Dell Dimension 5100 vs Pentium D

[HardwareExtreme]

Hello everyone,
I was wondering if anyone has gotten a Pentium D 8-- processor working in a Dell Dimension 5100. On bios A01, it considered booting but refused to show image on screen, so I updated to A03 and viola!, it works! (sorta...) Well, does going back to A02 BIOS support the Pentium D 820? It shows up and everything, but it complains with the "Unsupported processor, press F1 to continue" and the fans sounding like I'm next to a Boeing 747... So, any help? This machine isn't really meant to be anything, I was just fooling around with it to get some older games running. It had a Pentium 4 521 in it originally, but I put a 540 in it.

Supposedly, these things shipped with Pentium Ds, but I can't get it to work properly...
Specs:
Pentium D 820
Chipset: Intel 945G
2gb DDR2 533 Mhz
Radeon HD 2400 XT
Windows Server 2003 R2 on 40gb SATA drive

I also tried a Core 2 Duo e6550, it wanted to boot but didn't, and a Core 2 Duo e8400, as well as a Core 2 Quad Q6600( on A01) but these didnt work (Quad may on A03?????)

 

[drtweak]

the 5100/5150 do NOT support the Core 2 Duo CPU's period. The 945 Chipset is a P4 chipset (Which the Pentium D is just two P4's Core put together)

The 5100/5150 has these listed as official supported CPU's

DD517 Prescott P4 64bit 521, 2.8GHz, 800FSB, 1MB, Socket-T, E0
DD518 Prescott P4 64bit 531, 3.0GHz, 800FSB, 1MB, Socket-T, E0
DD519 Prescott P4 64bit 541, 3.2GHz, 800FSB, 1MB, Socket-T, E0
GD037 Prescott P4 64bit 551, 3.4GHz, 800FSB, 1MB, Socket-T, E0

P8606 Prescott P4 520, 2.8GHz, 800FSB, 1MB, Socket-T, E0
R8419 Prescott P4 530, 3.0GHz, 800FSB, 1MB, Socket-T, E0
W9854 Prescott P4 630, 3.0GHz, 800FSB, 2MB, Socket-T
N8590 Prescott P4 540, 3.2GHz, 800FSB, 1MB, Socket-T, E0
W9855 Prescott P4 640, 3.2GHz, 800FSB, 2MB, Socket-T
M8964 Prescott P4 550, 3.4GHz, 800FSB, 1MB, Socket-T, E0
W9856 Prescott P4 650, 3.4GHz, 800FSB, 2MB, Socket-T

 

[HardwareExtreme]

945 CAN support Core 2 Duos, but this is not why I started this thread. Here: http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel_(chipsets)/945G_Express.html
I'm also pretty sure someone got a Core 2 Quad working in a 5100 before somewhere...

The problem is that the Pentium D SHOULD work but it does not, it shows the "Unsupported Processor" error on boot. Will backdating the BIOS to A02 fix this? Or, can you just ignore this message and the system normally functions?

 

[drtweak]

945 CAN support Core 2 Duos, but this is not why I started this thread. Here: http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel_(chipsets)/945G_Express.html
I'm also pretty sure someone got a Core 2 Quad working in a 5100 before somewhere...

The problem is that the Pentium D SHOULD work but it does not, it shows the "Unsupported Processor" error on boot. Will backdating the BIOS to A02 fix this? Or, can you just ignore this message and the system normally functions?

It will not. The 5100 ONLY does P4. Dell always locks their BIOS down. If you want a Pentium D you need a Dimension 5150 or higher.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Dimension

You may be able to let it run but I have yet to ever see a Core 2 run on a 5100/5150 let alone a Core 2 Quad (These boards just do not have the power to support them as they are all 100+watts)

Most OEM motherboards that ran 945 that I have ran into don't support Core 2 (Especially with Dell. You need the 965+)

Also the 945 Only supports the 65nm CPU's as well.


When i see 5100/5150's I don't even bother with them. I just junk them. They aren't all that great with limted CPU support on CPU's that are now 10 years old.

 

[HardwareExtreme]

Well, in that case I may turn the computer into a basic server or something, and use it for game servers. Thank you for your help. However, somewhere I saw a forum post that said that A03 removed support for some CPUs, like high end 6xx series Pentium 4s. I may try and backdate it to see if the Pentium D works then.

 

[drtweak]

You can try. Again I have not seen a P-D on a 5100. I know those are all supported on a 5150 (besides core 2's)