Hi everyone. I'm hoping someone can help me get the bios setup for my HP Pavilion a6303w. Basically I think I need the exact 771 Microcode injected into the bios so it will cooperate with my 775 board and Windows 8.1.
Details:
Purchased used Socket 771 Xeon X5460 SLBBA (12M Cache, 3.16 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB) and the adapter sticker to replace the Pentium Dual Core E2140 in my 775 motherboard.
Previous/Stock CPU: Intel '05 E2140 Pentium Dual Core SLA93 (1.60GHZ/1M/800/06)
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro (64 bit)
Motherboard: IPIBL-LB (Benicia)
Prior to installing the cpu I upgraded to the latest BIOS on the HP website.
Current BIOS Installed = AMI (HP's Version 5.43 which can be
downloaded HERE.
Problem: Installed the Xeon CPU and initially the only problem I noticed was the CPU fan immediately ramped up to full speed. Despite this windows loaded and I seemed to notice some performance increase. I ran CPU-Z and noticed it showed the correct processor but it listed 2 only 2 cores and 2 threads. Also in system information under "My computer/This PC) it still showed the old CPU.
I decided to reboot and see if things got sorted and that's when my problems began. The PC won't boot now with the Xeon installed. It will power up, the cpu spins at maxspeed and then it will
try to boot, get through the POST procedure and then attempt to load windows. It will then crash at the Windows 8 Splash screen. It flashes an error message very briefly before crashing and rebooting. I've managed to see two different error messages:
Your PC needs to restart. Please hold down the power button.” It then typically shows two error codes either:
Error Code 0x0000005D
or
Error Code 0x0000004C
I have to think the CPU isn't bad since it ran upon the initial boot. Also when I test using the built in HP Diagnostic utility it passes the check. The Xeon is recognized and listed in BIOS. If I put the old E2140 Pentium Dual Core back in everything works fine.
I'm hoping all I need to do is get the correct 771 Microcode injected into the BIOS so this system and Windows 8.1 will work with the Xeon. Can anyone help me with a workable BIOS for this setup?
Also HP does their BIOS update files as windows based executable files so I'm sure that will make things more difficult when it comes time to flash a modded bio since I can't boot into Windows in any mode with the Xeon installed. If I have to drop the stock dual core back in to flash the new bios and then reinstall the Xeon CPU I'm fine with that.
Otherwise someone will also have to walk me through flashing via USB etc. In anticipation I've been trying to teach myself and I've messed around extracting the contents of the HP 5.43 bios update with 7Zip but I'm not sure which files are the actual BIOS files etc.
I've tried everything I can think of: resetting BIOS via jumpers, pull the CMOS battery to reset, making sure XD is enabled in BIOS, loading BIOS defaults etc.
Sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure you have everything you need. Hopefully someone can help me get this Xeon up and running!
-SingleDad
R0240Z8.zip (Size: 1.33 MB / Downloads: 9)
![[Image: bhsHcv6.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/bhsHcv6.jpg)
