Is it possible to unlock P4 Cpu?

[mariuski]

I've got a P4 2,8Ghz NW cpu and it's locked!
does anyone know if it is possible, some way, to unlock it for further OC'ing?

if I manage to kill it, I may be able to convince my better half to buy a new mb & cpu, however it would be cool to try and see if it would work even better than it already does!

thanks

 

[Urlyin]

No Intel CPU is unlocked. To overclock it you'll need to raise the FSB ...

Edit: It should say Intel CPU is locked ...

 

[ADV4NCED]

You can overclock it unless you have an Intel motherboard, or unless you have a pc that has been built up by a company ie. A Compaq or Dell pc.

 

[Urlyin]

You can overclock it unless you have an Intel motherboard, or unless you have a pc that has been built up by a company ie. A Compaq or Dell pc.

That's not 100% true ... using SetFSB and CPUCOOL among others can OC Intel boards as well as Compaq or Dell ... OEM ... depends on the PLL chip that it has and if it is supported ...

 

[W1zzard]

the multiplier cant be unlocked on intel cpus .. except when you get an engineering sample from intel .. those come with changeable multi

 

[mariuski]

thanks!

this confirms my experience.
too bad Intel does'nt make their cpu's so that one can hardmod to get it unlocked.

 

[Urlyin]

the multiplier cant be unlocked on intel cpus .. except when you get an engineering sample from intel .. those come with changeable multi

or ... CPU lock free for the Prescott C0 CPU changes multi but not like a ES chip ... bottom line Intel boards and OEM boards by default do not have settings in the BIOS to change defaults speeds. Hence several apps will allow you to manipulate the FSB to increase bus speeds ...

 

[Deleted member 3]

A Xeons MP can be lowered though. And indeed the Prescott with the NX bit can be lowered to some number, not freely changed I believe though. I believe Abit added this to some bioses, and possibly some other companys too.

As for your northwoord, forget it

 

[W1zzard]

asus added it first, abit copied it

 

[Urlyin]

asus added it first, abit copied it

Lowers my 3.2E from 16 to a 2.8E at 14 .... on my ASUS board ... granted I can't oc above 250 with it at 3.2 but with the CPU Lock Free enabled I can hit 290FSB ... nice feature added to an older board that extended it's life in my case for several more months... interesting to see how the Dual Cores will play out .... Intel or AMD ...

 

[15th Warlock]

You can overclock it unless you have an Intel motherboard, or unless you have a pc that has been built up by a company ie. A Compaq or Dell pc.

I have an Intel mobo with the locked PLL Dell uses in most of their mobos, and I had lost hope about OCing it, then I found this out:

Since there are so many people now that own Dell Dimensions of one kind or another due to the different deals that have been offered in the last few months, I figure this could come in handy.

While Dell offers no overclocking options whatsoever in the BIOS and in fact uses a PLL that was supposed to be designed to not modifiable, it turns out that one can still overclock.

Step 1) Check to see if the Dell uses the ICS 952601 PLL. See either:
http://www.podien.onlinehome.de/FSB.HTM
http://mitglied.lycos.de/podien/FSB.HTM
for more information.

Step 2) Download and install cpucool available from:
http://www.podien.onlinehome.de/CPUCOOL.HTM
http://mitglied.lycos.de/podien/CPUCOOL.HTM

Step 3) Run cpucool and go to Functions->Change front side bus/change CPU speed

Step 4) Under PLL manufacturer, pick ICS and under PLL type, choose 952607

Step 5) Click on the Fine tuning button

Step 6) Adjust the Frequency using the buttons at the top and adjust to a reasonable overclock value.

Step 7) Hit Freq Set and the system will be overclocked immeadiately. However, not all programs will register it, but CPU-Z and benchmarks that don't rely on processor cycles will show it.

Step 8) Reboot, and then all programs will recognize the new speeds

http://www.telusplanet.net/~sulee/DellOC.png

This procedure has worked for the Dell 400SC and a Dimension 4600. It should be no different for other Dimensions.

Credit goes to:
http://www.aaltonen.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=572
for figuring out the procedure to overclock.

Note: Since the Dell has no temperature, voltage or fan readings, and I'm not even sure if the motherboard will lock PCI/AGP speeds, you have to be careful with your overclock. And since you can't adjust voltage and memory settings, you probably won't get the large overclocks that are possible with enthusiast level motherboards.

Edit in 2004:

One thing you can do to ensure that the CPU is not overheating is to download CPUMSR from:
http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/html/Download.htm
This utility can monitor the real-time status of the P4/Celeron's throttling mechanism and will indicate if it is exceeding the thermal limit (~72C).


Also, I find that if you shutdown the system for a period of time, it will refuse to boot up when you power-on. Pulling the power plug can and then restarting should enable it to restart without problems.

Edit in 2004: It seems that later BIOS have fixed this problem.

Finally, of course overclocking voids Dell's warranty.

Source:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/arch...hp/t-50627.html

I tried it and pushed my P4 2.8 to 3.1 Ghz, if you have a locked mobo you should try this trick.

 

[ADV4NCED]

Wow that sounds really interesting. So I would be able to use this program for my Intel Motherboard ? And I was wondering about Pci locking or gfx locking or sumthing like that, do u have to lock the slots or sumthing? *sorry*, i dunno much about cpu ocing.

 

[15th Warlock]

Wow that sounds really interesting. So I would be able to use this program for my Intel Motherboard ? And I was wondering about Pci locking or gfx locking or sumthing like that, do u have to lock the slots or sumthing? *sorry*, i dunno much about cpu ocing.

Unfortunately, the PLL in these mobos isn't designed for OCing, so I think it doesn't support locking the PCI/AGP bus clock, because if you OC it too much I get some strage noises from my speakers, and my performance goes down by about 50%, guess it's a question of finding the right FSB speed in which the divider doesn't slows/speeds up your PCI/AGP clock too much.
In my case I found that 142.5 Mhz gives me a good compromise between performance and stability.

 

[oxygen955]

how far have people overclocked?? i have a p4 nw 2.8ghz ht and i have the fsb up to 980.7 which is an overclock to 3432mghz. I can go higher but i start to get stability around 3.6ghz. and right now i have noticed only one degree increase in the idle temperature of the cpu (it's at 51 C)

 

[thegave]

Um. If a PLL is locked (by Dell, for example) does that mean it can't be overclocked/changed, even if the specific PLL is supported by a FSB-setting program?

I have the Cypress CY28405 PLL and I've tried CPUCool and the PLL specific SetFSB and both work and allow me to change the FSB but nothing actually happens in CPUz. Does this mean the thing is locked?

Ta