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#20456 04/18/09 03:27 PM
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My DAW is based on an Athlon 2200+ 1.8 GHz processor. The Maxtor HD containing my install of Win2K died during a move. For a time I used a Seagate drive with an OEM install of Win XP Home that was pulled from an emachines T1840 which had an Athlon 1500+ 1.35 Ghz CPU. The latter is what my PC reported when I looked at the General tab in the "System" property sheet since installing the Seagate as my main drive.

I have since done a clean install of XP Pro on a brand-new Western Digital HD. Yet the system still reports that I have the emachine's 1.35 Ghz CPU.

Is this changing the machine's performance? How can I make it correctly report the actual processor?

TIA,

R.


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My first suggestion would be to clear the bios. Unplug the computer, open it up, find the Clear CMOS jumper, and install it across the center pin and the now open pin for about 5-10 seconds. Then, put it back to it's original position.

Reboot the computer, enter the CMOS setup, set everything to 'Set Default Settings' and then go back into Windows and see what it reports.

I don't know why, on a new hard drive, that it would report being something it wasn't, unless there was some utility on the e-machines disk that was able to reflash the bios, which is very unlikely.

Gary


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Do you have both hard drives in your system?


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Noel96 #20459 04/18/09 07:10 PM
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Noel,

No. I have the same secondary (D:) drive, but it was there when the previous main drive, a 60-Gb Maxtor with Win2K, was before it failed.

Gary,

Why do feel rilly nervous about that? Should I?

R.

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Ryszard,

Have you checked you BIOS to see what it"s reporting (i.e. cpu, hard disk type, etc)? I've found that with the BIOS, it's sometimes necessary to enter it on booting up and simply press F10 to save the settings (without making any changes) and then exit. This doesn't always solve the problem but it's an easy first step and worth trying before moving on to more difficult solutions.

Regards,
Noel


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Noel96 #20461 04/19/09 03:27 AM
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The BIOS might be write protected. Setting the defaults could a good start. Flashing the standard settings, if defaults do not seem to work, would be another option. Just download the default flashfile for the motherboard and flash it back to the MoBo. Oh and make sure, eventhough it doesnot work correctly, to make a backup of this BIOS so you can flash it back to the setting you have now, in case the default flash messes up the BIOS even more...


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Before doing anything you may regret, why not run a utility to verify the system components reported by Windows. You can download a free utility at http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html


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JBlatz #20463 04/19/09 07:03 AM
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Did that, got an amazingly thorough system readout. Still reported the old processor, though.

Thought of something else, too. On boot, the system alternately reports the onboard NVidia video chip with 8 Mb RAM, and the aftermarket NVidia 64 Mb AGP card. It has done this since installing the card, even when I was running Win 2000 on a completely different drive, which was never in the box with either of the XP drives.

Any other opinions on whether I should initialize the BIOS? Will I still have a working PC after that? I am about to reinstall Windows anyway, so this would be a good time to do it.

R.


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Many "OEM" branded machines use their own proprietary BIOS. Downloading the flash for that company's brand and model may only include ID data for the chips they sell in that particular mobo config in the first place.

If you can identify the make and model of your mobo by looking at the board for any ID, logo, etc. you may be able to find the original mobo mfr and their website, get the BIOS for the board as a generic situation.

For example, the other day I did that to an emachine mobo that turned out to have an MSI mobo in it.

Flashing with the MSI BIOS got rid of all the proprietary emachines stuff and also brought a more complete BIOS setup that even allows for overclocking, although I did not do any overclocking to the guy's machine. The machine now "thinks" that it is a generic MSI mobo.


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Mac #20465 04/19/09 07:21 AM
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I'll look into it, thanks. The mobo is branded "PC Chips" but the SWI utility reported a three-letter mfr--ESC or some such. The BIOS appears to be a standard AMD. Like your idea about the generic, so maybe the new information will give me somewhere else to look. (Support at PC Chips does have the flash(?), drivers and docs, though.)

R


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After looking up the documentation for your motherboard at the PC Chips site, it seems you should be able to see the CPU and settings listed in the AMI bios. I assume you have checked the bios to make sure it is also reporting the processor incorrectly. In case you have not found this site I'll include the url:

http://www.pcchipsusa.com/PCCWebSite/Sea...104&LanID=2


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JBlatz #20467 04/19/09 11:09 AM
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Rys,
Resetting the CMOS Bios is not a big deal, what it does is to clear out all the old settings that have been put in there. It sets it back to a default state. PCChips and ECS are probably the same company.

JBlatz has given you a URL for the ability to flash the BIOS to the latest version. You will need to download the Flash Data File and the Flash utility.

WARNING!: Incorrectly flashing your bios will make your system unbootable. If you are not comfortable doing this, do not proceed

Having said that, reading and reviewing all instructions before flashing your bios and then following them to the letter is a fairly easy and straight forward process, and I've never had any issue flashing bioses.

Gary


I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!
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Quote:

. . . I've never had any issue flashing bioses.




Can't you be arrested for that? *g*

R.


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I think champagne caused my wife to do that once...but this is Canada, you see stuff like that on the six o'clock news...LOL


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I'm so glad someone finally picked up where Russ left off (no offense Russ ) in the perpetual computer repair department! LOL

I really don't know if you can consider this computer a Daw. Maybe a Dawette?


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