What are the correct switch settings for the motherboard (Gigabyte GA
5SMM) in a Compaq Presario 5461 (Series CMD204) with an internal
CD-RW/3.5" disk drive? I have the list of switches and possible
settings from the HP website but I'm clueless about deciphering what
setting to use for each variable.

Bizzyb-ga,

According to the Compaq documentation, your Presario 5461 comes
with an AMD K6-II 500 Mhz processor.  According to the AMD
documentation, this processor's core voltage is 2.2v.  Therefore,
your switch settings would have to be as follows:

Switch 1
1 On
2 On
3 Off
4 Off

Switch 2
1 Off
2 On
3 On
4 Off
5 On
6 Off
7 Off
8 Off

The value corresponding to switch 1 (100 Mhz for the CPU in this
case) multiplied times the value corresponding to positions 1-3 of
switch 2 (5 in this case) must equal the processor speed (500
Mhz).  Positions 4-8 of switch 2 determine the voltage the
processor core sees (2.2 volts here).


Additional Links:

Information on the processor voltage:
http://www3pub.amd.com/products/cpg/tips.html

Gigabyte's manual for the GA-5SMM motherboard:
http://tw.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/Manual/Manual_GA-5SMM.htm

Technical documentation on the AMD K6-II processors:
(Note: This is a 5.7Mb, 330 page document.)
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/21850.pdf

The PC Guide is an excellent reference for people wanting (or
needing) to tinker with the internals of their PC:
http://www.pcguide.com/


Search Strategy:

Google Search:
ga-5smm manual
://www.google.com/search?q=ga-5smm+manual

Google Search:
amd k6-2 processor voltage
://www.google.com/search?q=amd+k6-2+processor+voltage&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N


I hope this helps.  Please feel free to ask for clarification if
you need it.

Best regards,
bikerman