Dimension 4500 questions.

From the specs contained in the Dell documentation, I would be cautious about installing a 3.06 GHz processor in this machine.  Dell delivered nothing faster than a 2.8 GHz Northwood P4 with the Dimension 4500, and while the bus speed is supported, the BIOS may not have support programmed for a 3.06 GHz processor.  The impact of this is that if the BIOS doesn't find the processor type in its support list you will get an error on boot with a message on screen to that effect.  Some of the BIOS files allow you to continue booting by pressing F1 on getting this error, but others force the machine to halt.  Make sure that you keep your old processor if you decide to try out the 3.06 GHz as you may find you need to go back to the old processor.

If you have an internal, not a USB, diskette drive you should be able to create a BIOS flash diskette and use it to update the BIOS.  The file you should use for this is BR4500_04.exe.  This file will create a bootable DOS diskette containing the BIOS flash file.  Since this is a boot disk your installation of Windows is irrelevant.  Please note that this is for the A04 version of the Dimension 4500 BIOS.  Using a BIOS file intended for a different model is usually impractical as the flash file will usually detect the difference and refuse to install.  Even if it works it could wind up bricking your machine, and updating BIOS is dangerous enough when using the correct file.  Dell BIOS chips are not socketed and have no back-up that would allow you to re-flash if you have a problem.  The only solution usually requires replacement of the main board.

If you have no internal diskette drive, but you do have a DVD/CD drive and the Dell Resource CD, you can write 4500_A04.exe to a CD and use the Dell Resource CD to boot to DOS.  Once you have booted the Resource CD, you use the drop down menu at the top of the screen to exit the diagnostic menu to a DOS prompt.  You then substitute the CD having the flash file for the Resource CD and execute the file by typing its full name, to include the .exe.  The file should flash the BIOS and give you a message when it's complete to remove the disk and restart the computer.

If you don't have the Resource CD either, there are sites on the net that can provide ISO boot images; select one that boots to DOS and write its ISO to a blank CD and follow the procedure I outlined for the Dell Resource CD method.

Got my 3.06 in the mail today.

After finding some diskettes I finally got the bios flash to work.

Slipped into the socket no problem. Booted up fine, bios saw the 3.06

Windows showed 3066 mhz, booted up about 2x faster than normal.

However HT is not supported like I thought.

Anyone have experience successfully flashing another bios that will allow the HT on this chipset?

Thanks a ton in advance.

Done it.

I have one of those antiquated 4500's.... flash to A04 to support 3.06 @533mhz.

Also, 4500 specs max ram @1g..... board WILL support 2g.....  suspect the lapse is due to the fact that 1g sticks didn't exist at the time the specs were written.

Now.... the 3.06 Northwood is a HT chip.... the I845 board supports HT.... Dells A04 bios WILL NOT.  Nor is there an updated bios for this machine that will.

If you replace the motherboard with a Dell motherboard of the same type and you keep the same configuration, it is not usually necessary to reinstall the OS.  If you replace the motherboard with a generic replacement that does not have the Dell BIOS you may need to purchase a new copy of the OS and perform a reinstall.

If you swap out a mother board on a 4500 do you have to reinstall the OS?

Thanks for the info Jack.

I want to put a 4550 MB in my 4500?  Will it work?

Maybe; the problem is that the 4550 will have devices on the board for which the existing installation has no drivers.  You will probably get a blue screen as a result which means you will need to reinstall the OS.  If you have a Windows installation disk that has the same service pack as the existing installation on the hard drive you might get away with a repair installation.  If like most of us you have a service pack 2 installation disk, you will likely need to do a complete installation because the service pack 2 installation disk cannot perform a repair installation on a service pack 3 installation.

Good advise Jack, This is my hobby machine, I have windows 7 running on it.  I just upgraded the processor from a 2.4 to a 3.06 P4 but the 4500 MB does not support HT.  I only paid $20. for the processor and can get a 4550 MB for $20. and then can support HT.  Wont do it if I have to reinstall windows from scratch.  

I do have a problem since the upgrade a few days ago, the system freezes on shutdown at the windows is shutting down screen.  If you feel like it take a look at my thread as I would welcome any suggestions.  Link below.

en.community.dell.com/.../19889863.aspx

Hmm ... I've used my trusty SP1 disc to "repair" more than one SP3 installation.

The OS will BSOD if it can't find a driver for the primary hard disk adapter. Otherwise, it will continue to boot and the plug and play system will install (or prompt to install) the requisite drivers for the new hardware. I've used this trick to continually move over a circa-2004 install to newer hardware. (Originally created for an Athlon, it's now working with an H67 board with Core i5 quad-core.)

rdunnill is right. It all rides on whether or not the PDA driver installed on the OS now will initially kick in with the 4550 board..... sounds like you've already bought it?  Worst case scenerio I guess is it fails miserably,  you pop back in the 4500 and end up no worse than where you started.... meanwhile, you've got something to play with.

^ can you explainhow to do this in more detail?  Can I replace my 4500 MB with a 4550 MB without reinstalling the OS, thats a deal breaker for me. Thanks

Alright guys.

I got my 4550 mobo in from ebay.

Put it into my case, reattached all the hardware.

Put in my pre-imaged 4550 bios flash on a floppy.

Booted up, ran the bios flash.

Rebooted and everything started up just fine, nothing needed new drivers.

Only thing windows did was "You must restart for these changes".

I did so and it's like my old 4500 mobo -except- my 3.06 now has HT support.

So for the others wondering what would/will happen, this was my experience.

it *should* boot but I'm nor guaranteeing anything. We have been able to use Dell Optiplex GX240 images with GX260 and 270 computers and they boot but lack drivers. It never hurts to try and if it doesn't work then you just back up your old files to an external hard drive or something and reinstall Windows.