Weirdest CPU malfunction

Rouxenator

Rouxenator

Dank meme lord
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I recently got two scrap POS (point of sale, but the other acronym applies too) NCR RealPOS 80XRT computers and after some tinkering I got one running using the best parts of the two. First boot it went into to some kind of Linux and attempted to connect to a Pick'n'Pay server. I loaded Windows 7 Starter on it and after a few reboots it stuck at "Starting Windows". No amount of messing with BIOS settings seemed to help.

Then I loaded Windows 10 Pro on it and after only 1 reboot it stuck at "Starting Windows". Trying to boot from a Windows XP CD it loads all the drivers and hangs at "Starting Windows". Lastly I tried the latest Xubuntu and after a minute of loading, before it gets to that tiny text mode it hangs. MemTest86+ however worked fine with no memory errors.

By this time I have changed various BIOS settings and disconnected the HDD. Then I remembered high school computer science and the part of where a CPU switches from Real mode (in which it starts) to Virtual mode (386 mode). It seemed to me the machine got stuck at that part so I swapped in the CPU from the donor PC and .... voila! It is now running Windows without issues.

In the 24 years I have been working with computers, this is the first time I have seen a CPU go bad like that. :unsure:
 
Interesting finding. must remember to try that if I encounter a similar issue.
 
Rouxenator said:
I recently got two scrap POS (point of sale, but the other acronym applies too) NCR RealPOS 80XRT computers and after some tinkering I got one running using the best parts of the two. First boot it went into to some kind of Linux and attempted to connect to a Pick'n'Pay server. I loaded Windows 7 Starter on it and after a few reboots it stuck at "Starting Windows". No amount of messing with BIOS settings seemed to help.

Then I loaded Windows 10 Pro on it and after only 1 reboot it stuck at "Starting Windows". Trying to boot from a Windows XP CD it loads all the drivers and hangs at "Starting Windows". Lastly I tried the latest Xubuntu and after a minute of loading, before it gets to that tiny text mode it hangs. MemTest86+ however worked fine with no memory errors.

By this time I have changed various BIOS settings and disconnected the HDD. Then I remembered high school computer science and the part of where a CPU switches from Real mode (in which it starts) to Virtual mode (386 mode). It seemed to me the machine got stuck at that part so I swapped in the CPU from the donor PC and .... voila! It is now running Windows without issues.

In the 24 years I have been working with computers, this is the first time I have seen a CPU go bad like that. :unsure:
Click to expand...

Did the broken CPU have all its pins?
 
What sort of CPU was it? I've had a couple of 775 socket chips fail on me already, so it's not unheard of.
 
I'm not intel guy, AMD all the way for me, but I got these machines for real cheap.

Update : The PC died and behaved like the one I scrapped. I took a bottle brush to the board and it worked again. Tried the same with the scrapped/donor and it came back to life too. However since getting both systems running the original one (with working CPU) stopped booting as it no longer detects RAM. I ordered new RAM and will see how it goes. Other one with what I thought was "bad CPU" works just fine.

I'll say this much, these are the weirdest, dirtiest, quirkiest computers I ever had. Hopefully I can save both as I sold my AM4 200GE and replacement computing power.
 
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