AMD 850Mhz Processor & Motherboard

[sep]

Okay, My friends computer is old. It's an AMD 850Mhz setup. His cpu fan failed without warning and the system just started rebooting on him. He tried to keep this thing running several times. I finally got it and found the case to be extremely hot and found the fan to be not running. I replaced the heatsink and fan. The original drive had virus and spyware all over it. I still couldn't get in to the system long enough to correct anything. He purchased a new hd to replace this 40gb drive. So I started to reinstall on the new drive and the system still beeps and reboots.

Checked the temps and everything looks fine. I replaced everything except the MB and CPU. Can you tell me how I test the remaining with out swapping out the parts? Also, if I have to replace either of them what should I look for in the For Sale forum?

Thanks all!
-JC

 

[Peter]

Well maybe the CPU did actually go toast from the overheating. It happens.

 

[razor2025]

Like Peter said, the CPU might have been semi-fried.... Go download the "Ultimate Boot CD" (search on google, probably the first link), and use the "Prime 95" tool on it to stress test the CPU. If it runs it fine, CPU is not the culprit.

 

[razor2025]

Oh and, if replacement is needed, you can easily get a P3 1ghz + socket 370 mobo combo for $50-70 in FS/FT forums. For about $10-20, you can easily get a Athlon XP + older Socket A mobo. However, you might need to use DDR with the Socket A option as their are less and less SDRAM capable mobo left.

 

[superkdogg]

Ask him if he smelled anything funny while he was having the problems. Usually a burning CPU can actually be detected by the human-standard olfactory CPU is junk overheat detector. Best of luck. If you wanna trust somebody, try ebay. I just sold one of those for under $20.

 

[Peter]

You can also get a socket-A mainboard and a Sempron CPU for around $70, and that'll perform a lot better than old Pentium-III gear.

 

[sep]

Originally posted by: Peter
You can also get a socket-A mainboard and a Sempron CPU for around $70, and that'll perform a lot better than old Pentium-III gear.

Wouldn't that include me to purchase DDR RAM?

 

[Peter]

Yes it would. Ask yourself: Does the amount of SDRAM you currently have justify sticking with old technology?

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: Peter
You can also get a socket-A mainboard and a Sempron CPU for around $70, and that'll perform a lot better than old Pentium-III gear.

Depending on ram costs, this could be a cheaper route than replacing an old PC-66/PC-100 Socket A motherboard. There are some "middle aged" SDRAM MB's available as "New Old Stock" that may take the 168 Pin SDRAM SIMMs, but even there you can run into problems with the change in PC-133 SDRAMs since those initially came out. Because the supply of such MB's is small, you can get a DDR motherboard cheaper. And you might still have to buy the newer type of SDRAM for one of those in-between MB's.

When you start looking for used MB's to replace an old system's board, you are going to run into problems with untested, or barely-tested, *non-returnable* old parts that you will have no way of knowing you can use them, or will just be wasting money on a broken item anyway.


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