Hi all!
I've been handed over an All-in-one from acer.
On first glance, the motherboard looks quite upgradable:
- the VGA is in a PCI-E x16 slot
- the CPU is socketed
- there are two ram slots.
Unfortunately...
- Replacing the VGA does not prevent booting, but won't use the internal passthrough. I suspect that maybe the nvidia card is programmed somehow to behave as a switchable internal graphics, even though is a normal card.
- The motherboard only accepts 8GB of RAM. Anymore and fails to boot.
- The BIOS is capped to only accept very few models of microprocessors.
I currently have a i5-2500, but the BIOS kicks me off with the "Unsupported CPU installed. Shutting down the computer". My guess it that only accepts the i5-2400S, but AFAIK there is not much difference (save for clocking) between both models, so I guess this is entirely an artificial limitation imposed by the manufacturer.
Is there any way to disable the CPU whitelist, or I'm doomed to keep the i3-2120 on that machine?
While not very interested in replacing it (I don't think there's much difference between the 530 and whatever I can put that fits the power requirements), I would be curious to know how the graphics card is configured as an Optimus device.
Thanks in advance.
Post screenshots of first (CPU) & third (Mainboard) tabs of CPU-Z with supported CPU.
Show a photo of the screen with error "Unsupported CPU installed. Shutting down the computer".
(12-04-2019, 12:51 AM)DeathBringer Wrote: [ -> ]Post screenshots of first (CPU) & third (Mainboard) tabs of CPU-Z with supported CPU.
Show a photo of the screen with error "Unsupported CPU installed. Shutting down the computer".
Hi Deathbringer
Here they are. Sorry for the horrible quality of the photo. The screen is really reflective and I have only a second or so to take the screenshot before the computer shuts down.
Thanks
Make a photo of the part of this motherboard near slots for memory.
(12-04-2019, 12:09 PM)DeathBringer Wrote: [ -> ]Make a photo of the part of this motherboard near slots for memory.
Sure, here you are
I've also have a copy of the service manual, but cannot attach it because it's 14mb in size. I downloaded it from
here
(12-05-2019, 12:41 PM)DeathBringer Wrote: [ -> ]Try to flash my mod.
BINGO! You're a genius! The machine boots and the system recognizes the i5-2500 without an issue
Now check new CPU with new RAM.
Show photos of new SODIMMs from both sides.
(12-05-2019, 02:39 PM)DeathBringer Wrote: [ -> ]Now check new CPU with new RAM.
Show photos of new SODIMMs from both sides.
The new CPU was detected without issue (windows had to redetect all devices but no other issues).
I have two modules: a 4GB and an 8GB. At first it only detected the first but when I swapped the modules it started detecting both so I guess whatever was limiting the memory is also gone!
So it seems the new workshop machine is fully operational