ASUS A7M266-D & Athlon XP-M Project

[polonyc2]

Asus A7M266 was the mobo I used on my first ever computer build...still have the mobo stored away in a closet in excellent condition...

good to see you using it in creative ways STarT

[StarTraveller]

The mobile Athlon XP-M's seem to be running very cool indeed.

While sitting in the BIOS (the only that runs until I get Windows re-installed later today) show that the CPU's work at about 5-6 C above case temperature. Past experience gives that just sitting in the BIOS is roughly equal to 80 % of heavy load or so because the CPU's aren't being idled.

This is a massive drop compared to the old Athlon MP's which typically idled about 10-15 C above case temperature and could run all the way up to 25+ C above case temperature when I put some pressure on them.

Furthermore, the Arctic Silver 5 isn't even supposed to be completely settled in until about 10 days have passed (they say 200 hours burn-in time). Very exciting, hehe.

[StarTraveller]

So it seems I've got fast, but senile processors...

After extensive testing, it seems that the fault of my problems are the processors. They'll boot and POST, but not load Windows and when I run a MemTest86+, I get a dreadful amount of errors. I've swapped around everything and narrowed it down to being the processors.

Perhaps my incision when cutting the L11[4] bridge went too deep and severed something it shouldn't have. It's hard to tell. All I got to go on is a bunch of memory errors that only the new CPU's produce.

What a let down. I have a week to return the graphics card in case I want to abandon the project and salvage most of my expenses. It's a tough call. Running 2 x 1.4 GHz with 256 KB cache @ 2 x 63 W just doesn't sound nearly as appealing as 2 x 1.8 GHz with 512 KB cache @ 2 x 35 W.