What the.... OCer look here

[RolandC]

WTF... ok ok, I'm not that techincal in comps so this may just be a stupid question but i recently bought a new comp, P4 2.66 and a GA-8SQ800 Ultra. Me and my friend (who assembled the comp with me) were just running thru the usual, you know installing office and windows, etc. when suddenly the POST said "Pentium 4 2.00GHZ (15*133)" upon futher inspection after it, successfully booted into windows (1st try), in the windows system tab it said "Intel Pentium 2.66 -one line down- 2.00GHZ" wtf?? this was getting really strange. nethier me or my friend had encounted this problem before, prior to this i've never built comps before but he builds them for a living.
But wait there's more! me and my friend went into the motherboard's award bios and CHANGED THE MULTIPLIER to 20X and after that?? 2.66GHZ no probs?? I've even comfirmed the speed and model with CPU-Z. my friend told me that "it's probably just your motherboard's bios has special abilities" but every thing else i've read tells me that the P4s IGNORE any multipier command the motherboard gives it. So then how can this be? am i just wrong? Could my friend be right??
the only other lead of got on it is that my friend is the general manager of a wholesale chain (it's won't be good for his companies image if i released the chain's name because selling to me could quallify as "direct to public" not something a wholesaler is meant to do and so therefore i won't). he is the one that sold me the P4, it was an Ex-demo model. could it then mean that they specially unlocked the mutiplier for this model?

Look I don't know much about this stuff so i'm asking for your help. any advice you can give me will be appricated.
Thx in advance

 

[vk2amv]

I would say you just had the BUS speeds screwed up somehow. 20X 100 = 2.0gighz 20x 133 = 2.66Gighz. The FSB of the P4 2.66gighz is supposed to be 133Mhz but I say you had it running at 100Mhz which equaled 2.0gighz.
AREA_51

'It's only when you look at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames'

 

[RolandC]

I'm pretty sure that it wasn't the case... however, as i said in the first post, i'm no comp expert so i'm not going to say for certian. I'm pretty sure it said "15X133" in the POST but then again...
Can I just confirm though that the factory default for the P4s have locked thier multipliers and that what my friend said about that "special motherboard bios" is not correct.
...let's start somewhere we can all agree on and are sure about

 

[vk2amv]

Well unless you have an engineering sample (Extreamily unlikely) or a fluke (Also extreamily unlikely) then I can safely say the multiplyer on that CPU is locked and the BIOS cant override it.
AREA_51

'It's only when you look at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames'

 

[TKH]

it seems that it's the fsb/multiplier problem. in windows tab it told you the Intel Pentium IV 2.66GHz @2.0GHz I think the first one is the CPU ID name, the 2.0GHz is the real clock speed. Try to run WCPUID and you should gather enough info on this. If possible post your WCPUID result on here. The "special motherboard bios" would be extremely impossible. I'm not saying your friend is not an expert but not every computer retailer knows computer well. I remember when I went to a large computer company in Melbourne and I asked about the price of Athlon XP 2600+ and 2700+, the so called "manager" told me that:
there is only 2600+ available and no such thing called 2700+, 2700+ is an special edition of Athlon MP which only for server... WTF.

You never know how stupid you are until you have done something stupid enough for you to realize it.
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=22996" target="_new">My System Rig</A>

 

[Teq]

Two possibilities spring immediately to mind...

1) An error setting the BIOS that went unnoticed for some time.

2) The CPU was getting hot from being heavily used during the installs and throttled itself back to keep cooler. (P4s do that)

Most OS installers really pound a CPU. The normal "idle process" you see in either WinTop (9x) or Task Manager (nt,2k,xp) is not running and the cpu can be looping at 100% load waiting for disks, keyboard, mouse etc.



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[RolandC]

ok - here's the pics

http://www.asusboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=407929#post407929

and no i set them both using the Bios

The max setting for the multiplier is 20X (normal speed)
Perhapes with Bigtoes Bios mod i could raise that higher...(unlikely as i doubt he designed for this cercumstance and i can't download it anyway since i just upgraded my bios like 3hrs ago and it is the newest one F6c)
perhapes this is just a normal measure the Intel put in to allow people to prolong thier cpu life but if the mulpliers are locked...

man WTF??

 

[RolandC]

I've posted another pic at the above address with some more details about this problem that has now turned into an apparent advantage- see my 3rd post there for more details. I would go to 200fsb (800QDR FSB) but unfortunetly i only have DDR333 Ram (WTF were you thinking Roland!??! Yeah well, I know and i'm asking myself the same question right about now...). As some of you will no doubt realise, a 200fsb will allow me to run dual channel DDR400 at it's full theortical effiency.
refer to http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=1806&p=2 for more details.

oh and i thought it be good to include the URL of the forum wher i put my pictures- http://www.asusboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=407929<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by RolandC on 04/21/03 08:50 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[FUGGER]

In one of those screen shots you have a 2.66 ES chip with unlocked multipliers.

Sadly you have a suck motherboard for overclocking to the potential of what that CPU can do. Might I suggest a canterwood or a springdale motherboard that has memory clock gens that can breach 200FSB with ease and setting that ES chip to its lowest multiple.

Grats

<b>"Granted I dont own a P4. But I read enough stuff and waste enough time on forums newsgroups IRC and computer news sites that I proberly know more then if I DID own a P4." -vk2amv</b>

 

[RolandC]

ES chips?? i never knew they exsisted?!?!
oh well thx. good to finally know that it isn't just because all my system's programs have gone pycho and just decide to record all different impossible stuff.

well, i'm going to drop down to the shop for a new M/B or RAM stick... when i have the money

once again Thx for the advice!

 

[bikeman]

I guess ES stands for Engineering Sample. If I were you, and if I needed money, just sell the ES-chip (people are willing to pay a lot, I think), and buy a normal one instead. You might be capable do make some profit out of it ...

Greetz,
Bikeman

<i>Then again, that's just my opinion</i>