noobie here, but if your bios uses the 945G chipset, it should handle D processors.

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/945g/index.htm

There are two system boards for the E510. The older boards don't have sufficient VRM voltage to support the new procs. If you have the unsupported system board, the system will present you with a warning message that the processor is unsupported. I believe A01 and earlier motherboards don't have the VRM support. Easy way to check is to remove the heatsink and see if the component is there. Should be 4 round inductors instead of three on the new board.

Ok I will take a look. I am not really sure what I am looking for, (other than what you decribe in the note). If I get confused when looking at board, I will reply to your post again.. Sounds like you know what you are talking about.

Yes, I know the 945 chipset support the D, that is what is in now, D820. I am assuming with the new intel Core Duo 2's coming soon, the price the of the higher 900 D series will be dropping. Thanks for the info.

is there any other way to determine this rather than removing the heatsink?

yeah if anyone has any more info on this I'd be most appreciative.

I just tried to upgrade my e510/DM051 to a Pentium D 950.  (My current processor is a 3.2 HT...a 640 a believe.)  Absolutely no luck...and this is with the A05 BIOS.  Nothing but stuck POST and a solid amber light on the power switch.

If Intel says the chipset supports the processor, Dell's freaking motherboard should support the processor.

My system was purchased less than a month ago brand new from Dell.  The motherboard is stamped with an A00 revision.  (The preloaded BIOS was A05...and I reflashed it just to be sure.)

It would be really freaking nice if there were a list of all the supported processors my system could use instead of this trial and error garbage.  Now, I have a brand new processor with nowhere to go.

Thanks, Dell.

 

Per the message above, there were 4 inductors on the motherboard arrayed around the CPU socket.

Also, the machine came pre-loaded with A05 (I bought it a month ago), and after the first failure, I reflashed the BIOS with the A05 on the download site with no luck.

I also tried the CMOS trick.

On an interesting note: I got into an online chat session last night with a Dell Support rep. He stated that the fastest processor for this machine was a Pentium 640 available from Dell with part number of XXXXXXXX. (made me laugh.) I had to explain to him the difference between Dual Core and HyperThreading because he didn't know the difference and assumed they were the same thing.

Also, and I have this in writing, he said that a future BIOS update will support Dual Core processors.

All in all...I'm not pleased with my 'support experience' with Dell. It took 25 minutes before I got someone in chat and another 30 minutes for him to come to the conclusion that he didn't have a clue as to the subject matter at hand. It would have been nice just to be told 'Hey, the $400 processor you ordered from NewEgg isn't gonna work. The fastest processor the machine can support is XXXXXXX. Have a nice day.'

I normally build my PCs. I have had great luck with Dell laptops as well as the Optiplex and Poweredge products that my company purchases, so I decided to go the lazy route and buy a loaded e510 for gaming. I think next time, I'll build my own again.



(Also, the revision number for the board 'A00' was found (if, with the case open, you're looking down at the motherboard from the back...with the card slots toward the bottom and the drive bays towards the top) on the left side of the motherboard between the PCI slots and the drive bays in the case.) I'm not sure if this is the actual mobo revision, but it's the only marking I saw that looked 'version-ish.'

Message Edited by StrayTech on 05-31-200608:00 AM

Here's a link to a message that contains part of the chat log I had with some 'award winning technical support' last night.

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_bios&message.id=45612

Tell me about it...and there's no posted 'list' that I can find anywhere that shows the complete list of supported processors... Even that would be helpful.

I'm so not pleased with Dell at the moment.

Thats too bad your 900 Series will not work. I had gotten mine about a month ago also. I also usually build my own, but for the price decided to go with Dell. There bios way ....to restrictive. An Intel board with the same chipset supports the 900 D series. Also our boards should support 667 speed memory. Bought a pair of Patriot from New Egg. The Bios shows 533.

You have got to be kidding me. These guys are the worst. Dell basically is a computer for someone that does not want to upgrade. Like I said earlier, I usually custom build my own PC's. Thought hey, I can get a great deal and do a few upgrades along the way. First I see that the power supply is underpowered. 305 watts, has no PCIe power cable for a high end video card. Bios will not support 667 memory. And now, we find out that you cannot use the 900 series processors. Let see, I have to wait for a bios upgrade that MIGHT support the 900 series, MIGHT support the faster memory, ADD and new power supply.

OH, I forgot to say. The bios does not support RAID O only RAID 1. It uses the Intel RAID. Are you kidding me...they disabled RAID 0!!!!