Upgrading the CPU in an ASUS P5LP-LE mobo

[kvin189]

I've been trying to upgrade the CPU in my ASUS P5LP-LE motherboard lately. The PC is an old HP a1530n desktop that I'm playing around with to run some older software. I picked up a Core 2 Duo E6700 for about $10 on eBay and am having trouble getting the system to boot when it's installed. When I hit the power button, the fans all turn on the CPU, GPU, and front case fan (except for the rear case fan plugged into the 3-prong SYS_FAN header), but there are no hard drive or DVD drive noises or lights.

My next step was to reinstall the old CPU (an Intel Pentium D) and make sure the system still started up. It booted up just fine in the original configuration.

So it seems I either have an incompatible CPU (I thought I had found information on HP's support site to validate this upgrade previous to purchasing the CPU) or I need a BIOS update that doesn't seem to exist as far as I have found. Also seems there are two versions to this mobo (Leonite and Emery), although I'm not sure if that's a factor.

Can you guys think of anything I might have missed? Thanks!

 

[kvin189]

Upon closer inspection of the motherboard, it seems there is one small visual way to tell the versions apart. The Emery version has a pink parallel port in the rest I/O where the Leonite has a VGA port in that area. The Emery is not capable of the upgrade due to the Northbridge is the Intel 945P and the Leonite is capable with the Intel 945G. I have the Emery version thanks to HP. I might look into getting a Leonite mobo and see if that would help.

 

[noel_prg_la1979]

Hi kvin189.

I think you need the following HP part numbers: 5188-6733 or 5188-8917 (these are P5LP-LE "Leonite" boards)
HP 5188-8019 is a "Leonite2" board that has 2 PCI slots & a small PCIe x1 slot instead of 3 PCI slots like the "Leonite" board.

Also the highest Core2Duo might be the E6700 for the Leonite board as I tried to use a Core 2 Duo E6850 and the Leonite board that I have will not boot up with it (no video on POST) - I have the latest P5LP-LE Leonite BIOS which is v5.23 from the sp37378.exe file. Seems like only Leonite & Leonite2 boards support most Intel Core 2 Duos up to E6700.

And there were other versions of P5LP-LE boards; the earliest version was the "Limestone" which had both a parallel port & VGA port.

P5LP-LE Limestone specs:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00379422

P5LP-LE Emery specs:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00590499

P5LP-LE Leonite specs:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00864946

Other differences also include the Realtek audio chipset - older P5LP-LE boards use Realtek ALC882 or ALC883 audio while the Leonite & Leonite2 versions of P5LP-LE use ALC888 audio chips.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I would note this thread is almost four years old and the OP has two posts since this one. Appreciate the effort, though.

Closing.
Wolfshadw
Moderator

Kvin189 - If you wish this thread re-opened, please Private Message me.