Overclocking

I had an individual come to me last week with a computer that was acting stupid. The problems turned out to be alot of trojans/spyware programs wreaking havoc. NOW, though, the same guy phones me up and said he has noticed that when his computer first starts booting, the cpu speed is reported as 233mhz instead of 350 which I KNOW it should be. Now, I realize that the P2 350s cannot be overclocked, so I cannot just overclock it back to 350. What can I do to correct this problem. ?

I realize the CPU STILL could be running at 350 but there has to be a reason why it is reporting only 233. He also said it is running slower than it should be.

 

P2s can be overclocked, just not as easily as other processors. There should be jumpers on the motherboard that allow you to select the frequency.

Now, I can't imagine why it would suddenly LOSE 100MHz+. These settings are kept at a LOW level. Maybe a jumper came off, or a DIP switch was accidentally flipped. I would check the motherboard's manual and ensure these hardware settings are where they should be.

You could aslo try replacing the CMOS battery. I'm not sure whether it will help or not, but it will stop problems that are soon to surface (if the battery is as old as the CPU), and is a cheap and easy preventive measure to take.

 

Try downloading and running CPU ID - http://www.majorgeeks.com/CPU_ID_d2426.html - and see if Windows is reporting the same problem. It could simply be the Bios misreporting the speed.

 

If the bios IS reporting the wrong speed, that would be indicadive that the motherboard or CMOS battery is dying, wouldn't it?

 

It could be a cool and quiet mode setting. My compaq came with that and because of it was being set at 990 mhz instaid of 1.8 ghz like it was suposed to.

 

Let's do a some simple math here:

A Pentium II 350MHz CPU runs a 100 MHz FSB with a multiplier of 3.5; 100 MHz x 3.5 equals 350 MHz... pretty simple math, right?

A 233MHz CPU runs a 66.7 MHz FSB with a multiplier of 3.5; 66.7 MHz x 3.5 = 233 MHz... again, pretty simple math.

Therefore, the CMOS / BIOS settings have been reset to boot the system at the lower FSB speed of 66.67 MHz, instead of using the 100 MHz FSB setting. This problem is usually caused by a dead/dying CMOS battery; shut the system down, use normal static precautions, and replace the CMOS battery with a new one. Then, reboot the system, and enter the CMOS Setup program (hold down the DEL key during POST, or whatever key the motherboard requires to enter the CMOS). Look through the settings until you find the option to boot with a 100 MHz FSB speed. Change the FSB setting from 66.7 MHz to 100 MHz, then check the time and date settings; they will probably need to be corrected because the CMOS battery has been swapped.

Remember to save your changes when exiting the CMOS. The system should reboot at 350 MHz, and your problem should be resolved.

Good luck; let us know how this turns out.

 

OK, no word yet on how its working (after having the owner of the comp change the CMOS batter) but I know with my p2 350, I can't change the multiplier or FSB to get a speed increase. I fully expect that that will be true for this guy's comp. What do I do if it is the case?

Thanks

 

You raise an interesting point. The Slot 1 motherboards are designed to auto-detect the CPU speed, and adjust the FSB according to the information provided by the CPU. On boards which use Intel chipsets, it is most likely that you won't be able to change those settings. On Slot 1 boards which DON'T use Intel chipsets, or those that don't conform to the Intel standard (the so-called "enthusiast" motherboards, such as some from Abit, Asus, Soyo, or other companies), you might find jumpers, dipswitches, or CMOS settings that CAN be manually altered by the user. That would allow changing the FSB, the CPU multiplier, or both, to make overclocking easier.

My original post was intended to inform you that the change in CPU speed was most likely due to a defective CMOS battery. Changing the battery should have fixed the problem; the board should now detect the settings from the CPU (i.e., it is a 350MHz PII, which requires a FSB of 100 MHz with a 3x multiplier). Those settings should be set AUTOMATICALLY, with no input required from the user.

A friend of mine had one of the enthusiast boards; it was a Soyo SY6BA+IV board. Both the FSB and the CPU multiplier were manually adjustable through the CMOS settings, which made it easy to OC the CPU, provided you had proper cooling for the extra heat...

Bottom line is simply this; changing the CMOS battery should have resolved this problem, so check with the system owner and ask him to check the CPU bootup speed. If the system ISN'T booting at the proper CPU speed, have him download, install, and run Everest Free Edition from here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/EVEREST_Free_Edition_d4181.html

Once he runs it, he can look through Everest to find out which motherboard he has, which chipset it uses, and a lot of other great information about his system. Everest should tell us what we need to know to research the specifics about his particular motherboard; once we locate a copy of the motherboard manual, it should be easy to find out any special steps required to check or reset his motherboard so the system boots at full speed.

Keep us posted; I'd really like to know which motherboard he's using...

 

What OS are we working with?, if xp it could be as simple as wrong settings in power optitions, control panel/power optitions/ set to home/office desk. ed

 

Not sure where you're going with this, tunered; those options you've mentioned have nothing to do with the BOOT-UP speed of the CPU... they are for power-saving modes, mostly to save electricity by turning off the monitor or HDD after they are idle for some period of time.

If you're referring to some power-saving feature on a laptop, such as the Intel "Speedstep" feature, which slows the CPU down when it is running on battery power instead of AC, that is an entirely different feature. The "Cool 'n Quiet" feature mentioned in the reply by link48010 is actually a feature of AMD CPUs, not Intel processors...

The system in question is rather old, and I doubt anyone is actually attempting to use it with WinXP, though you never know... I'm sure it would work, but it wouldn't be very responsive.

Best thing to do now is to wait for the OP to reply with more details...