XL301 & 201 woes

[wheeker]

Ok, don't think I'm really looking for any answers here, just venting

I recently found some VGX-XL's for sale locally by another enthusiast. Having had my XL100 since 2006 & performed all possible upgrades (incl a Pentium D945 CPU upgrade thanks to the BigBIOS project), I jumped at the chance of a XL301 with the increased CPU upgrade opportunities.

I upgraded my XL301 with:

• CPU: Quad Q6700
• RAM: 4Gb
• OS HDD: SSD

All went swimmingly & I noticed a significant increase in performance over my XL100. This lasted c.3 months until I started getting v.frequent BSOD's (see my Seven Forums thread). I tried/tested everything but could not resolve it & neither could my work's IT consultant. However the seller very kindly swapped it for a XL201 unit he had (no doubt a member of these forums)

So, now with the XL201 I started on the upgrade path again:

• CPU: Quad Q6700
• OS HDD: SSD

Immediately after upgrading the CPU the XL201 wouldn't boot- no beep, no POST, nothing- dead. Power seems to be getting to the motherboard ok. Downgraded back to E6300 CPU, still nothing. Again my work's IT consultant hasn't been able to get it to boot either.

So, for now, it ends there really. For me to 'brick' not 1 but 2 VGX-XL's is shameful really Still not quite sure how I did it . The seller/enthusiast has a spare motherboard & is attempting to get the XL301 running again. I've at least still got my trusty XL100 running happily.

[jwa4]

Was the Q6700 used the same one used in both the XL301 and XL201? In the many years I've spent working in IT I have only once seen a CPU kill a motherboard, its very rare but it can happen. On the XL201, did it boot normally after the BIOS upgrade when it still had the E6300 installed? If it only died after installing the Q6700 then the CPU could be suspect. What are all the common parts that were transferred between the XL301 and XL201?

[wheeker]

Thanks for the reply jwa4. Yes the Q6700 CPU was the one common part between the 301 & 201 and the 201 initally booted ok with E6300 installed. So you think the Q6700 CPU could have been faulty & bricked both motherboards? Unfortunately you could be right

FWIW- the 301 was having loads of BSOD's but the Q6700 passed testing with the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool (with exception of SPBC & Brand String, which AFAIK don't really matter). Whereas the 201 just won't boot at all......