Hello i am upgrading a family members pc, with some spare parts i have the mobo is a Gigabyte GA7ZXR. i used an amd athlon 2400+ for the upgraded processor. When i turn on the computer everything starts up, but nothing happens. doesnt post, but all the hardware is running, fans, and hard drive and lights all running. There are switches on the mobo that configure the cpu, do i need put them in a certain order or something. and if the cpu is not supported by the mobo, is there a way to make it work?
I would put the old CPU back in and do the latest bios flash. The gigabyte website says that board only supports chips up to the Athlon 2200+...but it is worth a try.
The board is too old for the CPU. The 2400+ and beyond CPUs were newer technology and old boards like the GZ7ZXR don't support them. I have looked at the Gigabyte website and there are no newer BIOSes that will support newer CPUs. The board will have a version number that will say what type of CPUs it can accept.
If it is version 1 (e.g. 1.0 or 1.1 or 1.2 and so on) - then it can only accept up Athlon (not Athlon XP or Sempron) CPUs up to 1.4Ghz, but ONLY if they use the 200mhz bus, not the 266. The exact same is true of version 2.
If it is version 3 (e.g. 3.0 or 3.1 or 3.2 and so on) - then it can accept all original Athlon CPUs and Palomino Athlon XPs, which were available up to the 2100+. Note that the newer Thoroughbred CPUs which were also available in 1600-2100+ and beyond, will not work. Ultimately, this is all 2001-2002 technology. You really need a new system in its entirity for a worthwhile upgrade.
Wow thanks for your help, i am doing this upgrade for a family member that cant afford a new computer at the moment. i happened to have some extra parts that could upgrade it for them. this would be just a temporary things too. thanks again for your help.
