"Unrecognized CPU" message

[RevolutionaryRob]

I have a Mobile Athlon XP CPU I am trying to put in to an ASUS nforce4 motherboard.

First, I can't get the CPU to show more than 1,000mhz ever, but depending on some settings, I get "unrecognized cpu" message - and only sometimes does it say "AMD Athlon XP" for the cpu.

Is it unreasonable to think this CPU is damaged or counterfeit?

Thanks,
Rob

[gvblake22]

What particular motherboard are you using? It's possible the BIOS doesn't support mobile processors correctly. I didn't even know there were any socket A nForce 4 motherboards

[RevolutionaryRob]

Sorry it's nForce 2.

[gvblake22]

Again, do you know the specific model number, revision, and BIOS version of the motherboard you are using?

[RevolutionaryRob]

Well I'm not so concerned with it working specifically, but I'm interested if someone has seen a mb give back "unrecognized cpu" sometimes and not others?

[Capper]

yes, its a fairly common occurrence when the BIOS is older and doesn't recognize the CPU......or the board doesn't in fact support the CPU.

As pointed out, if we know the board model, we can either point you to a BIOS that will fix the issue, or find out with 100% certainty that it won't work.

[Elysium]

A BIOS update might fix your problem. I remember when I had a LGA775 nForce 4 board, and if wouldn't recognize my Pentium D (thought it was a Pentium 4) and a BIOS update fixed it.

[RevolutionaryRob]

My MB is Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe and the Bios is Rev 1013, and I have checked and if I am not mistaken, it is the latest available bios on the Asus website.

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by RevolutionaryRob

Well I'm not so concerned with it working specifically, but I'm interested if someone has seen a mb give back "unrecognized cpu" sometimes and not others?

I have a Gigabyte, GA-7VAXP that gives me unrecognized cpu using an 1800 MP processor. But the deal is, I have it running at 200 front side bus. You might want to check the mother board and see if it has the jumpers for 200, 166, and 133 fsb. I believe that it might have the Asus DIP switches that change the fsb frequency between the three. Depending on the mobile cpu that you have, you may have to do the switches to 133 fsb. If the cpu is one of the older ones, it will be the 266 frequency, so you would want to put the switches to 133, and so on: 266=133, 333=166, and 200=400.

If you are not sure of the positions of the switches, you can download the manual from Asus.

[screwballl]

I used a Barton XP-M 2600+ (M = Mobile) on my standard A7N8X without a problem so it is likely a bad CPU