Managing Pentium-M Speed/Voltage with software (temp sticky)

[JohnT]

Prime95 is supposed to be the ultimate tool.
I just used the second option in Torture test, which is in-place large FFT. The reason is that our modification to the system is only the processor, e.g., we are not overclocking FSB. However, the third one (Blend) might worth it but I am not sure about whether the lowered voltage will affect memory access.

To set your computer at a specific combination, you need to put that combination in the first one of the voltage list and check the option "use only multiplier #1 and voltage #1". What I did is to start to put the combinations from the 2nd one of the list and put the one I want to test at the 1st. The list can tolerate duplicated items so each time you change the 1st you don't have to change anything below.

Any good testing programs for stablity guys? (HotCPU Tester is a so so choice for me, and Prime95 is too much confusing options). Also, how can I set my computer to only be at a certain clock to test my new voltage/multiplyer

[xcrunner51]

my final voltages are looking to be:

6x - 0.700V
8x - 0.748V
10x - 0.796V
12x - 0.860V
14x - 0.940V
16x - 1.020V
18x - 1.100V

on my 15in T42 P-M 745. Do you think that arctic silver would allow me to lower the voltages for the upper multipliers? they sorta jumped way up compared to the lower incremental multipliers

[epigram]

for banias 1.6ghz, t41:

6x -> 0.796v
16x -> 1.244v

still testing the intermediate voltages...

[stuffinder]

I just thought I should mention something that happened to me while using CHC 1.8.2 with a week and a half old 2379-DXU. (T42 1.7Mhz.)
After an initial installation and test of the program I liked it so well that I set it to load on startup. I then decided to play around with lowering the Voltages for lower temp/higher battery life. I lowered each of the available voltages by one increment. It ran through it's test routine and everything tested fine. Shortly thereafter the machine crashed with the dread BSOD. A reboot would start and the machine would run until it opened CHC and then it would crash again! I could see no way to change the start up options as it would crash before I could run MSCONFIG!
Since I'd been playing around with a lot of other stuff I decided to do a fresh re-install from the IBM recovery partition. The machine is now up and running fine now. I've re-installed CHC but haven't had the nerve to start messing with the voltages again!

[JohnT]

It's suggested to use prime95 to do a thorough test. Also, you can boot your windows into Safe Mode which will not start any user-installed program and then use msconfig to change to startup option.

To boot windows into safe mode, you can press F8 just at the beginning of the windows boot procedure before the windows logo comes up.

I just thought I should mention something that happened to me while using CHC 1.8.2 with a week and a half old 2379-DXU. (T42 1.7Mhz.)
After an initial installation and test of the program I liked it so well that I set it to load on startup. I then decided to play around with lowering the Voltages for lower temp/higher battery life. I lowered each of the available voltages by one increment. It ran through it's test routine and everything tested fine. Shortly thereafter the machine crashed with the dread BSOD. A reboot would start and the machine would run until it opened CHC and then it would crash again! I could see no way to change the start up options as it would crash before I could run MSCONFIG!
Since I'd been playing around with a lot of other stuff I decided to do a fresh re-install from the IBM recovery partition. The machine is now up and running fine now. I've re-installed CHC but haven't had the nerve to start messing with the voltages again!

[vliou]

I just thought I should mention something that happened to me while using CHC 1.8.2 with a week and a half old 2379-DXU. (T42 1.7Mhz.)
After an initial installation and test of the program I liked it so well that I set it to load on startup. I then decided to play around with lowering the Voltages for lower temp/higher battery life. I lowered each of the available voltages by one increment. It ran through it's test routine and everything tested fine. Shortly thereafter the machine crashed with the dread BSOD. A reboot would start and the machine would run until it opened CHC and then it would crash again! I could see no way to change the start up options as it would crash before I could run MSCONFIG!
Since I'd been playing around with a lot of other stuff I decided to do a fresh re-install from the IBM recovery partition. The machine is now up and running fine now. I've re-installed CHC but haven't had the nerve to start messing with the voltages again!

Happened to me once. What you got to do is after logging in, press control+alt+delete and then find chc in there, and then end process. Then go to c:\programs and find the program folder of CHC. Then go open up the settings file and then find the setting that includes cpu settings. Change them to what they were, click save, and then open CHC again.

[vliou]

Like another user said before earlier, I WISH THERE was "somebody" here who could write a prog that could control fan speed and on and off functions (like that dell dude)

[stalin]

Like another user said before earlier, I WISH THERE was "somebody" here who could write a prog that could control fan speed and on and off functions (like that dell dude)

It looks very much like this dude will be me... can't do anything about my noisy fan, it makes me insane. If IBM doesn't come up with the patch the next month, there will be an open source thinkpad fan control utility... u got my word on it.

--
Regards,
Dmitry

[JHaislet]

That's awesome news! Keep us informed if you decide to write one, as I'm sure there are a lot of folks here who could give you a hand.

[Scorpiontico]

Like another user said before earlier, I WISH THERE was "somebody" here who could write a prog that could control fan speed and on and off functions (like that dell dude)

It looks very much like this dude will be me... can't do anything about my noisy fan, it makes me insane. If IBM doesn't come up with the patch the next month, there will be an open source thinkpad fan control utility... u got my word on it.

--
Regards,
Dmitry

sounds amazing, we'll be waiting... thanks in advance...you rock! (a bit of motivation )

[Aristotle11]

Dmitry,

I'm with you man! That fan is annoying. Good luck on any fan-control project. A large multitude of thinkpad owners would be behind you!

Aris

Like another user said before earlier, I WISH THERE was "somebody" here who could write a prog that could control fan speed and on and off functions (like that dell dude)

It looks very much like this dude will be me... can't do anything about my noisy fan, it makes me insane. If IBM doesn't come up with the patch the next month, there will be an open source thinkpad fan control utility... u got my word on it.

--
Regards,
Dmitry

[nirvana0001]

here are the voltages for my sonoma 770 2.13ghz
6x - 0.700v
8x - 0.748v
10x - 0.796v
12x - 0.892v
14x - 0.972v
16x - 1.068v

They are the lowest voltages that i can get after the system freezing like a thoudand times through the testing.

And i am wondering if somebody can tell me why people don't use 7x, 9x, 11x, 13x and 15x?

[Navck]

Any Somnoma (Spelling) voltages? (1.86GHz preferablly)

[nirvana0001]

Any Somnoma (Spelling) voltages? (1.86GHz preferablly)

the result that i showed are sonoma cpu

[nirvana0001]

when i run the prime95 with CHC, it said:

----------------------------------
hardware failiure detected, consult stress.txt file.
Execution halted.
----------------------------------

But if i run the prime95 without CHC, everthing is cool.
So is that mean i set my voltages too low?

[Navck]

6x @ .700 Volts? Is that stable? (I'm slightly frightened by that voltage!)

[nirvana0001]

6x is stable, but 12x, 14x and 16x are not, i am trying to fix it.

[Navck]

14x - 1.004 is not stable for me.

[nirvana0001]

I saw the CHC 1.8.2 can make the graphic over-clock, my card is v3200, what clock should I set it at?

[zelchenko]

MY CPU had been running at 63C (running nothing but Winamp and Einstein@Home/BOINC). I installed CHC and used JohnT's voltage settings, set custom dynamic switching to a maximum of 10x (I can always right-click on the tray and change to max-performance on demand). I'm now averaging 42C. This is on a 2379-DXU.

I also noticed that ambient temperature has little or no effect on my results. I don't have air conditioning and ambient temperature has varied from 69F to 85F several times over the past few days and my CPU temp seems to remain constant.

Edit: I also underclocked the GPU to 108/108.

[zelchenko]

I just realized that the "Max Performance" setting doesn't function the way I would expect it to. It doesn't override the custom dynamic switching "max multiplier" setting. So, if I need to run at full speed, I need to go in and change the "max multiplier" manually. Somewhat annoying, but if I don't need it very often, I'll still live with it.

[Aristotle11]

To answer some questions:
1. If prime95 detects a problem at that voltage, your voltage is too low. Turn it up a notch and try again. Repeat as necessary until you get no problems. (NB: The CHC stability test program is usless compared to prime95.) When you don't run CHC, your voltages go way up to the Intel defaults, which are stable but hotter and waste battery life.
2. Individual processors vary widely. Some are stable at 10X, 0.796v (like mine), some require much more voltage. It's pretty random which voltages work on your particular processor. Nevertheless, whatever voltage you find works, it will be far lower that the Intel default voltage, and will save you a lot of heat and battery life.

A question:
What GPU do you have? The 64 MB 9600? Your GPU to 108/108 underclock is way lower than what I can do with my 32MB 7500 at 160/158.

Best,
Aris

when i run the prime95 with CHC, it said:

----------------------------------
hardware failiure detected, consult stress.txt file.
Execution halted.
----------------------------------

But if i run the prime95 without CHC, everthing is cool.
So is that mean i set my voltages too low?

[kaplanfx]

Edit: I also underclocked the GPU to 108/108.

What program are you using to underclock the card? I'm using atitool, but I wish it could detect that I was on battery and automatically clock down to 108. Powerplay only takes it down to like 115/130 or something like that (I'm at work now so I can't check).

-kaplanfx

[zelchenko]

What program are you using to underclock the card? I'm using atitool, but I wish it could detect that I was on battery and automatically clock down to 108. Powerplay only takes it down to like 115/130 or something like that (I'm at work now so I can't check).
-kaplanfx

I'm using the Graphics tab in CHC 1.8.2. CHC has an autoclock feature on the Graphics tab based on idle-time, but beyond that you'd have to suggest the battery-detection feature to CHC's author.

I have the ATI 9600. I cannot positively say that 108/108 is stable as I am not using my T42 heavily at this time.

[nirvana0001]

A question:
What GPU do you have? The 64 MB 9600? Your GPU to 108/108 underclock is way lower than what I can do with my 32MB 7500 at 160/158.

my GPU is v3200
and how can i know if the prime95 finished the test or not?

[juancferrer]

T42 Pentium-M 735(1.7ghz)

6x - .700v
12x - .844v
17x - 1.052v

[nirvana0001]

Here are my final result for sonoma 770 2.13ghz

6x - 0.700v
8x - 0.748v
9x - 0.780v
10x - 0.828v
11x - 0.876v
12x - 0.908v
14x - 1.004v
16x - 1.116v

I ran each multiplier on Prime95 at least 2 hours without any error. Hopefully they are work for you too.

[Scorpiontico]

on what setting should i run prime95, blend large or small ffts?

in order to test my cpu multipler voltage settings...am i the only one thinkpad owner who has a 2ghz sonoma cpu, i wonder why uh!.

thanks.

ps:just in case of other 2ghz sonoma cpu owners please post your voltage settings.

*also in the centrino hardware control program i only get from 6x to 15x multipliers for my 2ghz sonoma cpu, why? i mean others with lower cpu clock speeds get more multipliers in chc*

[kaplanfx]

*also in the centrino hardware control program i only get from 6x to 15x multipliers for my 2ghz sonoma cpu, why? i mean others with lower cpu clock speeds get more multipliers in chc*

clockspeed is the multiplier times the front side bus speed. In your case the highest multiplier is 15 because 15x133 = 2000 or 2ghz. The 133 is slightly misleading as the bus is "quad pumped" meaning the effective bus speed is 4 times the listed speed i.e 133x4 or approx. 533Mhz which is the stated speed for the sonoma platform. Those of us with Dothan cpu's may have higher multipliers (like 18 in my case) but we have a slower bus in our platform, just 400mhz which gives us a real world bus of 400/4 or 100Mhz, so with a multiplier of 18 and a bus speed of 100 I have 18x100 = 1800Mhz or 1.8Ghz max effective speed. Hope this helps.

-kaplanfx

[Scorpiontico]

ohh i see thanks so much, you rock dude!

*also in the centrino hardware control program i only get from 6x to 15x multipliers for my 2ghz sonoma cpu, why? i mean others with lower cpu clock speeds get more multipliers in chc*

clockspeed is the multiplier times the front side bus speed. In your case the highest multiplier is 15 because 15x133 = 2000 or 2ghz. The 133 is slightly misleading as the bus is "quad pumped" meaning the effective bus speed is 4 times the listed speed i.e 133x4 or approx. 533Mhz which is the stated speed for the sonoma platform. Those of us with Dothan cpu's may have higher multipliers (like 18 in my case) but we have a slower bus in our platform, just 400mhz which gives us a real world bus of 400/4 or 100Mhz, so with a multiplier of 18 and a bus speed of 100 I have 18x100 = 1800Mhz or 1.8Ghz max effective speed. Hope this helps.

-kaplanfx