Question I am having issues using a modded E5450 in a LGA775 motherboard that should be compatible

[beekermartin]

I've been working on a friends computer that has an E5500 installed. I learned about the 771 Xeon chips working with the 775 platform. I ordered a modified E5450 from China. I installed it and it posts. It shows up properly in the bios but windows won't load. It goes to the window icon screen with the circle of dots but it locks up there. I reinstalled the old E5500 and it works properly. With the E5500 installed I installed the microcode for the 771. I believe I installed the proper code but I am not 100% sure. I believe windows should load even if the microcodes are not correct. I then tried to load windows from a USB drive to do a fresh install but that locked up as well. I have cleared the CMOS, reset the bios to defaults, changed every setting I can think of but nothing has worked. It is a Acer motherboard. It appears to be a G45T/43T - AM3V motherboard with 6 gb of DDR3 ram. 2x2gb sticks and 2x1gb sticks. According to what I have read the E5450 should be compatible. Since it does post and shows correctly in the bios I believe it is compatible. I also tried booting with only 1 stick of ram of 2gb installed but I got the same results.

Maybe the cpu is bad but that is unlikely since it does post. Unfortunately the motherboard doesn't have many options to tweak. I can't adjust voltage for example. I did find it odd that with the E5500, a dual core chip, the vcore is 1.265 in the bios. With the E5450 installed, a quad core, the voltage is only 1.12. That might be correct since the Xeon chips are usually better binned and require less voltage but that is the only thing I found odd in the bios.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated . I am basically out of ideas at this point.

 

[Lutfij]

Remove the 1GB sticks of ram and see if you can regain functionality of the platform. In retrospect, you don't do the sort of things you're doing with a prebuilt system's motherboard simply because they are often crippled with limited BIOS functionality and often times they might even have a white list of what parts can work with said motherboard to prevent the system being tampered with.

Do you have the latest BIOS update for the motherboard in question?

 

[beekermartin]

Remove the 1GB sticks of ram and see if you can regain functionality of the platform. In retrospect, you don't do the sort of things you're doing with a prebuilt system's motherboard simply because they are often crippled with limited BIOS functionality and often times they might even have a white list of what parts can work with said motherboard to prevent the system being tampered with.

Do you have the latest BIOS update for the motherboard in question?

I had removed all the ram except for 1 x 2gb stick and it still had the same issue. I tried it with 2 x 2gb sticks 4gb total and same issue.

I do have the latest motherboard bios installed. I was sure to use the latest bios when I installed what I think was the correct microcodes.

I know it was a risk trying this with a prebuilt system but I had read a bunch of threads of people having success. It wasn't expensive for the E5450 so if it doesn't work out it was worth a shot.

 

[beekermartin]

Interesting night of testing. I reinstalled the E5500 and booted into windows like normal. When I installed the 771 microcode I installed one of them. I believe it had "44" in the platform section. This time I replaced that microcode with one that had "04" in the platform. I flashed the bios, rebooted into windows with the E5500 installed then shut down. I then installed the E5450 and turned it on. I tried to hit delete in time but somehow it posted extremely fast and loaded into windows very quickly compared to the E5500. I entered my pin and I was at the desktop. I opened CPUZ and sure enough it showed the E5450 as the processor running. I then tried to reboot and then it was just rebooting almost immediately after the windows logo would appear. It would keep power cycling, beep after it posted, try to load windows and then reboot about 2 seconds after the windows logo appeared.

Damn! I thought I had it but I did not. I then went to remove the heatsink and one of the screws snapped off. Which means I am done for tonight. I am going to try to find a replacement stock heatsink or at least a screw from an old retired PC at work. If I can't find one I have a 212 I can install but I didn't want to deal with that tonight.

Anyway, when I deleted the original single 771 microcode I had installed and tried the second of three I had downloaded windows suddenly booted. Once. That is extremely odd that is suddenly worked and then didn't.

Once I get the heatsink figured out tomorrow I am wondering if I should try the third and final microcode by itself like I have with the other two? Or should I just install all three of them and try that instead?

Regardless I made some progress tonight but it was very odd progress to say the least.

 

[beekermartin]

I started over with the original bios with the E5500 installed. This time I added all three microcodes for the 771. That didn't work. I then installed one of the microcodes at a time and I got it to work with the one that had "40" in the platform section.

I was able to boot into windows but quickly realized it wasn't working properly. In CPUID it showed the E5450 was installed. Everywhere else it showed I still had the E5500 installed. It also only showed 2 cores in task manager and hardware info.

So the E5450 was working but not properly. I restarted a few times and I got the same results. I then installed the chipset drivers again and now it won't load into windows. It does the same thing it was doing earlier. It shows the window logo and then immediately restarts.

I am basically out of ideas. Either the E5450 I have on hand is defective or I am missing something. I could only find 3 microcodes for the E5450/771 platform. Maybe there are more available? I don't know. This has been very time consuming and frustrating to say the least. It seems like the chip is working since it appears properly in the bios yet it isn't working properly in windows.

If anyone here has any ideas please let me know. I am about to give up on this project.

 

[beekermartin]

I have given up on the E5450 771 CPU. I ordered a Q9550 775 CPU for $25 on eBay. I should have done that from that the start since they were the same price. Once I test out the Q9550 I will post my results. Hopefully that works out. This system hasn't really been worth all this effort but if the Q9550 works it will be a "good enough" system for my friend for a few more years.

 

[beekermartin]

The Q9550 works properly. Only issue is the ram is running at 1066 instead of 1333. Each stick of ram is rated for 1333 and the motherboard says 1333 on it. I tried to run it with the 2x2gb sticks only and I got the same results, 1066. Besides that the Q9550 is working well. Nothing in the bios that I could find would allow me to change the ram speed.

I decided to try the E5450 in a Dell at my work that had an E5500 installed. It works in the Dell! I didn't have to do anything. I installed it and it booted into Windows properly. After a quick reboot the CPU shows up properly in task manager, CPUID and CPUID HWmonitor. It appears the Acer bios just didn't like the E5450 even with the microcodes added. At least the Q9550 is working. My friend should be able to get a couple more years out of the system with the Q9550 and an Evo 860 installed.