Dell Motherboard Confusion

[keithapple]

I'm at my wits end, so I'm turning to the folks belonging to Tom's Hardware. I recently came into a gutted Dell Studio 540 Desktop.
It seemed like it would be an easy build. And, I'd say I'm pretty good at it, I've built 100's of computers.

The motherboard is Dell part Number M017G, but it's really a scaled down Asus P5Q-EM. These systems come normally with
lower end Celerons, or Core 2 Duos, and I actually own another one of these with a Q6600 Core 2 Quad. Even though I'm not a big
fan of Dell, this is a very good system.

I had a Pentium D 925 laying around and thought I would try to get it to work. According to Asus, the board will support a
Pentium D 925, as long as it doesn't have VT, and this chip does not.

It will not boot, even though I know the motherboard works. There's power to the board, and even so I've tried two other power
supplies to the same end.

I'm using both the on board video, and an ATI HD3400 PCI-Express Video Card. I'm using Nanya PC2-6400 Ram, 2 x 1GB sticks,
which I know works, becuase I tried it another board.

There is little documentation from Dell, but I suppose it's possible the board will not support a Pentium D, but it seems strange.

Dell has a fancy power light which is supposed to glow solid blue in a working system, but this one stays amber, if that helps.

Please, return my faith in my own ability, and tell me there's a valid reason why this won't work.

 

[erocker]

It's all in the BIOS and unfortunatley DELL's BIOS does not support that processor. It may be a scaled down version of the P5Q, but the bios is very different. Perhaps DELL may have a bios that you could flash to the board so it will work.

 

[joefriday]

What is stopping you from using the q6600 for troubleshooting? What volts does that ram require? Chances are if it is over 1.9 volts it won't work in the Dell. Since there's more than one variable here, I say swap in the q6600 and see if it works. If it still doesn't work, suspect the ram is incompatible. Finally, there's a good chance that dell didn't bother with adding CPU support for the older Pentium Ds, as Dell knew they would never ship that Studio PC with those processors.

 

[keithapple]

I appreciate the quick responses, I'm going to assume that Dell's Bios will not support the Pentium D. You are correct, I could swap out
the 6600 chip to see if it boots, and I may do that. I think I'll let this ride for a few more comments from people who know more
than I do.

 

[keithapple]

Does anyone have any idea where I could get a list of supported processors for this board?

 

[delluser1]

I think I'll let this ride for a few more comments from people who know more
than I do.

IMO, joefriday knows more about Dells than anyone on the planet.
Reread his last line, just because a chipset can support a certain processor doesn't mean a Dell with said chipset will.

 

[Guest]

Here's the specifications for the processors that are compatible with the motherboard. They came from the user manual for the studio slim 540's. Page 46 Here's the link: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/STD540s/en/SG/en_sg.pdf.

Specifications
System Model
Studio Slim 540s
This section provides basic information that you
may need when setting up, updating drivers for,
and upgrading your computer.
NOTE: Offerings may vary by region.
For more information regarding the
configuration of your computer, click
Start → Help and Support and select
the option to view information about your
computer.
Processor
Type L2 cache
Intel® Celeron® 512 KB
Intel Pentium® Dual-Core 1 MB
Intel Core™2 Duo 2 MB/3 MB/4 MB/
6 MB
Intel Core2 Quad 6 MB/8 MB/12 MB

Hope that helps

 

[BKraengel]

I'm at my wits end, so I'm turning to the folks belonging to Tom's Hardware. I recently came into a gutted Dell Studio 540 Desktop.
It seemed like it would be an easy build. And, I'd say I'm pretty good at it, I've built 100's of computers.

The motherboard is Dell part Number M017G, but it's really a scaled down Asus P5Q-EM. These systems come normally with
lower end Celerons, or Core 2 Duos, and I actually own another one of these with a Q6600 Core 2 Quad. Even though I'm not a big
fan of Dell, this is a very good system.

I had a Pentium D 925 laying around and thought I would try to get it to work. According to Asus, the board will support a
Pentium D 925, as long as it doesn't have VT, and this chip does not.

It will not boot, even though I know the motherboard works. There's power to the board, and even so I've tried two other power
supplies to the same end.

I'm using both the on board video, and an ATI HD3400 PCI-Express Video Card. I'm using Nanya PC2-6400 Ram, 2 x 1GB sticks,
which I know works, becuase I tried it another board.

There is little documentation from Dell, but I suppose it's possible the board will not support a Pentium D, but it seems strange.

Dell has a fancy power light which is supposed to glow solid blue in a working system, but this one stays amber, if that helps.

Please, return my faith in my own ability, and tell me there's a valid reason why this won't work.

Hi KeithApple,

I just ran across your post. Are you sure your motherboard isn't really a Foxconn G45M?