Which Award BIOS for AMD Phenom II?

[D.T.S.]

Hey all,

Quick question, as I'm hopeless with motherboards and BIOS in general. If you don't know, just post "lol I dun noes" so I can at least be ignorant with company.

Windows Vista Ultimate lists my AMD Phenom II x4 940 Black Edition as four separate "AMD Processor unknown model." I'm assuming this is a BIOS problem.

Mobo: Biostar A770 A2+
BIOS: Award A780A328 BF (near as I can tell)

Perhaps foolishly, I removed the motherboard's battery after installing the new processor. POST just didn't happen before that. No beeps, nothing. Removed the batter for about five minutes, reinserted and was good to go.

Except that things are now a little screwy.

I get a Floppy disks fail. (40) error when I first start up, everytime. I've changed boot order, disabled floppy in the boot order, disabled floppy drive in Windows to no success.

Key fact, I don't have a floppy drive installed. I have one sitting in the case, but it's not plugged in to anything.

Also, DVD drive doesn't appear to be working, though I may have just left that unplugged.

Does anyone know which BIOS I need to update to in order to support my processor? Attempts to update the driver through Windows just reported that the driver was up to date.

And any thoughts on the errors I'm getting regarding floppy disks fail would be great as well.

 

[D.T.S.]

Posted this in the wrong forum. Could someone move it?

In addition to my previous post, it looks like I'm going to need a new power supply. Mine just exploded. Two big pops. Charred electrical smell. I'm hoping just the power supply went. Not the new processor.

That would suck. A lot.

 

[JunK]

that mobo doesn't support your cpu - thats your problem

CPU SUPPORT
# AMD Phenom™ X4 Processor
# AMD Athlon™ X2 Dual-Core Processor
# AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor
# AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor
# AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor
# AMD Sempron™ Processor

im not 100% sure if that would have fried everything or not, but future reference you really need to look up the supported cpu list, as well as the maximum allotted wattage for cpu (95W or 125W etc) so that your cpu will function properly and you will not have any further issues

edit: and of course the correct socket, am2/am2+/am3 whatever

 

[DragonD]

Ouch!

 

[xKodiakx]

of course I've never heard of the CPU causing that to happen, but I'd look at it like...

Unsupported processor is trying to pull power -> motherboard doesn't know really how to handle that request -> tries it's best -> PSU says AH WTF MATE I dunno you!? and goes pop?

Not really pulling too much... but not the right way causing specific circuit to over load?

That's my guess... I mean there are motherboards that advertised supports processors up to! ### watts! as a feature... so not all of them could actually do it.



ohhh yeah... what kind of PSU was it?

 

[JunK]

ya that cpu is also 125W TDP, but i can't see any specs on that motherboard saying what its max compatibility is...so im not sure if thats even compatible either

 

[D.T.S.]

Power supply was a JPC-425-12v. Says it's 430w at max. I ran through everything and figured I'd be ok. Can't be sure where I saw it, but some guy on the net was running my processor and SLI video cards (same that I have (ati radeon 8800 gts) and was coming in under 430.

I got a new case and power supply from Fry's. This one is an ATX12v, model number RX-5005. Total wattage is 500.

Transferred everything over to the new case, have everything hooked up, but nothing turns on. Not a single fan, light, or hard disk. I press the power and reset buttons to no avail.

Beginning to think I did something to the motherboard, but I'm not sure if that's a possibility.

Any thoughts on a new motherboard, if that's the issue? Going to run back to Fry's first thing if someone can come up with something.

 

[D.T.S.]

Well, I actually have it up and running now, but I'm concerned as to whether or not I should leave it on.

I was almost certain that my mother board could handle it, but I'll leave it up to you gentlemen to advise me.

Thanks for the insights so far, has been most educational.

 

[ShadowBlade72]

Most AM2+ motherboards CAN support the AM3 socket type Phenom II's. But usually a BIOS update is required for everything to work properly. Now it all depends on your manufacturer of your motherboard if they'll get off their lazy... yeah and write an update.