Pegatron M2N68LA/HP Narra5-GL6: CPU Upgrade

[erandhawa]

I've read mixed comments some people have gotten the 940 to work with their board by unlocking the bios. The 940 is a 125w processor and i am hoping to get it to work somehow in my motherboard. If anyone can help it'd be greatly appreciated, I've attached hp's bios as well as a description of the motherboard.

I did contact HP and they told me the bios is locked and that could be the reason the CPU isn't working i keep getting a "CPU not supported" error. Though they think thats the reason they still won't help me unlock the bios.

Also if this helps anyone this is an HP motherboard created by Asus. On Asus's webpage i couldn't find the -LA model.

I am not too concerned about the overclocking feature since i know hp bios's don't really have many options within them...my main concern is to somehow get my motherboard to run the Phenom x4 940 since the hp page says it should run.

Description:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docum...=c01701270&lc=en&dlc=&cc=us&product=4006351&lang=

Bios Direct download:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softw...pv-74348-1&lc=en&dlc=&cc=us&product=4006351&sw_lang=&os=2093

Forgot to add here is the link to asus's m2n68-la motherboard bios download page. I am just confused about whether my board can support higher than 95w cpu if so i am guessing code from any of the m2n68 series should suffice.

http://support.asus.com/download/downloa...uage=en-us

The link takes you to the download page from there you have to select:

Motherboard for products
am2/am2+/am3 for series
M2N68 for model there are also other m2n68 models i don't know if they are better or worse but i do know all support 125w and higher.

Thank You in advance for any help.

[TheWiz]

Socket: AM2+Supports the following processors:
AMD Phenom II Quad-Core AMD Phenom II Triple-Core AMD Phenom Quad-Core (Agena core) 9xxx series (AM2+)AMD Phenom Triple-Core (Toliman core) 8xxx series (AM2+) AMD Athlon X4 AMD Athlon X3 AMD Athlon X2 (Brisbane) (AM2+)

Here's what I think is happening. If you look at the other forum thread on the Narra 3, you will see the Phenom II 945 95W works without a hitch. My guess is that this BIOS or the mobo itself does not support dual power plane, which is a requirenment for 125W proccessors. So I checked out the CPU support list @ ASUS and it does infact list support for AMD 125W CPUs. Unfortunatley, AMI bioses are nearly impossible to upgrade AGESA on (proccessor identification module) because of their tight integration to the 1B module unlike Award. What I would recommend is seeing if you can find a spare bios chip, and flash the latest bios for the standard M2N68 on Asus site, and see if the BIOS posts on the system and works.

Until then, I will see if I can do anything to the bios.
TheWiz

[Ski]

Compaq CQ5205Y originally sempron...somebody gave it to me.
Parts I had laying around included a 650w corsair power supply...
a large copper 939 cooler w/92mm fan...and a faster 92mm fan for the exhaust...4950 vid card. A lucky trip to the comp store resulted in finding a
2.4G phenom 9750 for cheap...bolted it all together, reinstalled win7 32bit removed the sempron for the phenom and...

Unsupported CPU error...WTF? Website AND HP tech says it should work.

In a fit of pique I slid my finger down the F keys
to try and get into the BIOS...
huh...OS choice board...win7 hi-lighted...hit enter and...it boots.

Yea, I know it turned the hyperlink down, but the machine runs JUST FINE.
Sandra...Everest...even Heaven benchmarks, no overheat.

Runs Heaven at over 30FPS turned up, and 60FPS turned down.
(That'd be turning HEAVEN down...)

My kids have been playing WOW on it for three months with ZERO problems.

Other than having to push the F2 button and hit enter on every boot,
the machine doesn't seem to care...might be the single rail stable power supply...might be the extreme cooling measures.

Threw a refurbed velociraptor in it it worked so well...but then again, if it blows up, I'll slap a refurb/cheap motherboard in a get rid of the headache.

Your mileage may vary...or you might not be as lucky as I am.

I'll be looking here to see if you fine fellows ever come up with a bios for it...keep up the good work.
Striped ape

[1234s282]

From HP's Official Spec Page:

Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades:
Socket type: AM2+
TDP: 95 watt
•AMD Phenom II Quad-Core
•AMD Phenom II Triple-Core
•AMD Phenom Quad-Core (A) 9xxx series (AM2+)
•AMD Phenom Triple-Core (T) 8xxx series (AM2+)
•AMD Athlon X4
•AMD Athlon X3
•AMD Athlon X2 (B) (AM2+)

Unfortunately , TDP is a hardware related limitation which we cant fix from the BIOS - You will need to get a 95W TDP Phenom or a new motherboard that supports 125W TDP Phenoms

Sorry
Admin

[Ski]

From HP's Official Spec Page:

Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades:
Socket type: AM2+
TDP: 95 watt
•AMD Phenom II Quad-Core
•AMD Phenom II Triple-Core
•AMD Phenom Quad-Core (A) 9xxx series (AM2+)
•AMD Phenom Triple-Core (T) 8xxx series (AM2+)
•AMD Athlon X4
•AMD Athlon X3
•AMD Athlon X2 (B) (AM2+)

Unfortunately , TDP is a hardware related limitation which we cant fix from the BIOS - You will need to get a 95W TDP Phenom or a new motherboard that supports 125W TDP Phenoms

Sorry
Admin

Thanks Bub, knew that...
was hoping you might release something that'd just make the unsupported CPU message go away and let it boot normally...
might be stressing the voltage regulators,
but it runs W.O.W. and surfs just fine...
and at $40-50 for a new semi-high performance mobo,
I'll just let 'er run till she melts down...which my infared themometer says won't happen as it runs pretty cool.

[SamanthaTeal]

Hello all,

I have a Compaq Presario CQ5205Y with a Pegatron M2N68-LA (Narra5) MB which i recently decided to start upgrading. It has been quite the task yet i managed to find a decent graphics card that would work with it (Radeon HD 6570) as well as maxing out the supported Ram (4GB DDR2). With just those 2 upgrades i noticed an immediate upgrade in my gaming.

Now to what has left me pulling my hair out for the last 2 weeks, upgrading my CPU. I am getting mixed information from nearly every source i check. Hp's website ( http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Tec...=c01859812&lang=en&cc=us&contentType=SupportFAQ&prodSeriesId=3999467&prodTypeId=12454 ) says that supported upgrades to my Sempron LE-1300 2300MHZ single core on my HP M2N68-LA Narra5 MB are as follows:

TDP: 95W
Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades:
NOTE: Only socket AM2+ processors are supported with this motherboard.

AMD Phenom II Quad-Core
AMD Phenom II Triple-Core
AMD Phenom Quad-Core (A) 9xxx series (AM2+)
AMD Phenom Triple-Core (T) 8xxx series (AM2+)
AMD Athlon X4
AMD Athlon X3
AMD Athlon X2 (B) (AM2+)

The problem is that most of the higher end CPU's on that list are AM3 as opposed to AM2+ sockets. There are some that say AM3/AM2+ but as i understand it i will not be able to seat an AM3 CPU without upgrading the bios to the newest version which being an HP board is not possible. I have heard success stories of people successfully using AM3's on the same board as mine yet their Compaq model is different, so i do not know if they have a newer bios model. I attempted updating my bios via the HP site, but there were no updates. So i am using the version that came stock on the PC ( Bios Version/Date - Phoenix Technologies LTD 5.49 8/6/2009).

Essentially i want to be able to put the best known working processor in possible, the problem is the information on this topic contradicts itself with every source i check. If anyone can give me a couple CPU's that will work with my setup i would be forever grateful. At this point i just want anything a few steps up from what i have, so long as it is guaranteed to work. Being that these CPU's are so old the only reasonably priced ones i can find are on Ebay, where in most cases refunds due to incompatibility are not accepted. Geez sorry for the wall of text i just really want this upgrade behind me so i can play a few games with a steady framerate. If any other information is needed just ask. Thanks guys.

[TheWiz]

Hi Samantha,

Please use the BIOS Backup tool so that I'm sure I'm looking at the BIOS version you have installed. Then I can search the BIOS for the best model to upgrade to for the price.

http://bios-mods.com/dropbox/TheWiz/Prog...%202.0.zip

Regards,
TheWiz

[SamanthaTeal]

Hi Samantha,

Please use the BIOS Backup tool so that I'm sure I'm looking at the BIOS version you have installed. Then I can search the BIOS for the best model to upgrade to for the price.

http://bios-mods.com/dropbox/TheWiz/Prog...%202.0.zip

Regards,
TheWiz

Hi Wiz,

Thank you so much for the reply. I disabled my antivirus and ran the exe and it confirmed my Bios version as:

Type: Award BIOS /ACPI 2.0
Vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
Version: 5.49
Size: 1024k
Date: 08/06/2009

[SamanthaTeal]

Bump. If anyone can list a few processors that would be a noticeable upgrade to mine that would be great. Are the first series of Phenoms any good? I have only ever seen bad things about them, but there are a few in the line which i am pretty sure would work with my MB.

[mikemike097]

Phenom II X4 B99 or the 955 (BOTH HARD TO FIND) the fastest quads on the 95w spectrum.the warning on the page about the am2+ cpus only may be deprecated info that should have been removed or suggesting that your am3 cpu will run @ am2+ bus speeds.