cyclone3d wrote on 2021-05-07, 21:34:

Have you tried cleaning the massive amount of dirt from around the socket?

I've got to pickup some canned air tomorrow so I can.

Well, I thought for giggles, I would try my Sempron 2800+ in this board... Ya, doesn't like it either.... So I think I am going to try and get a better board for my Athlon XP system... Any recommendations?

johnvosh wrote on 2021-05-07, 21:43:

I have tried to update the bios on this board but everything I do seems to fail. I have made sure it is the correct version/revision/etc and tried using @Bios and the included flash utility and nothing seems to work..

Generally you don't need to do intermediate steps with a BIOS update, but since you're having no luck with flashing F11, why not try flashing it to F6 and see what happens? As hard as a solid Socket A motherboard can be to find these days, I wouldn't give up on this one just yet. Besides, half of the fun of this is the victorious feeling you get when you get some old hardware to work properly. Kinda like this scene from the show The Tick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCMLfY4eMxE

Also, I'd try running Memtest86: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Repo Man11 wrote on 2021-05-07, 22:34:

Generally you don't need to do intermediate steps with a BIOS update, but since you're having no luck with flashing F11, why not […]
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johnvosh wrote on 2021-05-07, 21:43:

I have tried to update the bios on this board but everything I do seems to fail. I have made sure it is the correct version/revision/etc and tried using @Bios and the included flash utility and nothing seems to work..

Generally you don't need to do intermediate steps with a BIOS update, but since you're having no luck with flashing F11, why not try flashing it to F6 and see what happens? As hard as a solid Socket A motherboard can be to find these days, I wouldn't give up on this one just yet. Besides, half of the fun of this is the victorious feeling you get when you get some old hardware to work properly. Kinda like this scene from the show The Tick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCMLfY4eMxE

Also, I'd try running Memtest86: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

I downloaded all the versions, F6 to F11 and no luck. I would try and it do it via floppy, but I don't have a floppy drive anymore. I've tried googling the same problem, but haven't found a fix yet.

How are you doing the bios flashes?

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2021-05-07, 22:42:

How are you doing the bios flashes?

When you download the Bios file from Gigabyte, it comes as an exe and has a flash program. I have tried that and I have tried using @Bios as well, selecting the bios file

johnvosh wrote on 2021-05-07, 22:44:

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2021-05-07, 22:42:

How are you doing the bios flashes?

When you download the Bios file from Gigabyte, it comes as an exe and has a flash program. I have tried that and I have tried using @Bios as well, selecting the bios file

Try doing it with a CDROM: https://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-cd.htm

Are you trying to flash the bios from within windows? Or are you making a bootable cd and flashing that way?

Is there a write protect jumper for the EEPROM?

AS5 is perfect for these.

Cheers,

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-05-07, 23:14:

Is there a write protect jumper for the EEPROM?

Not that I could see

pentiumspeed wrote on 2021-05-07, 23:34:

AS5 is perfect for these.

Cheers,

That is what I used for the longest time. It has been a while since I last built a computer or really did anything with my old systems

Since when was 50c considered hot for a CPU?

The fun part is that those old CPUs don't have an internal temp sensor so the temp could be higher or lower than is being reported by the thermocouple that is in the socket.

If they were the type that is flexible, we used to bend them up so they would actually touch the bottom of the CPU.

Athlon Xps didn't have thermal throttling and run @ highest frequency all the time.
Temperature doesn't go down that much @ idle. Can go way up if h/s isn't good enough.
50°C isn't great but I'm not suprised.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-05-08, 00:40:

The fun part is that those old CPUs don't have an internal temp sensor so the temp could be higher or lower than is being reported by the thermocouple that is in the socket.

If they were the type that is flexible, we used to bend them up so they would actually touch the bottom of the CPU.

That was true of Thunderbirds, but XP on had an on die thermistor.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2021-05-08, 01:02:

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-05-08, 00:40:

The fun part is that those old CPUs don't have an internal temp sensor so the temp could be higher or lower than is being reported by the thermocouple that is in the socket.

If they were the type that is flexible, we used to bend them up so they would actually touch the bottom of the CPU.

That was true of Thunderbirds, but XP on had an on die thermistor.

Oh, I didn't realize that. Good to know.

So I took and pulled the fan of my Vantec Aeroflow heatsink and stuck it onto the heatsink I am using currently and went back to my XP 2500+ and it is now keeping the idle temp at about 48c and under load (3DMark03 and Aquamark3), it went up to 54-56c. Temps reported using Speedfan. So I think I will just leave it like this for now.

Thanks everyone for your help and ideas and suggestions!!!