Laptop Overclocking

Howdy fellow overclocking enthusuasts!

Please forgive my not knowing which forum to enter this question.

My question is for those hardcore overclockers;

'How do I overclock my laptop?"

I don't even know how to enter Bios!

It is a Compaq 4160T.

All suggestions are welcome( except lewd ones).

Thanks ,
9X21

I don't think it's possible to overclock your laptop, for one big reason:

The manufacturer doesn't want you to.

1) it saves on tech support calls, and 2) it prevents you from getting more than what you paid for.

On top of that, I'm not so sure how speedstep-esque technology would handle a higher FSB/multiplier, but I'm willing to bet it's not a good. Then there's power consumption, and cooling concerns...

Unless you're handy with a soldering iron and have a degree in eletrical engineering, I doubt you'll be overclocking a laptop out of the box. Or, I could be talking out my ***. We'll see what others have to say.

Your BIOS won't let you. Also, heat is a killer, and a huge problem in a laptop. You don't want to O/C a laptop if you want it to last.

Not usually a good idea. However, if you are handy as a technician and brave enough to deal with really small wiring and stuff inside a lappy, AND you have an AMD-based laptop, you can probably overclock the CPU by breaking and connecting bridges.

I know an ECS desknote 929A can handle dekstop CPU's and ram, and one can buy them barebones, therefore, one could also take one apart and remove the CPU, then do some bridge -modding or socket wire tricks to change the default multiplyer and thus convert say an XP 1800+ to an XP 2400+ or even 2600+. You could then use a better thermal paste on the heatsink to help compensate for the extra heat. or try to find a more/make a more efficient heatsink and or fan.

This particular desknote usually sells with anything from an Duron 1000 to an XP 2400+ Tbred B anyway. So I think it'd be alright to take a DLT3C 1800 + ($60-ish) with a default vcore of 1.5v up to a 15x multiplyer and maybe 1.6v, for an increase of 466mhz, and savings fo a whole $25 over just buying a regular 1.6 or 1.65 volt 2400+.

It trashes your warranty of course to do stuff like this, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you were building this thing as a barebones unit to start with (like I plan on doing).

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!

Definetly do not attempt overclocking your laptop. Even if you could through softFSB or something I would still stay away. Heat is a huge problem in laptops. The processors get extremely hot even at stock speeds or below stock speeds, its at the brink already, so I don't recommend going any higher.

Matt

I just did some searching, and looks like your laptop has a P166MMX CPU. I didn't come across any information about upgrading it. You might be able to get it to work with a 233MMX, but Compaq are one of the worst when it comes to limiting your upgrade options.

You'd probably be best off maxing out the memory, and maybe getting a larger drive, and using it as is.

WOW! Thanks gang. That was very informative.

9X21

I don't know of an OEM BIOS that will let you overclock . . .

Laptops haven't used heatsinks for a while now, so upgrading your cooling will probably be next to impossible, as any change from the included phase-change will probably be a downgrade. The only upgrade would be a better fan, and I don't know how possible that is, since the fans in laptops are obviously VERY small and can't be very effective . . . Unless you wanted to move to the absolute extreme and take the cooling outside the laptop, I think cooling will not get any better. Since it appears you won't be overclocking, I know this is useless information, but I thought it applied to the issue. People ask frequently about this, and sometimes the phase-change cooling and BIOS issues aren't brought up at all . . .

I agree that more RAM is probably the best option. I work for ResNet at my college, and I just recently worked on a P166 Dell laptop . . . It was actually really fast after it finished booting Windows98! It spanked my old K6-2, and I'm positive it booted faster than my PowerBook (though OSX boots slowly on everything . . . )

Z

Just built an ECS A929 desknote... the one I mentioned earlier. it's bios can adjust FSB to 138 and 150 for overclocking. I'm running an 1800+ 1.5v @ 150 FSB right now.

They also have a P4 version (think its the A928), that has the same bios overclocking options.]


These things use a copper heatpipe and a fairly well-venitlated. They are pretty big and have no internal battery (they are technically called desknotes because they are meant to be desktop replacements). An external battery costs about $105 and supposedly runs for about 8 hours.

On board graphics by SIS - on par with gf2mx200 maybe.
14" or 15" screen.

No wireless, but they have usb 2.0 ports and I think you could add an external usb wireless solution...