XP-M 2600+ and 8RDA3+, locked multiplier?

[Montrey]

Forgive me if I'm reiterating an old topic that I may have missed when searching...

I bought a mobile 2600+ from newegg the other day, which I love, got it up to 2.9ghz (232*12.5) @ 2.0 volts on air, but running nice and cool at 2.5ghz @ 1.7 volts, 41 degrees idle with a fan like a hair dryer. From what I gather, the mobile CPUs are supposed to have an unlocked multiplier, but for some reason on my board/cpu this is not the case. I can't push it past 12.5x at all, and wasn't able to on my t-bred 1800+ either. This is kinda screwy, I think, since the 2600+ is supposed to have a higher multiplier than 12.5 by default... Are there any weird exceptions to this that I don't know about? My board is revision 2.0, the CPU is family 6, ext. family 7, model A, ext. model A, stepping 0.

 

[Montrey]

bump

 

[rogue1979]

The default multiplier for the 2600+ M is lower than 12.5X

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: rogue1979
The default multiplier for the 2600+ M is lower than 12.5X

No, don't think so. Since it's default FSB is 133, the default multi is higher than 14 (it's a 14 multi for M 2500+).


The OP's problem prolly rests with his mobo. He needs to find some confirmation on the range of multi's his mobo offers. And if it indeed tops out at 12.5, look for some new or modded bios that allows for a higher range.

Fern

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: Fern
The OP's problem prolly rests with his mobo. He needs to find some confirmation on the range of multi's his mobo offers. And if it indeed tops out at 12.5, look for some new or modded bios that allows for a higher range.

Fern

That's the problem right there. Only a few boards allow the mobile chips to use the full range of multipliers, and the NF7-S and a few DFI boards are the only ones that I know.

The boards that don't allow the full range will only go up to 12.5X. My 8RDA is currently running a 2600-M at 190 x 12.5. Trying to use a higher multiplier will go back to 12.5X, or use one of the lower mults like 6.0X. Check for a BIOS update, but it's likely a limitation of your board.

 

[rogue1979]

I thought a Mobile XP defaults to 6X or something ridiculouly low on a desktop motherboard if set to auto?

 

[Concillian]

You need to short two pins on either the socket or the chip in order to enable the higher multipliers on a desktop board.

A desktop, by default will use low multipliers like 6x, 6.5x, 7x

A mobile board uses the same multiplier codes to be higher multipliers:
6x = 13x
6.5x = 13.5x
7x = 14x
etc...

Check here for the pin diagram. It has a link to instructions too:
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51201&sid=b638ae4e9c6170b20d8251221efa854e

It's totally normal for a desktop motherboard to max out at 12.5x multiplier.

 

[Montrey]

Alright, I thought it might be a hard limit on my motherboard. I updated the bios yesterday, no change, but it's all good, I didn't plan to run at 133 fsb anyway, and the 12.5x is sufficient for me to get a good overclock. That 2.9ghz at 232x12.5 just happens to be all my motherboard will do, at 2 volts on the chipset, but it isn't really stable past 227. 2 volts on the cpu was the bare minimum to get it to boot windows at that speed, and I'm not comfortable pushing the voltage higher. So, I guess I'll just settle for it. This is likely to be my last socket A board anyway.

Thanks for the help, guys