my personal nightmare (BIOS question)

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up

so i have bought parts to fix my friends computer however the difference in processing power seems to be so large that windows will no longer boot without my manually configuring BIOS, usually i just allow it to run at the slower speed and windows does the fun part on its own

this wont even let me boot in safe mode

proc

motherboard

can anyone tell me what settings i need to change and what they need to be set at for this processor

it's really bugging me and i am no good with bios

Pheezer

Dude that's a Biostar motherboard. There's a good chance it's just dead.

Can you describe what happens in sequence after you turn the power on?

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up

DrDizaster wrote: »

Dude that's a Biostar motherboard. There's a good chance it's just dead.

Can you describe what happens in sequence after you turn the power on?

it's not dead it's brand new

it goes to boot

stops

then says "couldn't boot because processor is not the correct speed" or something like that

vonPoonBurGer

Have you updated the BIOS? Motherboards will often sit around for a while before selling, and thus come with out of date firmware. The CPU support page for that motherboard says it supports a 3.0GHz P4 at 800MHz FSB, but that particular model or stepping might not be supported in older versions of the BIOS.

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up

the problem is i can't

it won't boot into anything and thus i can't update

it was dead when i got it so i couldn't do a pre install update

hmmm maybe i should just give it back to her as is and have her take it to a pro for the rest of it since they have spare HDDs that they can use to backup the data before the probably needed format

hmm

thoughts?

Rhino

Typically there is ussually one of two ways to configure CPU speed; either from jumpers on the motherboard or from the BIOS.

Your manual should tell you how to do this, or in most chases you can find a .pdf of the manual online.

here, is a link the the manual:
http://www.biostar.com.tw/upload/Manual/P4M90-M4_0420C_B.exe

seriously, biostar motherboards and manual in .exe format. Welcome to 1998, am i right?

I skimmed though the manual and I didn't read everything, but it appears the settings are in the BIOS (and not via Jumpers).

What you do:
Hard Boot it with monitor attached
It should say something like Press [F1, F8, Delete, F4, etc] to Enter [Setup, BIOS, Configuration, etc]
Press that key; mash it like a monkey
It should give you some sort of menu based system; from here you should be able to configure clockings on your CPU, BUS, Memory, etc.

If that doesn't work, you can always try to reset the CMOS (instructions are in the manual, typically it's just toggling a jumper).

Also check to make sure your CPU is supported like other posted suggested (I didn't check). You might be able to get it working if you underclock it, you'll probably have to do the math on the speeds yourself though. [warning this could void your warranty and destroy your hardware]

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up

Rhino wrote: »

Typically there is ussually one of two ways to configure CPU speed; either from jumpers on the motherboard or from the BIOS.

Your manual should tell you how to do this, or in most chases you can find a .pdf of the manual online.

here, is a link the the manual:
http://www.biostar.com.tw/upload/Manual/P4M90-M4_0420C_B.exe

seriously, biostar motherboards and manual in .exe format. Welcome to 1998, am i right?

I skimmed though the manual and I didn't read everything, but it appears the settings are in the BIOS (and not via Jumpers).

What you do:
Hard Boot it with monitor attached
It should say something like Press [F1, F8, Delete, F4, etc] to Enter [Setup, BIOS, Configuration, etc]
Press that key; mash it like a monkey
It should give you some sort of menu based system; from here you should be able to configure clockings on your CPU, BUS, Memory, etc.

If that doesn't work, you can always try to reset the CMOS (instructions are in the manual, typically it's just toggling a jumper).

Also check to make sure your CPU is supported like other posted suggested (I didn't check). You might be able to get it working if you underclock it, you'll probably have to do the math on the speeds yourself though. [warning this could void your warranty and destroy your hardware]

I've been to the bios screen and that's where i get lost cause i don't know the right speed and underclocking doesn't work

sadly toggling the jumper doesn't work either which is stupid

i reset it and it was like "you just reset the bios settings would you like it ro auto configure?" either answer gets me back to setting it manually

vonPoonBurGer

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up wrote: »

the problem is i can't

it won't boot into anything and thus i can't update

You don't need to boot into any OS to update the BIOS on that motherboard, according to the BioStar website. Hope you've got a floppy drive. If you don't, buy one. If you're building your own systems, you need one for two reasons. One is BIOS updates such as this one, the other is the ability to load drivers for stuff like SATA controllers during Windows setup.

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up wrote: »

I've been to the bios screen and that's where i get lost cause i don't know the right speed and underclocking doesn't work

The core clock should be 200 (making the FSB 800, since it's quad-pumped), and the multiplier should be 15. Or at least those are the values Intel gives for all 3GHz/800FSB/1MB P4 CPUs on the spec page.