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General discussion

MOBO BIOS update

by Dobby Jun 4, 2007 3:29PM PDT

Have an old computer which now has 98SE installed, with no problems. It has a Biostar Slot A mobo, with an AMD K7 chip, FX 5700 video card, and 768meg SDRAM. Tried installing XP Pro from clean boot, but will not allow same...numerous errors. Is it possible to update the BIOS to allow XP, or should I just re-install 98SE, and quit wasting my time. I have new machine with XP Pro installed, as well as laptop with Media Center, so it is not needed. Any help would be appreciated.......Dobby.

Discussion is locked

7 Posts
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Usually not a BIOS issue.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Jun 4, 2007 10:10PM PDT

My experience with this CPU is that at this age it's easy to overheat and see those errors. Do your yearly cleaning of all heatsinks, test the fans and run this memory test -> MEMTEST86. Only ZERO errors is acceptable.

Bob

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MOBO BIOS update
by Dobby Jun 5, 2007 3:58AM PDT

Bob...thanks for info...will run MEMTEST86 as you suggested....Dobby.

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MEMTEST
by Dobby Jun 11, 2007 9:04AM PDT

Bob...sorry I am late getting back to you...busy with graduations, etc.

Ran MEMTEST as you suggested...holy crap...4096 errors!!! Figured I would run it on primary machine as well...zero errors. Looks like the possibility of running any of the NTFS based systems on the older machine just went bye bye! Thanks again for the info. Dobby

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MEMTEST on NTFS is not an issue.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Jun 11, 2007 11:02PM PDT

I can get MEMTEST on bootable USB, CD, etc. so I don't see where NTFS systems would be a problem.

I see you found the error.

Bob

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memtest
by Dobby Jun 12, 2007 7:48AM PDT

Wondered about that myself, but why no problem installing 98SE?

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It's slightly technical.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Jun 12, 2007 8:19AM PDT

Microsoft changed where the core OS sits in RAM from 98 to XP. I'll skip finding articles about it.

Bob

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slightly technical
by Dobby Jun 12, 2007 9:43AM PDT

Thanks again for taking the time to help...not knowing is frustrating!

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