Problem with AMD Athlon XP-M 2500+

Santa Claus

I got myself a Aopen XC cube system recently which came with an Athlon Xp-m 2500+ cpu in it.

I installed Media centre without any problems but just noticed when I went to install some games on it that I got a message that the processor was too slow.

I checked system properties and it lists the CPU as "Unknown CPU type 601Mhz"

Anyone any idea why it's not recognising the AMD chip and what I can do to get it sorted ??

Thanks

8T8

First guess is the motherboard does not have the ID of the CPU in the bios and is not using the correct values for it hence the odd clock speed.

Simplest thing to do is update the motherboards bios after it's done go into the bios and check the CPU control section to see if its is correctly identified.

In the event the Athlon XP-M 2500+ is not supported by AOpen in their bios you will have to manually set the speed by over riding whatever controls are set in the bios (if any).

At stock settings it runs at 1.8Ghz using a core voltage of 1.45v with a 133MHz FSB & multiplier of 11 from what I have read.

Col_Loki

That is a common thing to happen when you mix an XP-M with a motherboard that does not support it.... like 8T8 said update the BIOS is a good idea.

What speed of Memory do you have? There is no point in running the CPU at 133mhz FSB, depending on the speed of your memory you should be running it at 166mhz/200mhz (and then adjust the multiplier down to adjust).....ie 200mhz x 9 if you have Pc3200 memory = 1.8ghz , 166mhz x 11 if you have Pc2700.

(Mobile CPU's should be multiplier unlocked).
PS it will most lightly overclock pretty well but in a SFF PC thats prob not what your going for.

Santa Claus

Applied all the BIOS updates I could find on the Aopen website, but no joy.
Rang ITdirect who I bought it from a little over a week ago only to be told that as I bought a 2nd hand system (they told me it was built for a customer who never collected it) then there was nothing they could do and I could basically whistle (his exact language was a bit more choice than that).

Haven't a breeze how to manually adjust BIOS settings so I'm gonna pop into Marx computers next week and pay to have them do what itdirect should have done in the first place.

Fanny Cradock

That's crap. ITdirect are obliged to sell you goods that function properly. Assuming there is a problem with the system, it would be worth checking your consumer rights as to ITdirects responsibilities and obligations towards you, the paying customer. Try the consumer issues forum for more advice.

mukki

if they won't fix it, tell them you want a full refund

:mad: computer supplier selling badly set up systems is rediculous :mad:

IT direct have gone down a notch in my book

8T8

Well I had a quick look on AOpen's site but it is hard to tell without the model number of your system however from what I could see on at least one Socket A system called the the EZ18 they do not support the Athlon XP M class CPU's in the bios.

However their is a Frequency/Voltage Control section within the bios that will allow you to manually set the speed. The Marx guys can do that for you however it is quite easy to do yourself once you know the settings to use like I listed above.

Santa Claus

mukki wrote:

if they won't fix it, tell them you want a full refund

:mad: computer supplier selling badly set up systems is rediculous :mad:

IT direct have gone down a notch in my book

They gone down a lot in my book too....Worse still the guy I spoke too was really abusive on the phone and told me to f*ck off...It was 10am on a saturday morning and maybe he'd had a hard night but stilll no call for that.
My brother was considering buying a few K's worth of stuff from them for his company but they certainly won't be getting that now he's heard their response to my problems !

8T8 wrote:

Well I had a quick look on AOpen's site but it is hard to tell without the model number of your system however from what I could see on at least one Socket A system called the the EZ18 they do not support the Athlon XP M class CPU's in the bios.

However their is a Frequency/Voltage Control section within the bios that will allow you to manually set the speed. The Marx guys can do that for you however it is quite easy to do yourself once you know the settings to use like I listed above.

My system is the EZ18, so basically ITdirect sold me a cube with an unsupported processor in it and have now told me to f*ck off...that it was sold "as is" and sure can't I overclock it manually myself !

Thing is, I worked in IT for years and I can build a unix system with my eyes closed but wouldn't know a BIOS if it smacked me in the face !

Stephen

Its very easy to do, when you power on the PC you'd normally press DEL or F2 or something like that to get into the BIOS setup. Its all menu-driven after that.

Still doesn't excuse ITDirect's behaviour though. The guy actually told you to f**k off on the phone?

Santa Claus

Stephen wrote:

Still doesn't excuse ITDirect's behaviour though. The guy actually told you to f**k off on the phone?

Yep, when I rang to tell him that there appeared to be a problem with the system Gareth told me that I had bought a second hand system and there was no warranty.
I pointed out to him that he told me that the system was built for a customer who never collected it and so wasn't 2nd hand, but his response was "what the fcuk do you expect, if you think I'm going to get one of my lads to update the BIOS for you, you can fcuk off".
I pointed out to him that I had put on all the BIOS updates from Aopens site for that model (exe's which required no actual going into the BIOS, just flashing it) but he said that I should play around with it for a week and then he might take a look at it.

I did inquire about a refund but was told where exactly to go on that.

Suspect thing is that he never gave me an invoice for the system, just the Hauppage card and HD that I bought so not sure whether I can take him to the small claims court !

Anyway, I'll never be using them again and will be passing on my opinion of them to everyone I know !

Fanny Cradock

That's shocking stuff. I'll DEFINITELY give them miss in future.

You are entitled to a full refund. Don't let him intimidate you out of your right to this or a replacement system. I would assume that you paid by credit card - there's your receipt. As I said before, post your story in the consumer rights forum and people will be able to help you.

KELTICKNIGHTT

if i was you,would get consumer onto him,call them,they will tell you to request in writing and you will get a call straigh away
if it was me,i would pay him a visit,you should have 30 day for refund
wouldn't let this go

deckie27

Just wondering. How long ago did u buy it and for around what price.
Cause at times they can be very expensive

Santa Claus

Bought it 2 weeks ago and paid 380 for the cube system with processor a 80gb HD and a Hauppage 150, so the cube system was 200 really.

deckie27

Two weeks. :eek:
So u had the machine a few days/week and u rang up and they told u to feck off
Simple question. Did they sell you the computer as a working xp-m2500?
If its not doing that job Its false advertising

Also if they sold it as new. ie built but never collected. They had it in the shop for a long time. I got one of the xp-m's nearly 3 years ago

Appart from that
Your bios will look something like this

As was said above the standard setting is 166*11 1.45v to cpu Leave everything auto/as is

Best of luck

DublinEvents

Maybe the multiplier for your cpu is set too low in the BIOS.Try setting it to a higher number. Also, it might be running at an FSB slower than 166MHz. You really need to show us a screenshot of the CPU and chipset section of your BIOS so we can figure out what's wrong there. If you would rather not go into the BIOS right now, just run CPU-Z and post a screenshot of that. It will show us the multiplier and other info we want to know in order to help you sort this problem out.

Santa Claus

deckie27 wrote:

Two weeks. :eek:
So u had the machine a few days/week and u rang up and they told u to feck off
Simple question. Did they sell you the computer as a working xp-m2500?
If its not doing that job Its false advertising

Also if they sold it as new. ie built but never collected. They had it in the shop for a long time. I got one of the xp-m's nearly 3 years ago

Yeah, Gareth sold me the machine as a working system that they built for someone but was never collected.
Gareths attitude to me was that I could fcuk off because I got the system so cheap, but the Aopen system was discontinued about 2 years ago so I'd say 200 was a fair price for a discontinued barebones and a old processor (that isn't even bloody supported by the system).

Marx computers are going to fix it for me and change the chip if necessary but I'm just really pissed at the whole attitude of Gareth & itdirect !

deckie27

Bummer.
If possible you should try the bios.
600 is probally 6 * 100 which the board might default to as a failsafe.

Cause if u have to go to Marx it might change the cost of ur bargin
these chips can be picked up for very little on www.adverts.ie

jozi

You should try set the frequency and multiplier your self in bios. Just go for it, it won't cost you anything but some time. Marx will have it for a few days and charge you for what is really a 2sec job.

It really isn't hard to do and them mobile chips are well able to take a 200mhz fsb (with a multiplier of 9) which would be better than 133 or 166.

Santa Claus

Thankfully the lads at marx sorted it all out for me and didn't even charge as I bought a few other bits and bobs.
Anyway, won't be going to IT direct again !

deckie27

Thats great to hear.
Well done Marx.

Was it the bios settings that needed to be set ?

the_syco

Jeebus. I used to shill for these guys. They used to be the bee's knee's, but then went downhill. Now... they just seem to stink If it wasn't for komplett/shop4memory/overclockers.co.uk I'd be proberly still buying from them.