Athlon Xp - recent experience

[D.8080]

Hello everyone!

I recently purchased a batch of Socket A cpus, Athlon XP, MP, ceramic, Duron, Sempron and Geode!

The entire desktop line.

I have some questions that aren't on the net or maybe on some old forum I can't find.

After testing them:

1) half weren't even spinning fans or after a short 1/28 of a turn the fan stopped and the system shut down.

Do you have any precise electrical reason behind this? Just to know.

2) 1/4 were starting up with spinning fans but no POST

Again, any reason for this?

3) last 1/4 were either booting fine and loading Win Xp fine (cpuz purpose) or showing weird behaviors (booting but crashing loading anything, from Win to Linux).

One cpu, AXDA 2000 DUT3C AIRGA 0233DPMW 9390505281461, either started @ 100 or 133 FSB with a multiplier of 6.5, showing as Athlon XP 650 or 866 at boot.
But this cpu should have a 12.5 multiplier.

Any ideas? Fake cpu? CPuz takes it for a 2000+, don't know what to think.

All Geode give the overheating error code, fan spinning; is there any catch with these cpus?

Thanks for any answer!

[TASOS]

Which board is used for testing ?

Verified good heatsink contact for all cpu's during testing ?

[Marcin]

To serious thread to keep it in OffTopic

Board which support FSB 100-166 with latest BIOS would be welcome.

[cuttingedgecs]

Assuming these are faulty CPUs rather than a faulty motherboard, underpowered PSU, bad firmware etc; the main things that tended to kill socket A CPUs were

A poor thermal solution leading to overheating. These CPUs would self destruct at about 90C

Incorrect heatsink application leading to chipped/cracked die

Overapplication of high metal content thermal paste. These chips had contacts/caps on top, and shorting them with thermal paste could kill the chip or lead to them running with the wrong multiplier.

If any of these things killed the CPU then it could short out, leading to the board to behave as you describe (initially providing power, but quickly cutting it to preserve itself from overcurrent issues)

[D.8080]

Hello people!

So, having lived the era of the Athlon XP, I know many possible mistakes and causes of a dead cpu.

I was interested in technical details, but after some research I found there are a lot of possible causes and many involve engineer-like knowledge that I don't have. Too detailed and useless because I understand nix of

Cutting short: as cuttingedgecs suggested many to the point reasons.
In fact many cores were chipped and dead at eye inspection, some missing pins, some scratches that go deep into the plastic support (cutting leads).
Burn signs under the core...

Temperature has never been an issue to make people go crazy, amways high
"Is 50° idle alright for a ****+ cpu?" (lovely times) and the answer was "yes, depending on your cooling solution, are you on stock h/s?"


@Tasos:

I have a few boards, all support up to 166FSB to 200FSB.
None unfortunately officially support the GeodeNx or MPs (for this I have two Tyan TIger dual 462, )

Gigabyte, Asus, Ecs. 8 in total, but it was just three I used, GA and Asus. Tyan for the few MPs. All latest BIOS version.


From experience if it works it works straight off. In fact only 25% worked and maybe 15% really work with no issues as many don't go past POST or crash/freeze loading linux (ubuntu 11.10)


@cuttingedgecs:
Yes, arctic silver like if were an ocean to fill... all smeared and difficult to remove.
DIY bridge closing for OC
I remember many OC that didn't end well

To really know why it doesn't work one should open the die and inspect the cpu, and that's impossible.


One thing about bad PSUs.
You actually need at least 30A on 5V to boot safely (mine was 35). There's info on that, because new PSUs don't have as much having switched to 12V high amps. 5V go as far as 20/25A.


Summing up things, my questions were nice but explanation is too difficult or just plain obvious.

T'was fun testing ≃200 cpus... Flu has its positive sides

[D.8080]

One of the cpus.

If you want to try your luck and buy it "untested", I'm open to offers

[crazybubba64]

In your lot of CPUs, what models of Geode NX did you end up with?

[D.8080]