Maybe this is beyond the scope of the forums here (but I've seen quite a few knowlegable individuals), so if anyone has a better seggestion of where to go, please share What I'm tying to do is to test a CPU with a 'scacrifical' mobo so if the CPU killes the board, I won't be out somthing expensive. The board is a gigabyte GA-6VX7-4x and the CPU is a P3 1.1GHz chip. The CPU doesn't even heat up, and the system acts as if it doesn't have a CPU, however, I've been told that with the older boards that if there is an external multiplier that does not match the internal one, the CPU will act like this. (it'd be underclocked since the max multiplier is 10.5) Or is the bios the limiting factor here? If I wanted to fiddle with the multiplier further, it looks like I'd have to makesome modifications to the board that I'm not sure I could undo later. The multiplier is set by some DIP switches that drive SMT transistors and set the signals on certain pins that the CPU looks at upon boot up. Might these signals be interfering with the CPU's initalization, or should it idnore them? This is not an issue I saw mentioned in the P2 and P3 datasheets.
I'm sorry i don't quite understand what it is your asking about? Is this a dodgy CPU ur trying to burn test?
I think he is asking if it is possible to change the multiplyer on some of the older CPUs by simply altering the signals that the motherboard feeds into the cpu in order to determine the necessary multiplyer/divider ratio.
i got this i speak moron find the right multiplyer for the bios (google or use manual) and just remove it while the board is not in operation then see if you get more heat, run cpuz and see what kind of clock speeds your getting and post em here on a side note all intel chips are locked so you cant change the muti in bios only the fsb but you do have the option with the jumper 10. or 5. as the jumper cuts the multi in half
sorry, late post there after fighting with some stuff and subsequent 'relaxation'. The CPU is potentally dead, but after the last time I ttested a friendsCPU and it killed my primary system's mainboard, I really don't want to use anything for testing I would be upset with if it got fried. The mainboard does not offically support a CPU this high in speed, but I was under the impresson that because the processor in question is multiplier locked, anything set on the mainboard wouldn't matter. However, I had heard that a number of processors will refuse to boot is they are multiplier locked but detect a multiplier signal that is not what they are locked to. My confusion is further compunded after reading the datasheets for the P3 and P2 processors. The subject of multipliers never comes up in the P3 datasheet meaning that Intel doesn't mention how a P3 is supposed to behave in the presence of a multiplier signal. The multiplier itself, is set by 4 pins that are scanned for the multiplier, otherwise they perform normal functions like detecting interrupts. If you're curious, the datasheet says the pins used are a20#,ignne#, lint[1]/nmi, and lint[0]/intr. This would mean 4 bit input, which is what the old multiplier system used 3 up to 10.5 in .5 increments. This does not allow for a multiplier of 11x, so there is no way I can set the multiplier to that. So the heart of the matter is this, is the POST not happening because the CPU is seeing a multiplier signal and refusing to boot for security reasons, is it not booting because the BIOS does not reconize the CPU, or is the CPU dead? I went to AMD processors after the system my test mainboard came from, so I don't have any later boards to test with. Because of the high risk to any test board, I'm unwilling to spend much money, so I'm trying to make this one work (even if I have to do it through hardware modification).
