think i can find one =/ but i forgot to mention i did overclock the psu just alittle. i think .2 ghz faster only on stock fan and the computer case is also pretty small, it was like 30 dollars and came with a power supply....but i replaced that with an antec psu right away.

jepherz

i have a question before i try the mobo thing

http://us.dfi.com.tw/Upload/Manual/l...81000414-r.pdf

thats the manual for the mobo that i have. it doesnt say anything about removing the battery from the mobo, and it also says it could explode if you put the battery in the wrong way =S should i remove the battery anyways?...

Tipstaff

Yep. You need to remove the battery. The battery is there to keep just enough juice going to the bios, just enough to keep the changes you have made active when you cut power to the system (either by turning off the PSU by the switch on it, or by removing the power cable). If you removed the battery in either of those 2 cases the bios would revert back to it's default "hardcoded" settings. The reason you need to remove the battery when you reset the bios is that some boards don't properly clear out any of the changes you might have done, if at all. As a sure fire way to reset the bios you remove the battery. In your case, removing the battery would be step 2 under "Clear CMOS Data" in your manual (under section 2.4.1).


Oh, and the exploding battery, what the manual is referring to is that the battery needs to be installed with the plus ( + ) facing the right direction. Some motherboards have the battery installed flat, while some have it mounted vertically. In both cases the plus has to be facing the right direction. In the case of the flat install the battery is usually facing plus side up.

In any case, be sure to note the way the battery is installed prior to taking it out, and be sure to install it back the exact same way after you reset the bios.

jepherz

ok, ill go and give it a try right now.

i went out and bought a new psu and stick of ram to see if itll make my computer run and it didn't.

im considering possibly building a new system using the sound card, cd drive and psu. i want to...but i dont know if my parents will let me =/ theres so many things different with computers now that im confused...

cozumel

Before you go out and spend a load of money on a new rig you're best of trying to fault find what is currently wrong. Check out what happens when you try the new PSU as Tipsatff said above.

If that doen't work you could try booting with just graphics, cpu, 1 module ram installed with everything else removed / disconnected to see if a main compenents are ok etc then working out what is going wrong by a process of elimination.

You may end up finding that nothing major was really wrong (this is nearly always the case). You may still want to build a new rig but can fund it buy selling a working rig that you now have.

jepherz

i just bought a new antec 500w and a piece of ram pc2700 which should be compatible yesterday and tried it, they didn't help.

i also tried the video, ram and cpu only and it still didnt work

and when i tried without the ram it didnt beep or anything, so i guess it could be the mobo

but then the processor had also been overclocked and running for atleast a couple years so i thoguht it coulda been that too =/

Tipstaff

There is one last suggestion: check that the CPU is sitting in it's socket. That, of course, intales removing the heatsink/fan (which you have the step-by-step video for). It's quite possible that the CPU has been dislodged from the socket.

"Slip out?" you may be asking yourself. Well, it can happen. I've seen it numerous times. Remember your basics: heat something up, and it expands. Cool it, and it contracts. Same principal is happening here. If the thermal material has bonded the heatsink and CPU together to a point that it's hard to pull them appart, then it's possible that when the heatsink cools down it slighlty pulls on the CPU. Over the years this effect with wiggle the CPU right out of the socket just enough to cause it to not work.

So, here's what you do:

- Hit the swith on your power supply itself so it's off. Do not unplug it though.
- Touch the metal of the case so that your ground yourself (or discharge any possible static).
- Remove the heatsink according to the step-by-step.
- Reseat the CPU in the socket by first removing it, and then putting it back in.
- Reattach the heatsink. If necessary, reapply thermal paste (so, be sure you have some before doing this). Don't use a lot. All you need is a very thin (paper thin) amount on the top of the CPU, and try to leave some of the CPU uncovered by paste around the edges (say about a 1mm or so) so that when the heatsink comes into contact with the paste it doesn't squeeze it all over.
- Precaution: Make sure that the CPU fan is plugged in before you finish up.
- Flip the swith on the PSU, and try to boot the system up.

jepherz

wow...how strange ^^

i just tried taking the cpu out and putting it back in, but before that i put on some more artic silver 5. when i turned it on, the greed led on the computer case was blinking then turned solid. i had the IDE on the video card unplugged and i got a warning message telling me to put it back in. when the green led turned solid it brought me to the mobo watermark(?) logo thing and it just froze there.

one of the pins on the cpu was bent though =S i had to use a screw driver to bend it back so i could put it back in. i tried running it without the stick of ram again, and it didnt' beep though...the ram works perfectly fine when i plug it into my dads computer though...

Tipstaff

So, now you are at the point that you have the computer running, but it's freezing at the logo? If so, couple things to go over:

Be sure the IDE/Floppy cables are attatch to the motherboard correctly (most times, stripe facing the bottom of the board), and that none of the pins on the board for those connectors are not bent either. It's quite possible that it's not actually freezing, but trying to detect parts. If the cables are backwards it can take a while for the comptuer to give up trying to detect devices, or it will continue to do so indefinatly. Also, don't forget that you reset the bios, so there are changes that still need to be taken care of. Mind you, now that you have things up and running again you may want to consider resetting the bios one more time.. just as a precaution.

Edit: btw, something I forgot to mention. If you have connected the floppy cable backwards it would be very obvious, cuz when you run the machine the floppy activity light will constantly be on (which is an indication that the computer is constantly accessing it.. or trying to). Also, if you forgot to plug the power back into a device, or accidentally unplugged one, such as the floppy, hard, or CD/DVD drive, then a similar thing would happen. In this case the computer is trying to access those drives, however since they are unplugged it would sit there for a while. Eventually, however, the system would give up, and just continue on, but not always. So, be sure to also check that all your drives are powered.

jepherz

well...im on the computer now...its working, but i can't plug everything in with the IDEs. i have 2 hard drives and a cd drive to plug in so thats 3 things. if i plug them all in the computer cant detect them or something. i had a spare IDE cable and plugged both my hard drives in and got them to both work at the same time, but it wouldn't before; i could only get 1 hard drive to work and no cd drive. could this be an issue with the psu or mobo?

jepherz

is it possible for one of the IDE slots on the mobo to stop working? is there something like a program i could download to check this?

Tipstaff

Not really. The simplest way is to look in your bios. The bios would tell you if it's detecting any devices on the IDE chains. Usually for something like this to happen you would either have bad cable (if you use too much force to remove the cable by the wires themselves this can happen real fast), broken/bent pins on either the motherboard or the devices themselves, bad drives (either not being powered up, or dying), reversed cable (remember, the stripe must be towards the devices power connector), or if more than one device is set the same (such as both set to master or slave). It could also happen if the controller is busted, but anytime I've seen this happen is with 3rd party IDE controllers, or SATA controllers on VIA boards.

There is one other instance. Some newer drives, both hard drives and DVD drives, must be used on the newer 80 wire IDE cable. I've noticed this is especially true for the newer Pioneer and LG drives (infact, LGs OEM drives come packed with the first 80 wire cable, the ones that don't have a missing or cut wire). If attempt to use the older 40 wire cable the drives can fail to respond in the case of the hard drives, or burn one coaster after another with the DVD burners.

InternetDude

Im having a bit of a problem along with my mobo, and just upgraded to a dfi lanparty. I also just purchasesd a new proccessor,

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor - Retail

but im not sure of if this heatsink,

Newegg.com - Rosewill RCX-Z940-SL 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail

will fit my proccessor, im thinking since my proccessor is a athlon 64 series it will, but i want to make sure before i spend the money.

cozumel

I've never bought anything from Rosewill so check out with Rosewill if the HS is compatable. There has to be adequate clearances around the CPU caps and GFX areas.

On the Thermalright website for example it lists all their coolers and tells you which mobo have been tested as compatable.