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The wait is killing me - Did I get a real steal of a deal.....

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22 Oct 2006
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1,081
Blagged a crazy cheap CPU on fleaBay and have fitted it to the beast

Stuck on a webinar on a work laptop so I can't hit the power button on my desktop to see if she powers up

If it works then I'm a seriously happy camper, if not then it's eBay dispute.

I'll update when I can get off this webinar...
 
Bummer....

Just spent the last couple of hours checking nothing was amiss but unfortunately all I got was a BIOS error 04 Check CPU. Looks like I got a lemon.

CPU was a TR 3970X . Went for Auction for £510, normally second hand they're about £1,100

Checked the sellers history and looked OK, had sold other pc related parts in the past and had 100% feedback.

I put a bid on using a sniping tool, serious lowball not expecting to win it, but win it i did.

On the plus side I used PayPal credit so not out of pocket as such.

Next action is to contact seller and see if he'll take back and if not then to ebay for resolution.

I did video the unboxing and have pics of the BIOS error code

I put my TR3960X back in and it passed POST 1st time so it's not an installation error

Hey-ho nothing ventured nothing gained, was worth a punt.
 
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Re the Webinar - seriously boring- Company is introducing a new Learning Management System

I like to look for some lemonade when I end up with lemons so what I did find was that the TIM on my 3960X hadn't fully covered the heatsink,it's a big old chip.So the lemonade is that it's got a new application for fresh TIM with good coverage. Hopefully get some better thermals
 
warranty is 3 years and only to original owner - no evidence available which would support a warranty claim ( unfortunately )
 
So anyway, it's been a fun day


I spent hours last night and most of today figuring out the issue that was causing the BIOS error message after I re-installed my 3960 for the last time last night.

I kept on getting the memory error no matter what I tried with resetting RTC , swapping around DIMMs etc. What I forgot to mention was when I turned on the PC after refitting the 3960 I had a leak from the pipe going into the CPU cooler. All the messing about had loosened the fitting and it pi**ed water over my RAM slots and 4090. Not good but as I use distilled water and a touch of anti-freeze for anti mould , it's non conductive, so I wasn't too concerned. Let it dry out, clean the slots, get the compressor and blow out any remaining cr*p in the morning, fit all the stuff and good to go......

Any how did all of that, and still couldn't resolve the problem.

Ended up completely stripping down the PC and taking the motherboard to bits so I could reset the CMOS by disconnecting the CMOS Battery. Rebuilt it all and with a degree of trepidation hit the power button.

Bugger - still got the BIOS error. Will not POST.

Used the BIOS reflash port and installed latest BIOS, still no joy, same error.

An hour or so of head scratching and t'internetting I found one article that talked about a incorrectly fitted CPU could cause this error.

So off with the water block yet again, removed the CPU and it did look a bit suspect. Refitted it, tightened all the screws, refitted the block, triple checked the fittings, hit the power and

JOY..... of joys. Amazing how much satisfaction you can get from seeing POST codes rolling by.

Clearly at the end of the evening yesterday when I had fitted and refitted the 3970 and 3960 so many time I was bound to screw up one fitting and being tired at the end of the day didn't help.

After a bit of memory training I managed to get into BIOS but with all the buggering about I had done, the BIOS has reverted to fresh out of the wrapper and all my configuration was lost. After a while of hunting down flash drives I did manage to find a previously saved .CMO file and we're off to the races.

Well, almost. No matter what I tried I could not get the BIOS to pick up the NVME drive. Lots of faffing about later I decided to move it to another M.2 slot to see if that would force BIOS to see it again.

Unfortunately the M.2 slots on a TRX40-E happen to be between PCI slots 1 & 2 and are covered by a heatsink and also the 4090 so that all had to come apart one more time.

Getting a bit fed up by this stage if I'm being honest.

Hit the power button and with a huge sigh of relief all's back to normal, well it will be when my new tube of TIM arrives tomorrow and I'll reseat the cooler. It's good enough just now for stock running but a fresh application would be prudent due to the many time's times the block has come off.

What a faff.

Moral of the story - IIAB,DFI (If It Aint Broke, don't Fix It ) :D
 
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guess though in the strictest sense I was attempting an upgrade.....;)

Any how - all good now. New TIM applied to the CPU, clocked back to to 4.15 across all cores and chugging away nicely. It will go a fair bit higher but it's a good compromise OC
 
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