Is trying this a bad idea?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ck26
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ck26

My motherboard or cpu has died. I'm not sure which and I don't want to shell
out just yet, so this maybe a very dumb question, but can I test if it was
the cpu by putting in an old 250mhz chip, and taking out the current 1.3ghz
athlon? I know the board speeds, etc are different speeds, but are they
backwards compatible? I.E., is this a really stupid thing to do? What are
the risks, if any?!
 
My motherboard or cpu has died. I'm not sure which and I don't want to shell
out just yet, so this maybe a very dumb question, but can I test if it was
the cpu by putting in an old 250mhz chip, and taking out the current 1.3ghz
athlon? I know the board speeds, etc are different speeds, but are they
backwards compatible? I.E., is this a really stupid thing to do? What are
the risks, if any?!
Click to expand...

Your board is socket A. There's nothing in that (250MHz) range you
mention that'll work, it has to be a Duron or Athlon. Those old chips
won't even fit in the socket.

If you weren't on the other side of that big pond I'd offer to test
your parts.

Between mobo and cpu, the odds are it's the motherboard. CPUs don't
often fail unless something else "happened" too, like high overvoltage
from overclocking or the heatsink wasn't on right or fell off, fan
died, or the motherboard died anyway and took the CPU with it.
Putting odds on specific situations is hard, but I'd say odds are 20:1
or more that it's the motherboard over the CPU, unless any of the
prior things i mentioned, happened.


Dave
 
Your board is socket A. There's nothing in that (250MHz) range you
mention that'll work, it has to be a Duron or Athlon. Those old chips
won't even fit in the socket.
Click to expand...

Oh, Ok, lucky I didn't strip everything down then!
If you weren't on the other side of that big pond I'd offer to test
your parts.
Click to expand...

How do you know which side I'm on : ) That's really great of you, but don't
worry, its not the end of the world, is it, thanks anyway.
Between mobo and cpu, the odds are it's the motherboard. CPUs don't
often fail unless something else "happened" too, like high overvoltage
from overclocking or the heatsink wasn't on right or fell off, fan
died, or the motherboard died anyway and took the CPU with it.
Click to expand...

Well, I certainly wasn't over overclocking - the heatsink was snug and
spinning smoothly, so I probably agree by this stage that it was the
motherboard, at least that went first, if the CPU is still working. I could
always keep the CPU for testing one day, it might be fine for all I know,
but I'm not going to hazard trying it on a partially new system.
Putting odds on specific situations is hard, but I'd say odds are 20:1
or more that it's the motherboard over the CPU, unless any of the
prior things i mentioned, happened.
Click to expand...

Spot on, I think, thanks for all the help.
 
How do you know which side I'm on : )
Click to expand...

This bit (look at the top of your post, which is where I've copied it from):

<--

Also your message headers, saying UK TLDs plus posting time of GMT ot GMT
+1.00
 
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