BIOS Updates forum

This is the message that I am getting on my Dell GX280 mini tower. I had my motherboard go out and replaced it with another with the same part #. The new board will run with a 2.8 G CPU but not with the original 3.6 G CPU. I have tried everything that I can think of and it is still not working.

I have done the following:

1. Rest the CMOS many times.
2. Changed the service tag & express service code to match the original.
3. Tried the most recent BIOS ver 07.
4. Tried the original BIOS for this machine, ver 03.
5. Tried ver 04 BIOS.

The USB went out on the original motherboard. The 3.6 G CPU will run on the original motherboard OK. Like I said the machine runs good and passes all Dell diagnostics OK with the 2.8 G CPU but will not boot with the 3.6 G CPU. Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.

I got this machine running. After looking all over the internet, I found a posting on a diferent model Dell with the same problem. So here is where I am at now. I did the following:

1. Put the 2.8 G CPU in and got the machine up.
2. Loaded the ver 00 BIOS.
3. Cleared the CMOS.
4. Removed the 2.8 G CPU and installed the 3.6 G CPU.
5. Booted the machine up.

Here is the outcome:

1. The machine is running at 2.8 G.
2. The bios reports the CPU as 3.6 G.
3. XP reports the CPU as 3.6 G but running at 2.8 G.

This will get me by for now. I am behind on my work because of this and need to crank out some drawings before I can fiddle with this again.

I think the GX280 should handle a 3.6GHz processor nicely unless you got the wrong family of CPUs. What S-spec is it?

Thanks for the reply! The S spec is SL7Q2
CPU rating is 3.6GHZ/1M/800/04B

http://processorfinder.intel.com/detail ... Spec=SL7Q2

I've been looking at gx280 combined with 560J but no success reports on that so far, I'll keep looking for an answer...

Just out of curiosity, why did you have the motherboard replaced?

Bad Caps?


Thanks.

dells + ibm are good for playing dumb with newer spec cpus at times.
i had a similar experience with a 5100laptop that could not run a speedstep mobile 3.06 ghz cpu at max speeds,so instead of ordering athe over expensive 3.06 non speedstep cpu,i simply pin modded a mobile 2.4/400 cpu to 3.2/533 spec ,+ despite detected only as a 2.4/100 in the bios,windows detected it as a 3.2ghz cpu and in bench tests outperforms even the prestcott 3.4 1 mb cpu in every respect,despite only a quarter of its cache,thats what i like about northwoods.