22hlf22

I have been trying relentlessly to upgrade my HP Pavillion A6412P PC, from an Intel 2.0Ghz E2180 Dual Core, to a 2.4Ghz Q6600 Quad. The PC came with an Asus IPIL-LB mobo, and I have been assured by HP that the Quad Core (Kentsfield) is compatible. Each time I install the Quad, I turn on the power, and get a beeping error code of 3 shorts, and 1 long. I reinstall the E2180 and all is well. I sent the processor back to the place I purchased it from, they tested it, said it was fine, but sent me a new one anyway. Also fine according to them. I have flashed the bios, cleared the cmos, tried a total of 3 different heatsinks, and all with the same conclusion. I have also upgraded the psu to a new 500 watt power supply. I called the Staples I got it from, giving up in desperation, to just pay them to change it, and they told me that there was nothing they could do that I haven't already done, and told me to call HP again. I did that, and am waiting on a tech manager to call me back, but am not expecting much help from him. He was just instructing the tech to remind me that I voided my warranty by replacing the processor, even though I reminded them that I called them to ensure it was compatible before the upgrade. I'm at my wits end, and any help would be much appreciated. I am determined to get this to work if it is possible. One question I do have. After updating the bios, it asks you to restart obviously. Should I shut down, and change the processor without allowing it to restart, or let it reboot, then shut down again, and then change the processor? I did the latter. Thank you in advance.

lazareth1

I would let it reboot, reset BIOS settings to default, save those, let it reboot again. If all is well after this THEN try new CPU.

22hlf22

Thanks for your reply Lazereth1. I do appreciate it. I will try it, although, I didn't change any of the default settings after flashing the bios, so I think your suggestion, is unknowingly what I did anyway. I decided to return the processor to the company I shipped it from. I won't mention them, but I purchased the processor on ebay, and thought it was brand new. As it turns out, the processors were taken from Gateways that had been purchased from Target as overstock. So apparently the processors were never actually purchased or used, but they were in a different brand of computer. It doesn't seem to me as if this would matter, but I'm by no means an expert. The time is running out to return the processor and still get my money back, so I am going to do that, buy a quad from Newegg or somewhere similar, and see how that goes. If that doesn't work, I know it's something on the pc. The board, or something HP has done or something. I can't think of what else to do anyway. My local shops won't even take it in because they don't know what to do, and HP is throwing their hands in the air with confusion, so that's that I guess. If you have any last minute ideas, I'd be more than willing to try them, as I am making one more go of it later tonight, but I am not optimistic. Thanks again for your advice.

lazareth1

Only last thing I can advise to do is check the beep code that it's giving out by going to the link below and looking up the beep codes for your BIOS.

http://bioscentral.com/beepcodes/astbeep.htm

22hlf22

Well, I found out what was going on. It's almost unbelievable how much HP screwed up on this. I have counted 12 different contacts I have made with them over this. Through email, phone and chat calls, and I was assured each and every time that the Q6600 was compatible with my mobo. Their spec sheet for my pc on their website shows that it is also. After endless research, I finally noticed that the Q6600 wasn't compatible with the G33 chipset, which is what I have. Mystery solved finally. So, I returned the Q6600 with a total of three days left to do so, and still get any of my money back. As it turns out, I had to take a 15% hit on the refund for returning a working product, and not to mention the shipping charges on the processor, and two different after market heatsinks. (I more or less knew it couldn't be the heatsink, but I was out of ideas) So this little mistake by HP will end up being slightly expensive for me, but as we speak, a Q9300 is on its way, and although it actually has 2mb less of L2 cache, I think it's probably still the better processor, since I can't overclock it anyway. Thank you Lazereth1 for your help. It's appreciated.

lazareth1

Hp sux lol. Glad ya got it sorted eventually. Your right in saying that the Q9300 is better. It just outperforms the Q6600 in almost all aspects at stock speeds.