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The Mummy Returns

No not the movie. This is a continuation of my mad scientist story, trying to get my computers working.

Yesterday, I recieved the new P3 that I ordered, to replace my cranky P3-450. I had paid for 2 day shipping. It got there on the fouth day. Annoying, but mostly it was bad timing for the weekend. I don't think it would pay to make a fight about it.

It came well packed. There were static warning stickers on the plastic box and the the anti-static bag inside. So I made sure to touch the frame of the PC lots of times while I was working with the CPU. In theory I should get a wrist-grounding strap, but I'm pretty good about discharging before I handle chips. (Watch, next time I handle a chip, I'll burn it out with static, just to prove me wrong!)

It turns out the CPU I bought was a P3-733 with a 133 bus speed. That means that the CPU expects the bus frequency is expected to be 133Mhz. My old PC is set to a 100Mhz bus. Well, I hoped the fact that the CPU was for a faster bus wouldn't cause a problem. I figured that I had two different machines to try it in too.

Well, I put the new CPU in my old desktop (Mobius) last night. I powered it on. I think I was holding my breath until I heard the heard the monitor react and the built-in speaker beep. I was still worried until I actually saw the booting messages. I forced it over to the older, non-default windows 98 system, as I have a CPU speed/temperature utility installed in w98. The CPU showed a normal temperature. The speed however didn't show 733Mhz. The speed showed 551Mhz.

I guess being on the 100Mhz bus means that it comes up at a slower speed. It makes sense. It is faster than the 450Mhz it was before. And it means that the CPU is running slower, thus cooler, than it is rated. I wonder if the kid's computer is also fixed at 100Mhz bus? I also have the doc from the motherboard, and it has the option to jumper up to 133Mhz bus speed. But it warns that the bus chips are not rated about 100Mhz, and may not act well if they are run over 100Mhz. I may have to try it anyhow, just to see.

I left the computer on last night, to make sure the new CPU was solid. It seems to be happy. I'm happy to get my backup machine back online. I'm able to have a hot backup for my laptop data - especially important to me with my pictures. And I can burn DVDs again. I can also think about running some services on it again.

And I should be able to get the old P2-200 to run again. To use it for the kids or for Linux? Tought choice. I think it will be Linux soon!

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