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Dual Core? 64 bit? Help!

Smiler

Smiler

Smiler

Associate
Joined
20 Jun 2006
Posts
136
Location
Wiltshire
Hello.

My pc has just died. The bios won't load up. It gets as far as:

'verifying DMI pool data.......'

and then displays:

'YoYo_'

but with funny o's and stops. Could this be a virus or just the 6 year old machine throwing in the towel?

I'm looking to get a £50 Asus motherboard and similar priced AMD athlon CPU as it is a budget set up and is only used for photo editing and internet access with some music/sound work thrown in.

I had been after a dual core processor as there supposedly the next big thing but a friend has recomended a 64bit Athlon something or other. He said that dual cores seem to be going out of fashion a bit. Do you reckon I should still hunt out a dual core or will the straight 64bit Athlon be better at my budget level?

Cheers for any help.

Smiler.
 
Your best bet is the A64 3800 X2 which is a dual core CPU. You can get it for £61 + a cpu cooler for £7. Then add on the cheapest AM2 motherboard you can find.

I don't get where your friend thought dual core was "going out of fasion", its more useful than ever and I would hate to spec a machine without dual core for anything but the lowest of the low budget machines. When you can get a dual core CPU and cooler for under £70 it makes little sense.
 
Smiler said:
He said that dual cores seem to be going out of fashion a bit.
Click to expand...

Does this friend know anything about CPU's, because that's a bit of a daft statement. It's completely the opposite - single cores are on the way out and dual cores are now mainstream.

Trust me, even if it's a budget system, go for a cheap amd x2 3800 rather than a single core ;)
 
OK, that still sounds within my budget. Will it cope with running the new Vista Home Edition on 64bit? Looking at the OEM versions advertised for approx £75. Should keep the missus happy.

Cheers.
 
It's unlikely to be a hardware fault - if you change the boot order you should be able to boot from the Windows CD and then repair the HDD install of windows.
 
WJA96 said:
It's unlikely to be a hardware fault - if you change the boot order you should be able to boot from the Windows CD and then repair the HDD install of windows.
Click to expand...


It doesn't even get as far as trying to load windows or boot from any device. It falls on the initial bios start up bit (assuming that's what it's called).

spb - cool. Though I'm not sure what the aero bit is though.
 
Smiler said:
It doesn't even get as far as trying to load windows or boot from any device. It falls on the initial bios start up bit (assuming that's what it's called).

spb - cool. Though I'm not sure what the aero bit is though.
Click to expand...

No - it's failing after you have you the opportunity to press delete to enter the BIOS. It then checks for HDD so it knows what to display in the BIOS screen and it's not finding anything and hanging. If you set it to boot off the CD it should accept that as a valid drive and go forward.
 
Youy're right!

I knicked the old HDD from a defunct pc at work on it's way to the skip. Put it in and fired it up. Was greeted with Windows 98!

I'll try formatting the original HDD tonight ans reinstalling.

Smiler.
 
Stick to XP for now, unless you want performance to be slower (general use and gaming) driver support in Vista is limited.

Your mate is talking rubbish about dual cores, a dual core is useful to have, and the OS detects it and so do applications and some games.
 
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