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1.4 Ghz T-bird unlocked, or not?

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FoghornLeghorn

New Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2003
Location
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Hiya, first post, but been lurking a while. I'm also new to OCing in practice, but I've read about it a lot over the years.

I've searched all over and can't find a definite answer to my question. That is, is my 1.4 T-bird unlocked. It seems like it ought to be from my reading, but when I change the multiplier (up or down 0.5 from 10.5), I get no post and have to reset the BIOS.

Some considerations:
I haven't had the heatsink/fan off (shipped installed), so I can't verify (can I?) for certain the processor is what I think it is. The temps are pretty good (25/37C idle; 30/<45C load) and I don't yet have the balls to pull and reattach the HS. I'm almost ready, but not quite. HS/fan is pretty generic if I remember correctly.

Mobo is a Shuttle ak31a v3.1. Current BIOS installed. Kinda flaky (floppy controller doesn't work?, BIOS hangs on a save change though changes do get saved)

I have been able to raise the FSB minimally just to explore, haven't pushed it at all.

I had a 2x 256 2100 DDR installed (Crucial and PNY), but they don't seem to like to play together anymore. The PNY runs stably by itself, haven't gotten to the Crucial yet. Don't know anything about the PNY (it was a dumb purchase). It is my second stick of Crucial, the first went bad, and it is CAS 2.5 ECC (if I remember right).

PSU is a 430 W Antec something or other (i've blown out two cheaper ones with this set up).

Video: Gainward Geforce 2 MX400. Overclocked a little, but this is a funky version with passive cooling.

I've learned a lot with this rig about the importance of quality, but it still needs to last me another year or so, which is why I've started looking into my OC options.

Any and all suggestions appreciated, but despite the long post it is mostly the multiplier thing that I am asking about.

Thanks much,
FoghornLeghorn
 
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Thanks for the reply!

I've finally gotten around to doing the pencil trick and wish I could post the results of my overclock. However, it is still doing the same thing. I'm guessing you are likely to say that the pencil trick just didn't work. What I found when I got the HSF off and cleaned away all the cheapo paste was that the L1 bridges don't look cut at all. It was fairly clear on some of the other bridges that they were cut, but I don't think the L1 were. I still proceeded to add some graphite. Another thing, though... the dots (?) on two of the L1 bridges looked discolored (greyish), even after cleaning thoroughly.

One positive note: It happens that I have an AYHJA core. (A '9', but I'll take it, given the random chance).

Here is the best picture I got that kinda shows what it looks like: http://lemieux.cems.umn.edu/~evanwink/images/Athlon1.4_L1.jpg

Any more suggestions? Also, do you have to clean and replace the paste off the core/HS every time you remove it? I replaced the gunk that was there before with Arctic Silver 5.

Thanks,
Foghorn
 
I was just checking that out to make sure I knew how it worked... didn't do much. I think I took it to 140 when I got the first hint of instability. I left it at 135 just for fun. Never saw any bad temps. I took vcore to 1.8, again without any high temps (higher, but not more that 50C).

I just now took the HSF off again, thinking I'd redo the pencil, but i'm more sure now that the L1 bridges aren't cut. The bottom two almost definately are not, the top two have that discoloration thing, so it is hard to tell. Any chance they'd not cut them all? doubt it. Before I took the HSF off, i booted up at 10.5/135. Tried to reset to 11/135. No post, so I reset BIOS (10.5/100). Then back to 10.5/135. Then 10/100... no post.

The mobo I have is such that you can enter in any FSB (100-166) and pick many different multipliers. If it weren't, I'd maybe think that it is of the type that detects the assigned multiplier and uses it regaurdless of locking.

Any other bridges that matter?

Also, the BIOS has many DRAM and bus settings I'm not familiar with. I have those pretty much all set to the auto setting (maybe host clk? NOT by Spd) (I can get details on them if it helps), and only the ones I need to change FSB and multiplier are on manual. Any chance these other settings need to be adjusted just to get the thing to post?

Anothing thing I just thought of... I have the memory running at CAS 2. It seems plenty stable (memtest/prime95 for >12hrs each). I didn't think that would affect or be affected by multiplier, though.

Thanks for reading all this ;)

Foghorn
 
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1.4 T-Bird IS UNLOCKED.

Sorry that you were missinformed.

Be back, going to check into that MB of yours.
 
Thanks for looking (and for the avatar! ;)). I've not seen any specific issues mentioned with this board, though some have said it is great for overclocking. I guess it is time for me to figure out how to work all of the RAM/PCI/etc bus controls and other things I'm not familiar with on it.

Hopefully I'll find a solution soon. My computer is gutted on the coffee table in the living room right now, and my wife isn't too happy about it, the cat is a little too curious about it, and I can't play any games.

Thanks,
Foghorn
 
fishy kindly pointed out that I should read the mobo manual, as there might be a jumper set to allow overclocking. I've read the manual before, but never remembered seeing anything like this... but this time I did see something about it. Unfortunately, it says something to the effect of "lucky you, this board is jumperless. You don't need to mess with jumpers unless you want to 1. Over-clock your CPU, or 2. Clear CMOS. " Then it refers to the section where jumpers are talked about. Great, except that it doesn't mention anything about case #1 (over-clocking).

So, anyone have any suggestions as to what to look for on the Mobo itself that might indicate appropriate jumpers for fuss with?

If you want to have a look at the manual, it is here (ftp://ftp.shuttle.com/Manuals/en/ak31/), and I have the v2. Maybe you'll see something I don't, but I certainly don't expect anyone to read it (and it doesn't seem to be searchable).

-foghorn
 
I don’t see why you want to up the multipliers anyway, just up the bus speed. I don’t see how you’re going to get more than 100 or 150 MHz more out of this CPU.
 
hmm, well, it just seems like I get barely any increase in fsb before i get instability. I'm guessing because of my memory.

Would I be better off with the memory at CAS 2.5 if that lets me go higher with the fsb? I have it at CAS 2, and I know that is better than overclocked CAS 2.5.

At this point it just bugs me more than anything that I can't change multiplier, since I can't figure any reason for it. And also I was under the impression that these processors did very well overclocking (the AYHJA cores in particular). 1.6 ought to be perfectly reasonable with fairly simple air cooling, and I think I have quite good air cooling.

Thanks for your time, though

-Foghorn
 
What memory do you have? I used to have a 1.4 T-Bird (too bad it burned up...hehe) that would reach 2.4 Ghz just fine (with HIGH PRIORITY COOLING, like a pure copper heatsink:p ) and lasted for 2 years at that speed until...got more power hungry and blew it when I tried OCing it more. Died at a temp of 98C (GOD, HOW DID IT MAKE IT FOR A SECOND...it did though?) while doing a Prime 95 stress test. Made it to 3.2 Ghz when that happened...WOW!

The T-Bird 1400 is a performer, I will say, so you've got a good processor there, and it is unlocked as fishy explained. Post your memory and cooling (along with room temp) and we'll help you from there.
 
hmmmm

My buddy is still using his Tbird 1.33ghz ayhja. Nice stepping.
It is definately unlocked.

He only let me play with O/Cing his computer once!!!
His Epox 8k7a allowed multiplyers to be changed correctly, it's odd yours doesn't. I hope you've figured it out.
We either did 9.5 or 10x166 fsb. It was awhile ago.... heh.

We can't get temperature monitoring working on his mobo,
which is very inconvenient for OCing. We can't tell if the CPU is in
the process of a meltdown!!

Goodluck.

FoghornLeghorn said:
hmm, well, it just seems like I get barely any increase in fsb before i get instability. I'm guessing because of my memory.

Would I be better off with the memory at CAS 2.5 if that lets me go higher with the fsb? I have it at CAS 2, and I know that is better than overclocked CAS 2.5.

At this point it just bugs me more than anything that I can't change multiplier, since I can't figure any reason for it. And also I was under the impression that these processors did very well overclocking (the AYHJA cores in particular). 1.6 ought to be perfectly reasonable with fairly simple air cooling, and I think I have quite good air cooling.

Thanks for your time, though

-Foghorn
 
My mem and temps are listed in the original post, but I'll sumarize here:

1 x 256MB Crucial CAS 2.5 (ECC i think)
1 x 256MB PNY (can't find anything else out about this... dumb purchase).

As for temps, the room temperature these days is around 21C. The case stays around 25, maybe up to 30, but I increased fan speed on a couple of case fans, so I doubt it gets near 30 anymore. The processor used to idle at 37, and go up to maybe 45 under load (Prime95).

I had the heatsink off and all recently, so I took some time to 'lap' it, and found it was quite uneven. Only the corners got sanded at all for quite a while, but I eventually got them knocked down, and think I got it pretty flat. Used arctic silver 5 and it was idling at 36. I didn't stress it before taking it all apart again, and it is still apart. I was a little suprised that all my work didn't get better results, but there wasn't time for the paste to 'set', so I'm guessing it will get better. It also was my first go at applying the stuff, so I might not have done the best job.

The HSF is nothing special. I wasn't really thinking about overclocking when I bought it. It is just a solid aluminum heatsink... but I don't think it is terrible, since my temps weren't awful even with the cheap thermal compound that was originally in there.

Unfortunately I don't see how any of these things could affect the multiplier, though maybe I shouldn't be focused on the multiplier so much. I checked the Mobo in detail, and there are only jumpers to clear CMOS and write protect the BIOS.

Thanks for any ideas.

-Foghorn
 
I have had both locked and unlocked 1400 tbirds, what I found is that the 200 fsb tends to be unlocked and usually but not always find that the 266 fsb is locked, however as stated it is very easy to unlock them with a sharp pencil and a good eye;)

-Milkman
 
It's funny that my unlocked t-bird 1.2 won't go over 1366. Even then it is flaky. Lol a t-bird @ 2.4ghz that is just amazing. I wish I could get mine half that far.
 
99'erForever said:
It's funny that my unlocked t-bird 1.2 won't go over 1366. Even then it is flaky. Lol a t-bird @ 2.4ghz that is just amazing. I wish I could get mine half that far.

Not a Tbird it's a tbred( Thoroughbred)
 
No, I ment a T-Bird 1400. It does sound ridiculous, but I could do it with the right cooling and mobo.

I was wrong. There are unlocked ones and locked ones, and I just come to remember that I sold a LOCKED 1200 T-Bird that I had unlocked by the pencil method. If it is locked, just go ahead and get a sharp pencil and write on the L1 line (it won't hurt even if it is unlocked, so feel free to do it:) ). Tell us if you do.
 
So I had tried the pencil trick once, didn't work. Pretty sure from looking that the L1 bridges aren't cut anyway. Did the pencil trick again anyway, again no dice.

I've tried some fsb changes, but I think my memory might just be too crappy, which is why I'd like to have the multiplier working. I don't know that this system is worth any monetary investment at this point.

I have actual temps now that everything is back together. Room is 23C, case 26C (stressed maybe 25 unstressed). CPU is up to 44 and I don't expect it to go any higher. Hopefully that will come down some once the thermal paste sets in a bit more, though maybe I didn't apply it well.

My theory for now is that my mobo is messed up somehow. Anyone have a problem where when you hit enter to save BIOS changes the system freezes? It does save the changes, I just have to reset with the power switch (the reset switch doesn't work). Maybe this is symptomatic of other problems? I'll try reflashing the bios sometime and see if that changes anything.

Ideas appreciated,
Foghorn
 
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