Upgrading CPU. Pentium 4 2.2

[jonheebs]

Hello Friends.

Just got my A+ cert last week, but have very little hands-on experience. I have a PC that was freezing up HARD and very randomly. It was freezing up so hard that the event viewer and dr.watson would never log it. Of the 2 dozen times it froze, I got the same "blue screen" errors twice, and was able to figure out that it's probably the CPU that's faulty.

Here's the upgrade question: It had a Pentium 4 2.2GHZ in there, which uses a 478PGA. I understand that my new CPU will need to be a 478, but can I up the GHZ without causing any other problems? It's an "out-of-the-box" system from Compaq, so I think a slight upgrade that I'm seeking will be fine, but not 100% sure. I'm thinking of staying with a Pentium 4, but go with at least 3GH. Will this work? :confused:

Finally... does anyone have a good online resource that can assist us newby "freelance" PC repair guys with upgrades?

Thanks all. This Forum looks great, so I think you'll be seeing a lot of me! :)

[jlreich]

Hi John, and welcome to the PC Guide forums.

And congratulations on getting your A+ cert. :cool:

What's the model# of your Compaq?

What was the error on the blue screen? It may or may not be the CPU. It's acutally pretty rare for a CPU to go bad on it's own, unless it's been overclocked, or suffered overheating problems.

Have you run Memtest, hard drive diagnostics? Swapped out any parts? Tested the PSU? Made any hardware or Software changes before this happened?

[jonheebs]

Hi John, and welcome to the PC Guide forums.

And congratulations on getting your A+ cert. :cool:

What's the model# of your Compaq?

What was the error on the blue screen? It may or may not be the CPU. It's acutally pretty rare for a CPU to go bad on it's own, unless it's been overclocked, or suffered overheating problems.

Have you run Memtest, hard drive diagnostics? Swapped out any parts? Tested the PSU? Made any hardware or Software changes before this happened?

First off, Thanks for your response and help JLReich, and sorry for my late reply!

The Compaq is a Presario S4000V and was donated to my girlfriend by a family friend. The family friend got it from one of the hurricane damaged classroom in Florida from the summer of 2005. It appears that there was no major physical damage(ie: water damage etc.)

Here is the BSOD error:
STOP: 0x0000009C (0x00000004, 0x00000000, 0xb2000000, 0x00020151)

And here's the link to the microsoft support site relating to the error: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284

I may be A+, but my "real-world" experience is lacking, so I honestly didn't know about "memtest." I didn't think to run hard drive diagnostics because the machine freezes up so quickly every time.

As you can see under "More information" of the support article it says that there is "no general solution," so I figured that a new processor is in order.

I'll see if I can get the machine to run memtest or some diagnostics and see what we get.

Thanks again for your help. I'll post back to let you know what I come up with.

[jlreich]

It looks like the best CPU you can upgrade to would be a P4 2.4GHz 400/533MHz FSB Northwood (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116140). It's hardly worth the upgrade. You won't notice much difference from 2.2 to 2.4GHz.

But if the CPU turns out to be the culprit it isn't a bad purchase to get it up and running again. Although I still lean towards ram being the problem.

Another thing to check is how dirty the system is inside. Make sure the CPU fan is working properly and free of dust. I wouldn't be surprised if that system has no overheating safeguards for the CPU. Get some compressed air on blow it out really good if needed.

Also replace the CMOS battery. On a board that old that would be standard procedure. It's probably got the original battery in it. :p Who knows, that could be your whole problem. A failing CMOS battery can cause some strange problems sometimes.

[jonheebs]

just finished checkdisk and no errors were found or repaired.

I haden't heard of "memtest" before, so I googled it. From what I gather, it's a third party ram checker. I was wondering why I hadn't heard of it before my exam!! :p Any extra info you might have on it would be much appreciated. I'll definitely try anything at this point.

Replacing the CMOS. That's one I didn't think of either, but that's a pretty cheap fix, so why not?

And my final question... what is your resource that let you know what cpu I could upgrade to? Is it just experience, or is there a website/book that can tell you? A list of some kind? Learning about this tool would make me VERY happy! :D

Thanks again for everything.

[jlreich]

With MemTest (http://www.memtest86.com/#download0) download the file for a floppy, or download the ISO to burn to CD. Reboot the system and run it. Let it run at least one full pass, or better yet for an hour or two. If you get any errors replace the ram.

Another memory tester I have been using lately is Window memory diagnostics (http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp). Just burn the ISO, reboot and it starts testing the ram automatically.

what is your resource that let you know what cpu I could upgrade to? Is it just experience, or is there a website/book that can tell you?

Google! :D If the manufacturers website doesn't provide enough info, goggle it. There are also lists with info on CPU and such like the site from our esteemed resident hardware guru Saphalline, that can provide a wealth of good info. http://www.sheaiden.com/

Also experience. You start to learn the differences a Northwood P4 has from a Prescott P4 etc. Things like FSB and and clock speed are typical of certain cores.

[jonheebs]

Thanks for the tip. The Win Mem Diag will be super handy in my travels I'm sure.

Here is the first result of running the WMD: Pass 1 was successful. Pass 2 had a "failed" result for test "stride6." It also said Memory addresses "053b3710," "053b3714," "05c12790," & "05c12794" "Expected: 00000000" "Actual: ffffffff" Then... it froze!!! Just like every other time!! Complete freeze! The only way to restart is by the power button.:mad:

On a second run of WMD, I got up to pass 7 before it froze. However, there were errors with the "stride6" with passes 3,4,6,&7.

I'm now following the instructions on the microsoft support site, but it involves having a completed run of the WMD, which I doubt will happen. I'm thinking that I should just buy some more memory and be done with it!!!

I will however, research how to fix it, just to satisfy my thirst for knowledge and experience!!

Let me know if you have any other suggestions jlreich!! Thanks again for everything!!

[jlreich]

Replace the ram. ;) If you have more than one stick, test one stick at a time to see if it's only one of the sticks.

[jonheebs]

Will do! Thanks again jlreich! :cool: