Installing new CPU

[antjscott]

I have an Asus A7V8X motherboard, with an 1300
+ Duron. I have been told that a AMD Sempron 2400 Socket A FSB333 would be compatible with my motherboard, if I update my bios, and flash the bios or something like that? i cant exactly remember what the guy said. can anyone help me? and/or tell me where i can download the appropriate materials. because i do understand that I may not be able to revert any damage that i may do.. ie i'm obviously new to the whole experience, and im so crap that i couldnt even remove the duron from the socket the other day when i went to check it out, i couldnt get the metal clips off the plastic ones.. anyway any help would be much appreciated in my steep learning curve..

 

[vnf4ultra]

Mobo

If this is your motherboard,
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7v8x-x/overview.htm
then you download version 1013
http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7V8X-X
, unzip it, put it on a formatted floppy, and reboot pc with floppy in drive. You might have to press a key combination like alt+f2 or something to begin flashing bios. Be sure not do this in a storm or something, because a power outage while flashing can ruin the motherboard. It's unlikely to happen though.

Your motherboard has the crash free bios, so it shouldn't get ruined even if it fails during flashing. Also, here is the fastest cpu you can put in that.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-381&depa=1
Pretty fast, blazing compared to 1300 duron. Somewhere from 2400-3000 would be a good upgrade choice. That's a pretty good motherboard.

 

[antjscott]

m

well in aus we dont have athlons for sale anymore around the 2400
+ range. we only have athlon 64's. the sempron's are replacing them. so i can get a sempron 2400+ cos that's the highest speed cpu that the mobo can handle. and it is just a plain A7V8X, with no extra -X on the end... any how thanx for ur help dude...

 

[vnf4ultra]

cpu

http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7V8X&langs=09#
So this is your motherboard. It says only up to 266mhz fsb.
I don't know if a newer bios lets a 333 processor or not.
I didn't even think about what country you're from, I guess that
would change who you can buy from, what you can get.
This is the fastest cpu with 266 bus that we can get from newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-482&depa=1
But I guess newegg doesn't ship internationally.

 

[antjscott]

cpu

well i'm gonna buy the sempron, cos i guess i have no choice, and if it doesnt work, i'll upgrade my motherboard... i've had it for like 3 or so years now... lol. cpu and motherboard are the last things to upgrade atm... god i hate dial up. every other town around us has adsl, but we dont!!! i hate telstra... they should update the exchange already... lol.

 

[vnf4ultra]

cpu

Let us know if it works. Try to use the latest bios available.
"i hate dial up. every other town around us has adsl, but we dont"
same here, but better than nothing.

 

[antjscott]

fan trouble

hey dude. i intsalled the new cpu, flashed the bios and all, but the fan isnt working. so i can have my comp run for like 5 mins before it hits the temp thresh hold and automatically shuts down. and when i press del, to try and get into bios, like i used to do, it wont. cos i wanted to see if i could alter something there, but i cant check to see. i've installed everything properly too, the power supply to the fan is connected and all.. maybe i need to reposition it or something. but if i did that, would it affect the thermal paste stuff?

 

[antjscott]

almost all good...

well all i had to do with the fan was switch around the way it was facing, and it works good now. thank god for that. the last problem i have, is that the cpu/and/or the mobo only register one of my 256mb ddr ram, so i currently only have it set at 1.667+ghz frequency, because it doesnt register the generic budget 256mb ddr ram, so the cpu doesnt use it... so in the mobo manual it has brands that it does specify to use, such as samsung, apparently, so ill see if i can get a 256 or 512 stick of that... oh btw what is a controller? i've seen them advertised, but i have no idea what they are used for... lol. obvious im an amateur on a steep learning curve...