IS my new CPU DOA?

[reichter]

I've built a few PC's over the years but never had this problem. I had the following MB and cpu combo:
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2.0GHz Socket 939

I upgraded to:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939

With the new processor the computer seems to boot up and sounds ok but nothing pops up on my screen. I briefly see the Asus logo and then nothing. I checked all connections and everything seems ok. I swapped back my old cpu and it works fine so it's definately something to do with the processor. Is there something I could be doing wrong? I have my system slightly OC'd (about %15). Do I need to restore defaults settings back before putting in the new cpu or should I rma the new one? I'm really low on artic silver so I only think I have enough to cover one more cpu swap before ordering some more.

 

[Trashman]

I'd would check for BIOS update.

 

[Trashman]

"Do I need to restore defaults settings back before putting in the new cpu "
I would suggest trying that as well.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Put the old cpu back in, get the bios update and then reinstall the new cpu. Did you align it in the socket correctly?

 

[reichter]

I'd be ashamed if I didn't align the cpu correctly. Right now I'm in the process of trying to update my bios. First I updated my chipset drivers just in case. Now with that done I'm trying to figure out how to do the same with the bios (never actually updated the bios before). From what I gather I need to do it through dos and have access to a floppy drive (which I don't have). Hopefully I'm wrong or can find a work around.

Edit. I saw a post where someone talked about a windows based bios flasher but I couldn't find any info on how to access or use it. Also, is it possible to use a cd-drive instead of a floppy to flash the bios?

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: reichter
Also, is it possible to use a cd-drive instead of a floppy to flash the bios?

Some ASUS mobos (like my P5N-E SLI) allow you to flash the BIOS from a removable USB drive (even from an iPod), but I'm not sure about the A8N-SLI since it's a bit older.

Check the manual, it should tell you whether that's possible.

EDIT: Just checked the manual. Apparently you need a floppy. But it's also possible to flash it from Windows.

 

[reichter]

Found the manual and along with it the program I need to flash the bios from windows. After checking the asus website it seems I already have the most up to date bios, despite the fact it's well over a year old. There is a newer beta version but I'm not sure if I want to deal with that. I shouldn't need it to use a cpu that has been out for a while.