Trouble getting CPUs to work on a motherboard that should take them.

DaftRonson · 23 Nov 2018 at 23:15

I've got a HP G5345UK PC, and I'm trying to wring the last bit of performance out of it. It has a H-I41-uATX (Eton/EtonL) and HP's site says I should be able to use the following Socket 775 CPUs:

Core 2 Quad Q8xx0/Q9xx0 (Yorkfield core) (95W)
Core 2 Duo E8xx0 (Wolfdale core) (65W)
Core 2 Duo E7xx0 (Wolfdale core) (65W)
Pentium Dual Core E5xx0 (Wolfdale core) (65W)
Celeron Dual Core E1xx0 (Conroe core) (65W)
Celeron 4xx series (Conroe core) (35W)

However, I've tried an E8600 and a Q9550 and neither have worked. I get two short beeps, then a long one, and nothing on my monitor. I'm doing the usual, putting the fan on tight enough, using thermal paste etc - nothing.

Someone suggested that the motherboard couldn't handle 8GB with the CPU's slightly higher speed, but taking 4GB out didn't fix anything. I can put the old chip - an E5400 - back in and it works fine. I've also updated the BIOS and, since the bios settings are relatively locked down, there's no speed/CPU options to muck about with.

Has anyone got any ideas as to what could be up? I have a 500W power supply as well, so it doesn't seem like a power issue. I know it's an old PC but I hoped for that £25, I could double the PC's gaming performance.

IT Troll · 24 Nov 2018 at 08:29

I think that beep code is “cannot initialise video adapter”. For this era the integrated graphics are provided by the motherboard chipset rather than the CPU. Might be worth trying with or without a separate graphics card if you have one.

DaftRonson · 24 Nov 2018 at 10:51

My mistake, it was one short beep then one long beep, as I discovered when I tried it again today. But I did try both integrated and add-on video card (I have a Nvidia card installed) and it made no difference.

IT Troll · 25 Nov 2018 at 00:12

Ah that beep code does indeed indicate a memory problem. Do you have any other RAM you can test with?

DaftRonson · 25 Nov 2018 at 12:04

Unfortunately not. I got rid of the original memory ages ago. Though there's a UK chain that sells second hand memory - should I be looking for faster or slower memory? I currently have DDR3 10600 1333MHZ in there.. not sure of the timings, but both sticks are the same manufacturer.