Dell optiplex gx260 problem!

[freakingnewb]

Hello,

I recently got a dell gx260... it came with a pentium 4 1.8gh 256mb ram no disk drive.... so i stuck in a pentium 4 ht 3.06 1gb ram and a dvd rom.... now my pc wont boot... it starts, the hard drive makes a screech like sound.... then reboots... and my monitor is blank all the way through this.... the indicator lights suggest that its a bios failure or something and its in 'recovery mode'......... to fix the problem ive tried the following... switching the jumpers next to the power on the mobo... removing the battery thing on the mobo.... replacing the cpu like 3 times... removing one of the two sticks of ram... yet the problem is still the same.

PLEASE HELP!

 

[kaa0653]

Not all GX260's supported HT out of the box. It may require a bios update to work with that CPU. That might explain the indicator lights.

 

[tsnor]

There's a list of processors supported here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/opgx260/en/ug/specs.htm

It doesn't include the 3.06. However this thread says the3.06 works if the MB is more recent than a certain date and you get on a late bios version. http://en.community.dell.com/what-do-i-buy/for_enterprise/f/4516/t/13752864.aspx

Suggest you put back the 1.8, get the system working, download the latest bios. Unplug the DVDROM. Try the 3.06 again. If it works then power off and plug in the CDROM again. If the system still works VICTORY. If not post where it stopped working and someone can help troubleshoot.

p.s. if the intent is to have a working computer (vs fix up an old computer as a hobby) you can get a new MB/CPU/GPU/Memory to put in the case for $100 like this e-350 based system Foxconn AHD1S-K AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD Hudson D1 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo + 4gb ddr3. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186212 It doesn't have IDE so your existing disks can't attach w/o an add in a pcie IDE adapter. But a new sata drive woudl be MUCH faster. Many other MB/processor options exist.... P4 is getting a bit old, and 256MB of memory.....

edit: found a ref that compares E-350 to p4 3.0. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+E-350

passmark. e-350 = 735, p4 3.0 = 489 Surprised it's that close.