My Bits And Bobs

[Matt]

My Intel Quad Core Q9550 has arrived. DHL really annoy me, they seem to have ripped and torn the box. Kinda defeated the whole object of asking Paul for the box version when i phoned up a week ago last saturday. The processor and fan inside were fine though.

Was absolutely bricking it when it came to removing my old chip and installing this one. Never done it before and although some youtube vids and meds raised my confidence, i was still worried i would botch it up.

I was planning to move my old E6750 into my girls pc, so she can beneift from the extra speed, she currently has a old P4 3.2ghz chip from PCS.

Rather than do it on mine and mess it up, i decided to remove her cpu first. I thought if worst comes worst ill only be breaking a crappy p4.

Thankfully it was rather easy removing the chip. I then removed my E6750 just as easily. Then came the hard part, i was trying to make sure that i didnt touch the underside, of either the base or the cpu. This now gave me the arm shakes, which was really making things difficult as i focused on placing it down carefully into the slot.

I felt like i was heavy handed, but i think that was because i was nervous. As soon as it was slotted in i quickly connected everything and switched back on and prayed for the beep.

Beep, phew! Went perfectly. Nice low temps after adding more arctic silver to her stock intel fan and bobs your uncle.

Here is her order number 201266, detailing her motherboard. I tweaked some bios settings, but i couldn't seem to get her fsb above 300mhz in the bios, meaning the chip is only running at 2.4ghz. Any help on this? Her bios looks kinda basic (yes i flashed to the latest version before install from the asus site). Her memory is running at correct stock speed 667mhz corsair value ram 2 gig.

Another problem since the change, i cannot get vista to boot. It comes up with windows failed to start, a recent hardware or software change may have caused this.

Tried booting into safe mode, last known good config, booting from windows vista cd (working pirate version ) but they all come up eventually with a bsod irq less or whatever that error is.

It says, the File >> winload.exe the selected entry could be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

Note, i have her pc running on a raid 64k. (0)

At a loss with that one.

Installed My Q9550 fine, trying it on the other pc raised my confidence a bit, still have the arm shakes though, damn arm shakes.

Once installed, applied the arctic silver, was not sure how to apply compound for a quad, used to doing a core so i applied a thin amount and spread it. Sat my Xigamtek s-183 on top. Defaulted bios options and got into windows and finding idle temps in a hot room sitting at 34/35/36/38.

Comments and advice welcome and appreciated.

HD 5850 should arrive tomorrow.

EDIT, added a screenshot of CPU ID, everything look ok there guys? (PS ignore the sims 3, i dont play it)

[Matt]

Just ran prime 95 for a few minutes, completed two tests and the highest temp was on core 1 at 52c. Looking good, this Xigmatek is cheap and tacky but damn it cools well for £20.

[PCS]

Glad your Q9550 has installed pain free. Looking at your daughter's PC, it has the ASUS P5VD2-VM motherboard. I've checked the CPU support list here:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...2-VM&product=1

Although it lists the E6700, it does not list the E6750, so this may be causing the problem, and I don't think ASUS will release any new BIOS for this motherboard, since it's 3 years old now

[Matt]

Glad your Q9550 has installed pain free. Looking at your daughter's PC, it has the ASUS P5VD2-VM motherboard. I've checked the CPU support list here:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...2-VM&product=1

Although it lists the E6700, it does not list the E6750, so this may be causing the problem, and I don't think ASUS will release any new BIOS for this motherboard, since it's 3 years old now

I did check this before, and was worried about it. However a search of google seemed to indicate that people were using this cpu with this motherboard.

If the motherboard didn't support the cpu would bios still recognise it, and boot ok, but just not boot into windows?

Damn, i was not expecting this.

Oh btw she is not my daughter, its my girlfriend.

[PCS]

Sorry, must have mis-read your post.

Sometimes the PC will boot, other times it will not. If you put your old CPU back in and all is well, then it's most likely to be this issue. Also, ensure your motherboard is flashed to the 0201 BIOS and not an older version.

[Matt]

Sorry, must have mis-read your post.

Sometimes the PC will boot, other times it will not. If you put your old CPU back in and all is well, then it's most likely to be this issue. Also, ensure your motherboard is flashed to the 0201 BIOS and not an older version.

Ok thanks, i did flash to the latest version before install.

I'll have to try the old P4, but its not looking good.

[Matt]

I fitted the P4 back in her system, and sure enough it worked.

With regard to my Q9550, its amazing what it can do. Stock volts seem around 1.25 but i have got it running at 3.8ghz 1.175 and i think i could probably lower the volts even more.

I can definitely overclock it some more but my memory is holding me back so im happy with 3.8ghz for now. After 30 minutes of prime small ff's the highest core temp was 62c.

[LDUK]

Slightly disappointed with this thread. The title was misleading

[steveuk87]

gutted you cant use it matey!!

Steve

[Matt]

I could do with some overclocking help from the pc specialists with regard to my memory.

Its bringing up errors in prime 95 blend test with rounding errors.

The cpu test brings up no errors in ff so i know thats fine.

I have Corsair Xms2 800mhz running at 901mhz @2.1 volts. Timings (which i know little about are at auto which is (i think) 5-5-5-15.