Using SoftFSB to overclock TP770's

[JESSICA]

Hey Guys,

I read in the upgrade thread that you can use SoftFSB to overclock the TP770's. I haven't been able to make it work so far, does anyone know the PLL or boardname you have to use? I am using windows 2000 with sp1.

Thanks!

[hcomplyr]

Why would you want to overclock a laptop? thats just asking for trouble.

Considering the effective cooling ability from that little heatsink and fan on the processor why would you want to risk torching your CPU? If you want a faster processor upgrade, at least then you won't be running the risk of damaging the laptop for a few Mhz of speed

[Laptop_wizard]

Wow a girl that overclocks laptops, HOW COOL IS THAT!!!
How old are you jessica? and how well do you know laptops?
wow that is totally attractive

[supergoat]

Looks like you have a fan.

Anyway, I tried it on my 770 and while it did indeed work, it wasn't without issues. Everytime I overclocked it, my web browsing slowed to a crawl and other programs had issues opening. If I set it back to factory, it worked like a charm again. I tried many different settings and could never get it to work right.

The moral is: It MAY work, but my machine said "no". I suggest just buying a 400mhz processor for the 770 as they are CHEAP now.

[Laptop_wizard]

Heck yeah man, if i knew her I'd ask her out, or hire her to my business.
Jess-

[JESSICA]

Well I was just considering. I got this 770ED for free and for windows XP and current linux applications and kernel 266 Mhz is alittle slow.

I had thought about getting rid of the 770ED board and using the motherboard from the 770X or Z models because they have a MMC-2 form factor but I have read that the highest Fhz that the BIOS will allow is around 550 Mhz @100 Mhz FSB.

So that would cost :
-30-40 for a 770Z mainboard
-around 40 for 512 MB of PC100 144 pin
-maybe $40 for a 750 Mhz processor that runs at 550 Mhz (not gonna buy a 850 to run at 650 because they cost to much!)

So thats a total of around a $120 at least under this assumtion.

So I was thinking, why not get a 400Mhz MMC-1 that already runs at a FSB of 66Mhz and Overclock it to say since it has a multiplier of
6 * 66 = 400 Mhz

to

6 * 75Mhz = 450 or 6 * 83Mhz = around 500 !

So this way the computer is running at alittle under twice the stock speed and all it would cost is fabricating, tapping, drilling and assembling a new heat sink, some arctic silver heat sink paste, a 3000 rpm fan, and the cost of the 400Mhz MMC-1.

Project cost around $60 (if you already have PC100 128Mb ram)


Supergoat - I'm sure that the problems you were talking about were ram related, ram doesn't like to be overclock much past its rated value. If it was a stablity issue linked to the processor, video card or PCI bus resulting from the overclocking video curruption or freezes or spontanious power downs would have happened. Could you please tell me how you did manage to change the FSB. I have only had the PC open once since I got it and I forgot to look at the clock generator haha
I would really like to try this because I have PC100 ram, If I have to I'll just unsolder the 32MB PC66 under the board...

~Jess~

[JESSICA]

Why would you want to overclock a laptop? thats just asking for trouble.

Considering the effective cooling ability from that little heatsink and fan on the processor why would you want to risk torching your CPU? If you want a faster processor upgrade, at least then you won't be running the risk of damaging the laptop for a few Mhz of speed

I never said I wasn't going to add/mod the heatsink?! I'm guessing you have never opened up the 770 series and seen yourself how much room there actually is for a new heatsink fan combo or just a higher RPM fan that can flow more CMF. Right?

[JESSICA]

Looks like you have a fan.

Anyway, I tried it on my 770 and while it did indeed work, it wasn't without issues. Everytime I overclocked it, my web browsing slowed to a crawl and other programs had issues opening. If I set it back to factory, it worked like a charm again. I tried many different settings and could never get it to work right.

The moral is: It MAY work, but my machine said "no". I suggest just buying a 400mhz processor for the 770 as they are CHEAP now.

were can I get one of the 400 Mhz CPU's?

[JHEM]

have only had the PC open once since I got it and I forgot to look at the clock generator haha
I would really like to try this because I have PC100 ram, If I have to I'll just unsolder the 32MB PC66 under the board...

The "clock" is built into the MMC module, as are the Cache and Northbridge, there's no seperate clock chip on the MB.

Regards,

James

[JHEM]

Where can I get one of the 400 Mhz CPU's?

eBay.

Regards,

James

[JESSICA]

have only had the PC open once since I got it and I forgot to look at the clock generator haha
I would really like to try this because I have PC100 ram, If I have to I'll just unsolder the 32MB PC66 under the board...

The "clock" is built into the MMC module, as are the Cache and Northbridge, there's no seperate clock chip on the MB.

Regards,

James

You don't know who made the clock on the PII 266 or the PLL number do you? I want to experiment with the 266(cooling, stability) and get things right before I buy a 400.

[JHEM]

You don't know who made the clock on the PII 266 or the PLL number do you? I want to experiment with the 266(cooling, stability) and get things right before I buy a 400.

Haven't a clue, although the info might be in here:

ftp://download.intel.com/design/mobile/ ... 366701.pdf

Regards,

James

[Laptop_wizard]

jeeze jessica you really know your stuff, will you marry me
HAHAHAHAHA LOL!!! jk

So that would cost :
-30-40 for a 770Z mainboard
-around 40 for 512 MB of PC100 144 pin
-maybe $40 for a 750 Mhz processor that runs at 550 Mhz (not gonna buy a 850 to run at 650 because they cost to much!)

So thats a total of around a $120 at least under this assumtion.

Jessica, triple those prices and you'll be getting close on ebay + shipping.

On the Fsb this was posted a while back, you can solder a 1k OHM RESISTOR next to the CPU socket the resistor causes a 2mhz X another 4MHz on the FSB capcitor thus 8% increase of FSB FSB being 100MHZ multiplying to 108MHz very stable overclock when combined with the speed step by-pass mod.

keep us posted on what you do.
Regards.

[shined]

The "clock" is built into the MMC module, as are the Cache and Northbridge, there's no seperate clock chip on the MB.

Nope. No module has a base clock generator. Also, CPUs have only
a PLL which works as a clock multiplier. Don't confuse these things.

Talking specifically about a TP-770, the base clock generator is SC671
made by IMI. Of course, it is mounted on a systemboard.

On the Fsb this was posted a while back, you can solder a 1k OHM RESISTOR next to the CPU socket the resistor causes a 2mhz X another 4MHz on the FSB capcitor thus 8% increase of FSB FSB being 100MHZ multiplying to 108MHz very stable overclock when combined with the speed step by-pass mod.

Nope. What you are talking about apply to only TP770X/Z, not Jessica's
vanila TP-770 or 770ED. As you have been pointed out before, you
gotta be more careful in posting any info here.

One more thing. Do not post any comment teasing another person based
on his/her gender. It has an effect of only degrading your reputation.

To Jessica

First please clarify which machine you have got, 770 or 770ED. I'm not
a user of either of these machines, but I heard that softFSB works only
on a vanila TP-770, not on 770ED. Also, your trial for overclocking
using softFSB is basically a gamble. as supergoat says, it may work
on some particular systems but may not work on others. And I expect
the odd for overclocking a PII-400MHz up to 500MHz by changing the FSB
to 75MHz is very low. If you are doing all these things just for fun, go
ahead and let us know the result. I (and some other people out there)
are very curious about your result. But if you are concious about the
total cost for making the most of your TP 770/770ED, I wouldn't do
anything as PII-400MHz MMC-1 is very rare and expensive.

Have fun.

[JESSICA]

shined great information!
I actually have a TP770ED. I couldn't find any information about the IMI SC671 but I am pretty sure that is just 770 specific right?
The 770ED has a different PLL?

Laptop_wizard...so there actually is a way to get the full speed out of a 750 MMC-2 chip? I wasn't aware that there was a speed-step bipass modification, I was under the impression that the 770X and 770Z boards just limited the faster PIII chips to the lower Fhz. Do you have anymore information about bipassing the speedstep and that resistor modification?

[shined]

To Laptop_wizerd,

Let me apologize for "my" carelessness. I didn't realize that Jessica
turned her attention to 770Z system board in her last post. I should have
read the entire thread more carefully. Sorry about that.

To Jessica,

About your first question, I don't know what kind of clock generator is
used in 770ED. I think I heard that it is different from that used in 770,
but could not find any confirming information. You may need to open up
a 770ED and see for yourself.

About your second question, you should take a look at this URL.
http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4046
There are a lot of disscussion going on there for making the most of
TP600E, but most of them also apply to 770X/Z.
The answer is basically yes, there is a way of bypassing the speedstep
limitation to set the CPU core frequency to the higher value. However,
the modification, including both on hardware and software, are intense.
Try to understand completely before proceeding.
Talking about the FSB overclocking on 770X/Z, you may want to see,
http://mav.nifty.com/ahp/textview.cgi?b ... +28067+106
Again, you should remember that these modifications cause a lot of
problems, some of which have not been solved yet, so your success
depends on luck to a gread extent. Be patient in working on your
machine.

[Laptop_wizard]

shined.
i am not teasing i am seriouse.

jess
check this link out it even includes picthures on the bypass mode.
i can provide u with the 2.2k ohm resistor. i never did it, the resistor was 2 big 4 the holes, but mabey you have the right stuff to do it, perhapps try a surface solder
www.xabk.co.uk

[JESSICA]

Awesome information.
I just ended up buying a 770X motherboard and a PIII MMC-2 750 Mhz processor on ebay for $78 !

Now I just have to get the Ram...Do you guys know what kind of Ram the 770X/770Z uses? What I have found says that 320 is the max 2 X 128 and the stock 64, if thats the case I'll just use the 256MB PC100 from the 770ED board I have.

I thought I remember reading that you can use 2 X 256 MB sticks?

Its gonna be nice to be at 800Mhz... although it seems like a waste kind of seeing that the average OC for the PIII 750 is 950Mhz with the majority of the stats at 1 Ghz.

You guys are great

[pkiff]

I do not know what will happen when you try to use the 770X motherboard with all your existing 770ED pieces, if that is what you are trying to do, and I would anticipate some difficulties. In particular, with your video and modem, and possibly also with your USB and PCMCIA ports.

But to answer your question about memory for the 770X/Z: the max memory is 512MB. Several configurations are possible, but any 256MB module you use will need to be "low density" memory, with 16 chips visible on the module itself (8 on each side).

If you use 2x256 with a PIII, then the built-in 64MB chip on the motherboard is disabled apparently since it is 66MHz and the PIII demands 100MHz (never tried this config myself).

You can also swap the 64MB 66MHz motherboard memory with a standard 128MB PC100 chip and then install a second 128MB PC100 chip in one slot and a single 256MB PC100 in the other for a total of 512MB (that is my configuration).

More details of other people's successful configs are available in The official 770 Upgrade and general information Topic stickied at the top of this Forum, and in ThinkPad 770 X/Z Memory matrice ?.

Phil.

[JHEM]

Now I just have to get the Ram...Do you guys know what kind of Ram the 770X/770Z uses?

If you're going to upgrade the MC2 to a 100MHz FSB, then you'll need to replace the stick of PC66 memory on the MB with a 128MB PC100 piece. Then an additional 128MB and a 256MB in the user accessible slots will give you the max RAM for the unit, 512MB.

I've never heard of anyone breaking the 512MB limit on the 770X/Z MB and lord knows I've tried! The problem is that two of the memory slots are shared, not discrete.

Regards,

James

[JaneL]

jeeze jessica you really know your stuff, will you marry me
HAHAHAHAHA LOL!!! jk

This is not a dating forum. Back it down a notch.