Hardware upgrades on 12 year old stationary PC

[SO•Marty]

Yes, 64-bit Windows will be able to use all 8GB of RAM.

I am in the same boat actually, got a pc that is about to be 10 years old, but since it was meant to handle Vista it handles 7,8 en 10 without a problem.

Quadcore 2.6 non-overclocked CPU
8 GB RAM
1 TB HDD and a 500GB SSD laying around to be installed later
and an upgraded GPU, a nVidia GT640. Still nothing to write home about but at least it handles modern games a lil bit better.

[MariusMM]

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[SO•Wax]

(2019-02-10 12:02)MariusMM Wrote:  So I have received the new parts (SSD, 4GB extra RAM and new CPU Q9550).

I installed the SSD a couple weeks back, that was a simple and smooth upgrade. It was using a new computer, crazy fast compared to old HDD.
Then a couple nights ago I installed the 2 extra ram sticks, that was also simple and smooth, basically just stick them in the slots. Can probably feel a small difference when using a couple heavy programs at the same time.

Then last night I went for the CPU change, from Duo CPU E8400 to Quad Q9550. Little did I know I was gone troubleshoot for the next 5+ hours...

I successfully replaced the old with new (new thermal paste of course), and went to boot it up, and it would not get past this screen:

Spoiler (Click to View)

I could restart PC and spam the delete key, and sometimes get into this:

Spoiler (Click to View)

After googling and back and fourth, resetting BIOS (or more correctly "clear CMOS Jumper"), I ended up putting back the old CPU... It starts up the PC more or less like before I tried to replace the old CPU with the new CPU.
I woke up this morning again and felt I should give it one more shot before I cry for help, but it was the same result as last night. I'm back on the old CPU now...

Here is the hardware that the PC use now:

Spoiler (Click to View)

So anyone have any idea what just happened there? I'm walking around in the dark here, this is not my field. Any help is appreciated.

Did you try to update your bios? Sometimes old BIOS don't support newer CPUs, so that might be the problem.

[MariusMM]

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[MariusMM]

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[[TC] TAZxx]

Heh, how?

So much logic from your motherboard there.

Glad you've got it sorted!

[Barney [CA]]

There are two Versions of that Mainboard, Rev.1 and Rev.2 which was quite common back then iirc, dont know how its nowadays.
Can barely spot the difference, but Version two needs Bios 2.0 or 2.1 which is not a newer version of 1.x:
msi-bios-for-P35_Neo-F-with-MS-7360-and-version-2.html was simply the wrong board.
Rev. 1 needs Bios 1.x.
Can get frustrating if things dont work right away, but in the end you now got a decent upgrade for 50 bucks and "only" one or two days hassle...
good everything works now and hope it survives a few years

[SO•Wax]

(2019-02-11 23:28)MariusMM Wrote:  Double post, sorry.

So after a lot more troubleshooting, its working...

I installed an old BIOS version(1.11, newer version then the original I was using), and PC started to behave normal again. Put in new CPU (Q9550) and it actually worked! Got quite high temperatures at first so I put on some more thermal paste and now I'm getting stable temperatures of 35-40-45 degrees. Better not jinx it, but finally done.

For future reference, just buy a new ready to use PC. I'm not doing this upgrade in 12 years again. Thanks for the help to the guys who did, Barney life saver.

Generally older hardware is quite a mess for custom builds/upgrades indeed, but generally newer hardware is basically plug and play, so if you ever want to get a new computer just go for new hardware and don't worry about it, it will almost certainly work. Glad you got it working though!

[Brendon]

Sadly couldn't help with that problem, I had no clue what you could have done.

Nice temps, my Q6600 is running at 50 idle and 70-80 under full load lol.
Ok, it's overclocked with stock cooler, rip me.

Congratulations. If you want a good experience you can upgrade your gpu to a gtx 550 Ti or so, and you can play some decent games.