Dell Inspiron 5150 motherboard problem

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February 24th, 2008, 02:21 PM

enigma101

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Dell Inspiron 5150 motherboard problem

Hi all, Right....., here we go! I have this Inspiron 5150 which at present is just displaying a flashing curser in the top-left hand corner of the screen. It does not complete POST before doing this. This happens even though i've done the following already:

1. Replaced mainboard (original board displayed same fault)
2. Replaced Graphics Card
3. Replaced CPU*
4. Replaced Battery
5. Replaced Mains Adaptor
6. Tested & replaced RAM
7. Removed WIFI & modem cards

& swapped out Hard Disk

What else is there left!!?

The really strange thing about this is that if i a P4 2.8 HT CPU (with 1mb L2 cache) from my 5160 this machine WILL BOOT! It stops at post screen with the error '*** Processor Microcode Update Failiure *** Press F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup' but on pressing F1 will boot into Windows. Once booted into Windows it continues to run without any problems at all!

I'm guessing that the post error is caused by the BIOS not supporting the 1mb L2 cache of this CPU. This being the case, why does it still boot up as it doesn't get even this far with original or other 512kb L2 CPU? For the records, both of the 512kb L2 CPUs have been tested in my 5160 & work perfectly!

Any help with this would be most appreciated......,

March 1st, 2008, 01:27 PM

enigma101

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Quote:

Originally Posted by enigma101

Hi all, Right....., here we go! I have this Inspiron 5150 which at present is just displaying a flashing curser in the top-left hand corner of the screen. It does not complete POST before doing this. This happens even though i've done the following already:

1. Replaced mainboard (original board displayed same fault)
2. Replaced Graphics Card
3. Replaced CPU*
4. Replaced Battery
5. Replaced Mains Adaptor
6. Tested & replaced RAM
7. Removed WIFI & modem cards

& swapped out Hard Disk

What else is there left!!?

The really strange thing about this is that if i fit a P4 2.8 HT CPU (with 1mb L2 cache) from my 5160 this machine WILL BOOT! It stops at post screen with the error '*** Processor Microcode Update Failiure *** Press F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup' but on pressing F1 will boot into Windows. Once booted into Windows it continues to run without any problems at all!

I'm guessing that the post error is caused by the BIOS not supporting the 1mb L2 cache of this CPU. This being the case, why does it still boot up as it doesn't get even this far with original or other 512kb L2 CPU? For the records, both of the 512kb L2 CPUs have been tested in my 5160 & work perfectly!

Any help with this would be most appreciated......,

C'mon 'cdsinfo'......, i thought you where good at this stuff!?

March 1st, 2008, 02:16 PM

tj_nt

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did you check the manual for the mobo to see if the CPU voltage has jumper settings?

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March 5th, 2008, 02:40 PM

enigma101

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It doesn't mention any jumpers in the Service Manual, so i can only assume they do not exist.

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