OT: HELLLPPP!!! MY MOBO IS DEAD!!NEED SUGGESTIONS ASAP!!! (8~(

3D,

There are peeps here WAY more knowledgeable than I am, but I purchased an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor on an MSI K8T800 Neo MB.

Seems very stable, and I've been happy. I bought the combo using recommendations from this group, and I know more will chime in as the day goes on.

HTH, Muggs

You might want to look at

and search for reviews on "Motherboards". You can sort them by their top 5 or 10 picks. Then when you find something, go check out . They have some really good deals on a lot of motherboards and CPU's.

Richard

Even if you don't need 64 bit, the Athlon64 is still the fastest 32 bit processor, especially in SW. If you do upgrade don't forget that you'll need new memory and probably a new power supply. I've lost track of AthlonXP motherboards, but I know that new designs and chipsets are still trickling out.

"SYSTEM FAILED CPU TEST" sounds like something happened to the CPU itself, not the mobo. If you can, put the CPU into a compatible machine and see if that boots. (Don't risk a known good CPU in a potentially faulty mobo, if you can avoid it.) Since you're stalled without your machine, you might chuck it in the car and take it to your local geek shop. Someplace with a good selection and repair capabilities. Regardless of what's wrong, they should have what you need in stock, even though it may cost a bit more to get it and the help troubleshooting.

Even if your certain of what's wrong, a local shop could get you up and running today instead of tomorrow.

All this writing, and I still can't answer your question directly.

I should add that I'm using almost exactly what Muggs mentioned. Very fast. Probably a whole-system upgrade from an AthlonXP box.

is this a winner then? 754 socket:

mobo:

here is 939:

mobo:

what type of numbers do i look for? the l2 cache is smaller on the higher number socket. does that mean faster but smeller and slower but bigger? which is better? is the bigger socket number mean faster? thanks guys

cpu:

cpu:

MB MSI|VIA K8T800 K8T NEO-FIS2R RT N82E16813130434 1 $103.00 CPU AMD 64 |3400+ ATHLON 64 RTL N82E16819103426 1 $295.00

here is what i just got from newegg. 428.55 nextdayed. as far as installing, my hd and os should be intact correct? i mean i will reinstall after i get my shizznit off of it but i gots stuff on there i need. all my important stuff is on an external so im good there but my email stuff swx stuff and profiles etc are on the system hd. thaks for the help guys, ill report on the performance once i'm up and running.

BTW, when looking for memory, MAKE SURE they're compatible with each other. I bought two 1Gig cards only to find out that they are not compatible when used together, so I have a 1Gig card as a paper weight (doesn't work very well).

HTH, Muggs

cpu:

cpu:

If all goes well when installing, your OS will pick up lots of new devices in the Device Manager upon the first few boots. It will also NOT find some of the previously installed devices that you may have to manually delete.

Even if everything goes this smooth (which I doubt it will), there may be non-OS software that may fail. I really I doubt it will be a very stable system. With Win95/98/ME, doing a MoBo/CPU replacement wasn't that big of a deal. But with later OS versions, it is a bit more tricky.

So you are right, when and if you can get yourself out of the hole, a total OS makeover will be in order.

I wonder if WinXP activation will cause any trouble after changing all this? If changing just the CPU and mobo (and memory), then I think it will be ok, but I'm not sure.

Dale,

I don't know. I have never done a MoBo/CPU replacement in a WinXP system. I have done a HD swap in a WinXP system with a Maxtor HD. It had a utility included with the new HD that would make an exact copy of the original HD onto the new HD before pitching the original. I didn't have any problems with the activation thingy with this. Although I really wouldn't have expected to have a problem with a simple HD replacement either.

IIRC, XP activation allows a certain number of components to be replaced at one time. I just can't remember how many.

When changing the MB and CPU on a WINXP PC this will cause a boot failure when the OS tries to load MOB.SYS (sure its that .SYS file). You will have to do a fresh OS install.

So here is how it all went down.: let me just say that my "projects" usually take a big shit before they are done. I could decide that i was going to make ice on saturday, get prepared, buy all the tools i need and come saturday i would have the wrong water or something!!!!

Well, that was the long way around, but I'm glad things went OK after MOBO/PS troubles. When you get up and running give Mike's "Ship in a bottle" a run and see what you come up with. BTW, what did you do for memory. If you went to 2Gigs what sticks did you use?

Muggs

distractions