Help - K9A2 CF mobo + AMD Athlon II X2 64-bit AM3 3.0Ghz CPU = fail!

[jamie511]

Okay so I fancied an upgrade, so I bought an AMD Athlon II X2 64-bit AM3 3.0Ghz processor to whack on my MSI K9A2 CF mobo. Tried it and no luck.

I'd read around that you might need to update the BIOS to get AM3 CPUs working on V1 of the K9A2, which is what I have, so I checked the CPUs specs against the motherboard on the MSI website and downloaded the recommended utility and BIOS rom.

I've flashed the BIOS successfully but still the processor won't work! During POST the spec for it flashes on screen, so the system seems to recognise it, but when Windows tries to load it just gives up and the computer reboots!

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jamie

 

[misry]

Can you get into the BIOS or boot to other media?

 

[jamie511]

I can get into the BIOS. I haven't tried booting to anything but the HD and Windows OS (Vista).

 

[4745454b]

What did you have before? Can you boot into safe mode?

 

[jamie511]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400 (2.2Ghz) socket AM2

I haven't tried. Will do so now.

 

[jamie511]

Okay so the system runs fine in Safe Mode, with the new processor installed. Any ideas?

Cheers,

Jamie

 

[jamie511]

Okay so I downloaded and installed AMD's Dual-Core Optimizer and it appears to have done the trick. I can now load Windows and function 'as normal' with the new processor installed. Weird.

Cheers,

Jamie

 

[misry]

Weird.

How do you figure? You installed a new generation part and you needed a driver update. As picky a Vista is you're lucky you don't have to reload Windows. (I'd reload anyway if it was me.)

 

[apache_lives]

blaarrggg MSI there garbage what do you expect?