SWMBO PC Upgrade - Athlon to Phenom ?

[Channel Hopper]

Multiple forums state with this board it is possible, the Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H, and there are some posts confirming success, but I'm running iinto difficulty.

I managed to locate in the shed a floppy drive , disk and even the cables last night, as the Q-flash system requires nothing less than the most up to date format.

The latest bios for the Athelon is 6, and there are two later versions 7 and 8 for the newer cpu compatibilty.

All unzipped correctly and on the floppy, and even after following the instructions the checksum is correct and the PC switches off as instructed.

Each time it is restarted though the message is - 'scanning BIOS image in hard drive' and 'BIOS auto-recovery' before reverting back to version 6.


So, where am I going wrong ?

Images, in no particular order.

 

[Channel Hopper]

The A drive installed, recessed into the case so I can disconnect power lead and leave in place with blanking plate (for future use).

I had to cut off an old power cable to fit since the modern PSUs dont have such a connector, cant think why.

 

[Mickha]

Gigabyte state that this mother board Supports AMD Phenom X3/ Athlon X2 processors.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-MA69G-S3H-rev-10#ov

 

[Channel Hopper]

So a Phenom II should be no issue or is the listing specific to the X3 ?

Ah, the one I have is the X4.

Regardless, the bios reverts back to V6 before I even install the replacement processor.

 

[RustySpoons]

So a Phenom II should be no issue or is the listing specific to the X3 ?

Ah, the one I have is the X4.

Regardless, the bios reverts back to V6 before I even install the replacement processor.

Gigabytes notoriously used cheap EEPROMS, I've replaced lots, does this one have the "Backup BIOS" or "DUAL Bios" system?

 

[Channel Hopper]

I believe Q-Flash is a dual bios system, it reverts back to the original in case of trouble.

My concern is the update does go through correctly in (their version) of DOS, but then there is the message of 'scanning BIOS image in hard drive'. Is there a line missing in the instructions I have downloaded ?

 

[RustySpoons]

I believe Q-Flash is a dual bios system, it reverts back to the original in case of trouble.

My concern is the update does go through correctly in (their version) of DOS, but then there is the message of 'scanning BIOS image in hard drive'. Is there a line missing in the instructions I have downloaded ?

Inside the actual bios is there a Flash option, you can do it in there rather than through DOS.

 

[Channel Hopper]

https://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/121/flashbios_qflash.pdf

Step 5 wasn't in the instructions.

 

[RustySpoons]

https://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/121/flashbios_qflash.pdf

Yeah that's flashing through the BIOS, have you named the file exactly as it should be, are you using a USB stick as a board of that age you should be able to. Whats the model number?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Floppy drive/floppy disc, A drive, there is no facility to do it via USB stick as far as I can tell.

 

[Mickha]

I have found 8 BIOS drivers, on the Gigabyte site, for that motherboard, the last, from 2009, being a Beta version:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-MA69G-S3H-rev-10#support-dl-bios

They also provide a list of compatible CPU's

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-MA69G-S3H-rev-10#support-cpu

 

[Channel Hopper]

I have found 8 BIOS drivers, on the Gigabyte site, for that motherboard, the last, from 2009, being a Beta version:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-MA69G-S3H-rev-10#support-dl-bios

They also provide a list of compatible CPU's

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-MA69G-S3H-rev-10#support-cpu

I get this spec from CPUworld

AMD Phenom II X4 945 - HDX945WFK4DGM / HDX945WFGMBOX

Gigabyte in the second link suggest this cpu is not supported (officially) but I will have a few more goes on the Bios upgrading later today.

Vendor CPU Model Frequency L2 Cache L3 Cache Core Name Process Stepping Wattage System Bus(MT/s) Since BIOS Version
AMD Phenom II X4 940 3000MHz 512KBx4 6MB Deneb 45nm C2 125W 3600 N/A

 

[Channel Hopper]

Got bored reading into the rubbish posted elsewhere so I've swopped the motherboard out for a spare Asus P5K premium and intel quad chip.

With luck it should be fast enough and Windows will understand the changes.

 

[RustySpoons]

Got bored reading into the rubbish posted elsewhere so I've swopped the motherboard out for a spare Asus P5K premium and intel quad chip.

With luck it should be fast enough and Windows will understand the changes.

Well that other system wouldn't have been Phenomenal

 

[moonbase]

Got bored reading into the rubbish posted elsewhere so I've swopped the motherboard out for a spare Asus P5K premium and intel quad chip.

With luck it should be fast enough and Windows will understand the changes.

The Socket 775 CPU's are easily capable of running Windows 7, probably Win 8 or Win 10 also. One of the most popular CPU's for socket 775 boards was the Q6600 if I remember correctly, it was a good overclocker and could be clocked to over 3GHz from its base clock of 2.4GHz.

 

[RustySpoons]

The Socket 775 CPU's are easily capable of running Windows 7, probably Win 8 or Win 10 also. One of the most popular CPU's for socket 775 boards was the Q6600 if I remember correctly, it was a good overclocker and could be clocked to over 3GHz from its core clock of 2.4GHz.

Sounds like he's got at least a Q6600 in there if it's quad core, still a strong CPU.

 

[Channel Hopper]

The one that was stuck in the slot is a 2.33 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 , though I know I have some others in a drawer.

The only issue I have (apart from the pain of moving all the drives to get the larger board in) is the internal battery that appears to have gone flat inside three hours, though I might have put a duff one in at the beginning. Just replaced it and will switch off, have a glass of something and then try again.

Why do mobo manufacturers put the battery slot right behind the PCI-E slot where it gets completely obscured by the double graphics cards ?