M15x FSB Overclocking (not only 920XM!)

I literally tried a good 50%+ of the clock gens in there. I worked with Abo for 2 days on different recommendations, I think all it comes down to is a TME locked PLL, which if I understood Abo correctly requires a physical pinmod to change. So basically from my understanding it's a pure no go on overclocking with SetFSB unless you want to pop open your laptop and void your warranty

 

Aww, oh well.. worth a try..

 

SetFSB works on mine.

Not sure about multiplier what needs to be done. I have a 720QM ES on a M15x.

CPU-Z Validator 3.1

 

Congrats sroghen! The multiplier is lower because you're probably in stealth mode, the multiplier cannot be changed manually on anything other than the 920/940xm chips but stealth mode will automatically downclock the cpu which is what looks like is happening.

On a side note if any of the people running an i5 that can successfully use SetFSB can pm me so I can ask some questions I would greatly appreciate it. I know that the numbers can be changed manually but I need to do some comparisons at different levels of the register settings to try to find a way to make the other pll work. Thanks!

 

Im thinking of doing this in the next few days but not sure
im not into much but i do like power what will i notice if i do overclock and this does work
i have the 720 thanks

 

Dont think its the stealth mode. I pressed on the stealth switch and multiplier went down to x3.

I notice if there is a lot of activity on my machine, the multiplier can go upto x20 but always default to x7.

Anything else I should be doing?

 

Have you tried using throttle stop to lock the multiplier and to make sure there isn't any throttling occurring? Also make sure you monitor your temps as the OC will cause them to go up by at least 5-10 degrees. The only reason I thought your stealth mode may be on was in that screen shot you were only at like 1ghz with that OC when in reality you should probably be at like 1.8-1.9ghz with all cores active.

 

With TrottleStop, I can only Set Multiplier to 13.
CPU-Z reports multiplier as 7, which bursts every now and then upto 20 but always come down to 7.
I am not sure what I am doing wrong here or perhaps just the ES CPU not quite up for it??

 

make sure your power profile is high performance, or balanced

no worries, it's normal to sit at 7 and clocks up when it's being used..

If you are running a full-on intensive cpu task and it's still at 7 then maybe you're in low power mode?? (stealth doesn't affect the cpu in my experience, just the gpu).

Even using throttlestop to lock the cpu at 13 doesn't actually do so. It seems to improve performance, but will usually sit between 7 and 12 until something happens that uses the cpu intensively..

There are a few tidbits of information through this thread, it's worth going through it if you can be bothered

 

It does go up as there is activity on my machine, so I guess all is well.
Next part of my research how to make this overclock permanent, even after reboot....

 

You're lucky Mr Pras my i5's multiplier drops significantly when stealth mode is enabled!

 

Hmm, mine stays after a reboot!! Not when I switch off though but when I restart it's still overclocked To be honest, if you really want to you can use the command line options (added to the first post) and put a shortcut in your startup folder. Easy enough

Really!? perhaps it's cos I leave my machine in high-perf profile all the time?

 

Mine is in high performance all the time, stealth mode is designed to downclock both the cpu and gpu and also lower the power draw. If your computer isnt downclocking it then something is up, do you use command center and OSD?

 

Mine defintely downclocked when I went on stealth mode

 

but when putting in steath mode does it also take the speed and lower it ??

 

Stealth mode lowers the clocks of the cpu by lowering and locking the multiplier it also reduces the wattage draw so the battery lasts longer. Stealth mode also lowers the gpu's clocks to 100/150 at idle and 2d and then 300/400 at 3d or full load, it reduces the wattage draw of the gpu as well. Basically it takes the whole machine and turns down the clocks on everything to reduce power consumption and reduces the power draw to further reduce power consumption. I've found a way to eliminate that reduction but it kills battery life.

 

can u tell me the way to eliminate it . I wonder y dont they just make stealth mode can use in battery mode and the machine dont auto down clock itself.

 

Perhaps it's something to do with the CPU.. Mines a 720QM and definitely doesn't downclock in stealth mode.

I use stealth mode as a GPU cap only. I could be wrong however, but I've never seen anything that makes me think the CPU is downclocking (and I commonly run a range of monitoring utilities in the background to observe this kind of thing)..

Curious that for some it's clearly downclocking - is it based on CPU? a lot of people discussing haven't put their configuration in their sig.. Perhaps that would shed some light?

Greetings

 

Part of the problem is that people are using software that does not accurately report what the CPU is up to when lightly loaded or at idle. Here's a quote from the programmer of CPU-Z:

The programmer of CPU-Z has decided to report a high multiplier at idle for validation purposes but that does not always accurately tell you what the CPU is really doing.

Unless you do a registry mod, Core i CPUs are designed to down clock automatically.

If ThrottleStop shows the average multiplier at idle fluctuating rapidly between 7 and 12 then your CPU is down clocking. TS uses the Intel recommended method as outlined in their November 2008 Turbo White Paper.

The Core i7 with a separate GPU are power hungry. Down clocking helps keep the battery safe.

 

Yes Unclewebb, you are right.. What I meant to say is that my CPU doesn't throttle.. Yes it always pops down to 7x when not in use, and that is the case whether steal mode is on or not.

I use a registry hack to disable core parking.

I just meant to say that there is no noticeable or even measurable difference as far as I can see (using tmonitor and perfmon) between stealth and non stealth on my machine (in terms of the CPU).. It strictly only seems to affect the GPU.

Thanks for clarifying

 

I've looked through this thread and I have yet to notice anyone with an 820/840QM processor (the latter of which I have) who has been successful in OC'ing their processor.
Anybody succeeded out there? And if so how?

 

According to the poll some users were successful at this task... I recommend giving it a try if you really need it. setFSB won't set you back more than 5 bucks.
However, you can't adjust the TDP/TDC turbo limits, so your overclock will be very limited as far as I see this. A good airflow under your AW may help...

 

if you just got your laptop chances are motherboard is not compatible....but just go through the process and if it does not work ABO will give you a refund. It is not the processor that determines setfsb compatibility but the motherboard it self

 

Just added some 160MHz scores at the beginning (the everest benches). The ram is running fine at 1600MHz but probably if I had 1600MHz ram installed I'd be happier

 

Hey guys, got some good news! I have the 820QM and was one of those for whom SetFSB did not work but that appears to have changed Abo asked me to try a test version of SetFSB and it worked

Default:


Lowered to 130:


Raised to 135:


So, does anyone know what O/C settings are safe for a 820 CPU?

 

Wow, that's GREAT NEWS!!!

Does that mean that all who had a motherboard that didn't work previously now works!??

Regarding the max overclock - the worst I've had is a reboot/freeze from too-high an overclock so although I wouldn't recommend pushing it too far - I guess it's a matter of testing the water

For me, running the FSB at 150MHz (with RAM running at 1500MHz) is stable and I've had virtually no crashes at this rate. I imagine it varies with each machine. The CPU already manages itself regarding power and thermal envelope so I think as long as the FSB is stable it will go as high as it feels like. In my experience the CPU never got too hot or crashed out when I forced one thread to full speed (in my case it was just over 3200MHz - 20x Mult - I got out of it with 160MHz FSB).

 

Not certain if it's going to work for other CPU's but since it seemed to be PLL/motherboard based I'd say they have a good chance. Fingers crossed

 

Got the same email from Abo. The new clock generator works to activate SetFSB, but I can't do much with it so far. Can increase to 562/760 (1783MHz) for a very mild o/c, but at 570+ it locks up tight, requiring a hard reboot. Need to play with it some more, but might be a "close but no cigar" deal. Let me know if you discover any secret to make it work the way it's working with the 720's.

 

Hi. Got an email from ABO. Suggested a new clock generator for me:

From ABO:

Could you check whether ICS9LRS3197AKLF works correctly?
1) start SetFSB 2.3.162.128c.
2) select the clock generator to ICS9LRS3197AKLF.

Result:

Tried clocking it at 140/145/150Mhz resulted into FREEZE/HANG. Fail.

Waiting for reply from ABO.

Any luck with the 720s?

Just an update. Did a slight OC like smigget from 133 to 135 @ 2810 Mhz. It works and stable SO FAR. Will do more testing.

Note: At 137, cursor starts to jump/hangs. At 140, i get a black screen. Reboot. Fail.

 

At 562/760 (137.2MHz) it seems to work. At 564/760 (137.x?), BSOD or freeze.

 

Ok.. this makes no sense. We get a higher score with turbo. So... I tried it myself. Anything past 137 it freezes... What is up with that? I wonder if it's the ram speed or something. Going to adjust ram speed in bios If I can and see what happens.

StevenX

Well, my FSB limit seems to be 137 and I have no idea why. I changed my ram settings and found out the hard way that the Dell ram doesn't like 1.6 volts. Patriot is fine with it. Lowered ram speed, raised ram speed. Makes no difference. 137 fsb is my limit and it's driving me nuts.

Trying now to mix some solutions with throttle stop to see what can be done here. Best wishes, StevenX

 

Aww, that sounds weird.. If I try to overclock so mildly it also hangs.. But when I go to 150MHz it's fine (which is around 15% and quite extreme).

Sometimes it just hangs outright - black screen - in which case I reboot and try again and it works..

Things I avoid when overclocking:

Running anything that uses cpu - i mean don't compress, encode, play a game etc - obviously
Saving anything or running any disk activity (since a hard crash is likely)
Breathing - yeah I hold my breath every time since sometimes it really does just black-out even if the settings normally work.

I'm surprised that my FSB has no worries at 150MHz but yours does?!

 

Ok.. i have tried 150 and many different settings below it. Again my max seems to be 137. Why so low? Is their another setting in the pll that allows for more voltage or something that we can program ourselves? We should easily be able to hit 150 without issue. It's not my mem as I lowered the speed and then even removed the mem from dell that's less robust than aftermarket. Still no go. Our numbers are different than Mr Pras but I wonder... Do we have to go in certain increments or something?

Best wishes,

Steven Owens

 

Do any of u run a cpu overclock and gpu overclock at the same time? I was thinking of overclocking my 720qm but i already run a overclock on my 260m

 

Yes.. I tried 137 fsb plus vid oc 750/1000 and was stable for 30 minutes on dc universe.

I am seriously wondering what is causing us all to hang at 137. This is ridiculous. StevenX

 

Check my sig, yeah I run both without issue

EDIT: Having said that, Those are extreme settings in the sig. I normally run at 150MHz CPU (not 160) and 640/1000/1600 GPU - for me, those are safer overclocks. Also remember that you shouldn't run overclocked all the time. I only do it when I need the extra performance (when gaming for example).

I imagine that if we have different clock generators then we have different revisions of the MoBo and therefore the tolerances to overclocks should be, er, different (3 times in the same sentence, shame on me!).

If you've tried new ram and overvolting the ram, then it must be a FSB tolerance issue I guess..

BTW my standard Dell ram manages 1600Mhz strangely, without overvolting.

 

I read this forum a while ago and figured out that apparently you have to pay this guy in some foreign country in order to use the set fsb program or something??? did anybody here not pay some guy in a foreign country in order to overclock their processor? it sounds like an interesting prospect but i just dont feel like paying some guy in a foreign country unfortunately .

 

Everything you buy involves paying someone in a "foreign country" these days (Crysis was made in Germany, Nintendo is Japanese and iPhones are made in China)

Abo is a good guy and we are all here from different countries.

If you don't like that, I guess overclocking your device is out of the question since Abo is the only guy making such a software.

Maybe give the money to a friend and get him/her to make the payment?

 

Anyone else with a 720 or 820 try this yet? If so how far do you get? (With the new ICS pll that abo released?)

Thanks StevenX

 

Sweet I'll have to let you guys know what kinda results i get. In the process of getting my activation key right now

 

The highest I can get is 139.2 (default is 133.3) and I gotta go in small increments to get it there. To be safe I usually raise it just 1Mhz at a time and when I get to 137.2 I use even smaller jumps. Don't know if it's affecting it but I badly need to reinstall windows, it's been running like a dog for a while and does some pretty random stuff. I hoping it'll be a bit more stable with a clean install.

At 139.2 I get about an extra 300 points in 3DMark Vantage.

 

yeah i managed to push it to 147 but any higher and it just turns to a stone.

 

147 is pretty good!

 

@Craig - do you have Dell Ram or aftermarket? What ram settings are you utilizing? Was the I7-720qm aftermarket or Dell?

Thanks!

StevenX

 

Both the ram and i7 are stock from dell and tbh I've not thought about changing the ram settings until you mentioned it! Not at my laptop atm but ill check what their set to and let you know.

My 5850 was at stock clocks at the time also.

 

: ( abo says there is a problem with the clock generator ICS9LRS3197AKLF... was really looking forward to oc'ing my cpu. He refunded my donation to good guy.

 

Soo... I just got my key from Abo and he told me to use the ASUS N61JQ clock gen.

I have a 920xm (ES) so I don't really need SetFSB as long as there's Throttlestop... I know ...but I just wanted to play around a bit and see what I got when combining these two tools.

I haven't tested a lot so far... the first time used it I set it to 140MHz (I thought hit or miss! ) and it worked. Throttlestop reported the change almost immediately.

Then I run a wPrime test (32M, 8 threads) with TS on and SetFSB on 140, result was 7.38 seconds, new personal record, lol.

Then I tired to set the PLL to 150MHz and the system BSODed instantly.


Reboot, SetFSB to 140MHz again, worked fine like before but BSOD when I opened TS... the first time I had TS already running, don't know maybe this somehow caused the crash.

However, I'll try to push it a bit further later this evening or tomorrow and I'll let you know about the results.

 

@m15xfanboy - did Abo say he was going to continue to work on it?

 

he said he isn't able to support it and asked if i still wanted an activation key or if i would like a refund. not sure if he is still trying to find a solution hope he is.

 

that's his standard answer when he doesn't know or is researching and he gets pissed when you ask him further. That was my mistake last time...

Oh well.. I guess I can use my version for now and get what I can out of it.

StevenX