Warning, if you aren’t into Intel/Win computer hardware/software installation problem solving, then you might want to skip to the next thread.
If you are into the above, then, HELP!
Here is the situation summary, I want to upgrade my win95 pII 266 to a pII 400. I switched the cpu and now the computer doesn’t work and I’m not sure if it is a CMOS - BIOS setting or a bad CPU or what.
The long story
I have an ASUS PGB AGP Motherboard that has BIOS version 1012 that I got from ASUS and updated from BIOS 1002. I set the jumper that tells the Motherboard what CPU is being used, and the bus frequency is the same between 266 running 66 and the 400 running at 100, 4:1.
I know the CPU works on some level as the machine will boot with the 400 in DOS and recognize the CD-ROM drive. I was able to format the boot disk from the 400 booting from a floppy. I then install win95 and scandisk runs fine, but the winsetup crashes with the following error message.
winsetup caused general protection fault in module KRNL386.exe at 0001:0d7e.
Then I click okay and I’m back at the DOS prompt.
Should I give up and go back to the 266 or is there some magic CMOS - BIOS setting that will make it work.
Your jumper settings are probably correct; after all, it boots at 400MHz.
Computers like yours, with a 66MHz front side bus (FSB) usually shipped with PC66 RAM. When you replaced your CPU, you’ve changed not only the CPU bus clock, but also the memory bus clock. If you’re running your memory 50% above spec, chances are you’re run into severe stability problems when the RAM is stressed, such as when you begin using Windows.
If you can, find/beg/borrow some newer RAM… PC100 or PC133 will work… and see if it solves your problem.
Keith is probably right. However, some motherboards allow you to run the memory bus at an offset (say, -33MHz in your case) to the system bus clock, and this might get you going if you MB does that.
But 100MHz memory is so freaken cheap that this shouldn’t be an issue.
I agree, I’ve seen cases where a computer would work just fine in DOS, but could hardly even get through installing Windows, and it turned out to be marginally bad memory.
I’m with the memory diagnosis as well, but there are other possibilities. The PII 400 generates significantly more heat than a PII 266, which in some cases was simply air-cooled.
Let’s just run through the checklist, and please don’t be offended.
Does your CPU’s heatsink have a fan on it? If not, you likely need one.
Is the fan working properly? It should be running at a constant speed, and not be obstructed by wires.
Is the heatsink safely secured to the chip (or the chip-case, in this case)? Also, are you using a liberal amount of heat-sink paste?
Another possibility may be the voltage settings. If I remember rightly, the PII 400 should be somewhere in the range of 2.0-2.5 volts. I think that the PII 266s which were built on the 0.25 micron process may require 2.8 volts, which may be too high for your new chip. Increasing voltage generates more heat, but can increase stability when overclocking. Nevertheless, you can smoke that thing if you run it too high out of spec, intentionally or not.
Thanks for all the great responses. It could be memory. I looked at the Memory Chips. The 132 meg one has a sticker on it that says gauranteed 100 pci right on it. The 64 meg one has 100 in the serial number. I am going to try to borrow some faster memory.
As of this moment memory sounds plausible as a problem IIRC DOS only uses 640k of RAM, and that might be on the CPU.
However, the BIOS runs through the memory at boot 5-6 times and reports no errors. I also checked the config.sys file and turned on the himem check, but all it did was say it was done.
As I said, I’m going to borrow some faster memory and see if that helps.
Thanks,
-Sandwriter
p.s. It’s an ASUS P2B MoBo and I can’t find where to tell it run the memory bus slower (or faster).
p.p.s. At boot, the CPU shows up as a pII 400, so I know I have the jumper set right for that.
p.p.s.s. The cpu card came with a heat sink on it. I want to move the fan off the 266 onto the 400, but first I wanted to make sure the 400 worked on my system. So far I don’t think the CPU has been on long enough to overheat. The longest it has been on was for 45 minutes reformatting the C drive. I felt the fins after shutdown and they felt warm, but not hot.
Thanks for all the great responses. It could be memory. I looked at the Memory Chips. The 132 meg one has a sticker on it that says gauranteed 100 pci right on it. The 64 meg one has 100 in the serial number. I am going to try to borrow some faster memory.
As of this moment memory sounds plausible as a problem IIRC DOS only uses 640k of RAM, and that might be on the CPU.
However, the BIOS runs through the memory at boot 5-6 times and reports no errors. I also checked the config.sys file and turned on the himem check, but all it did was say it was done.
As I said, I’m going to borrow some faster memory and see if that helps.
Thanks,
-Sandwriter
p.s. It’s an ASUS P2B MoBo and I can’t find where to tell it run the memory bus slower (or faster).
p.p.s. At boot, the CPU shows up as a pII 400, so I know I have the jumper set right for that.
p.p.s.s. The cpu card came with a heat sink on it. I want to move the fan off the 266 onto the 400, but first I wanted to make sure the 400 worked on my system. So far I don’t think the CPU has been on long enough to overheat. The longest it has been on was for 45 minutes reformatting the C drive. I felt the fins after shutdown and they felt warm, but not hot.
Thanks for all the great responses. It could be memory. I looked at the Memory Chips. The 132 meg one has a sticker on it that says gauranteed 100 pci right on it. The 64 meg one has 100 in the serial number. I am going to try to borrow some faster memory.
As of this moment memory sounds plausible as a problem IIRC DOS only uses 640k of RAM, and that might be on the CPU.
However, the BIOS runs through the memory at boot 5-6 times and reports no errors. I also checked the config.sys file and turned on the himem check, but all it did was say it was done.
As I said, I’m going to borrow some faster memory and see if that helps.
Thanks,
-Sandwriter
p.s. It’s an ASUS P2B MoBo and I can’t find where to tell it run the memory bus slower (or faster).
p.p.s. At boot, the CPU shows up as a pII 400, so I know I have the jumper set right for that.
p.p.s.s. The cpu card came with a heat sink on it. I want to move the fan off the 266 onto the 400, but first I wanted to make sure the 400 worked on my system. So far I don’t think the CPU has been on long enough to overheat. The longest it has been on was for 45 minutes reformatting the C drive. I felt the fins after shutdown and they felt warm, but not hot.
One more point – if you’re getting the exact same error message every time, at exactly the same place in the boot sequence, it’s probably NOT a heat problem (and I’d say also less likely to be a slow memory problem).
If the crash happens at random points in the boot-up process, then it is most likely a hardware problem – try removing one then the other memory cards, and more importantly putting the fan on the CPU.
If it’s the same point every time, it could be a software problem – try reinstalling windows, and/or checking microsoft’s website for any known problems.
You didn’t say that you had checked the CPU voltage.
You didn’t say that you had checked the CPU voltage.
You didn’t say that you had checked the CPU voltage.
I had a machine that would boot fine but die when Windows started. It turned out that a jumper had fallen off the MB and the CPU was only getting 2.0 v instead of 2.5 (or something like that). Fortunately, I had noticed the extra jumper a day earlier lying in the bottom of the case (Hey, look, they gave me an extra jumper!) so I was able to diagnose and solve the problem fairly quickly.
I can’t do anything about the voltage. The ASUS P2B mother board reads the VID pins from the CPU cartridge and sets the voltage automatically. I wish it was the voltage, really I do.
Update - I gave up trying to get the pII 400 to work. I set the bus to cpu multiplier to 4:1 and set the bus speed to 100MHz. I then tried to run the install program, it failed, so I lowered the bus speed, and continued to lower the bus speed, try to run the install program. I ran the pII 400 at 400 cpu speed|100MHz Bus speed, 333|82, 300|75, and finally 266|66. At which point I re-installed the pII 266.
I am thinking that the pII 400 was bad or there is something stupid I’m not doing.
Anyone want to test the pII 400 in their system? I’ll pay postage…
Update - I gave up trying to get the pII 400 to work. I set the bus to cpu multiplier to 4:1 and set the bus speed to 100MHz. I then tried to run the install program, it failed, so I lowered the bus speed, and continued to lower the bus speed, try to run the install program. I ran the pII 400 at 400 cpu speed|100MHz Bus speed, 333|82, 300|75, and finally 266|66. At which point I re-installed the pII 266.