a hell of a time

[smilewince]

i am having a hell of a time overclocking this old computer.

CPU: Intel Pentium 233MHz MMX
Motherboard: Iwill P55XB2
BIOS: Award 4.51PG, 7/21/1999, version 2.2
OS: Windows XP

i believe the problem to be this:
the bios doesnt have a FSB adjustment
windows/ms-dos based FSB programs, softfsb or cpucool, dont register a change in CPU MHz(maybe because the bios)
the motherboard has clock jumpers but set past 233MHz bios read the incorrect MHz


i realize that it is a fossil of a motherboard, but if you have any ideas on how to get at the front side bus(FSB) it would like to hear it.

attached is the motherboard manual

 

[jazztrumpet216]

First off, WELCOME TO THE FORUMS! Please try not to double post in the future either... it's kinda frowned upon around here.

Anyhoo, have you tried flashing the BIOS? If you've tried messing with the clock jumpers and the BIOS reads the new clock speed incorrectly, an old BIOS incapable of reading those speeds could be the culprit. Check Iwill's web site for a download section and see if they'll let you download BIOS' for their mobos there.

Many mobos of that generation did not have BIOS overclocking capabilities, and the only way to do it was through jumpers.

 

[smilewince]

yes i have flashed the bios and am now running the most current update(1999). is there any other way to overclock an intel CPU, the motherboard only offers core voltage jumpers and clock jumpers(the bios does not read an increase past 233MHz when the board supports up to 300MHZ.) there seems to be no way to modify the FSB frequency.

possible a bios hack?
is there such a thing?

the bios is the problem, agreed. but do me a favor and think about options.

thanks for responding and your input.

 

[takiwa]

have you tried any other chips in this mobo? are you sure that the max is 300MHz for the mobo? what are the max number for the FSB/multiplier jumpers?

I have a mobo (HSing-PCChips) with the same BIOS as yours...it is "supposed" o handle up to a 300Mhz cpu also, but the jumpers only go to 75FSB, 3.0 multiplier (225 )...

 

[smilewince]

no havent tried other CPUs in this Motherboard. i get the max CPU 300MHz from the CPU Clock Jumpers. the board only offers corevoltage jumpers and clock jumpers(MHz). when the clock jumper is set past/above 233MHz the bios or the system misreads the the setting and runs at less than 233MHz.

 

[devrace]

hello smilewince I am looking for the iwill p55xb2 manual, can you send me the manual to my e-mail ([email protected])? o post it as attached

regards Devrace

 

[boox2]

it's not a good thing to post your email addy, with spam bots and such. just pm that person with the info.

 

[Falkentyne]

Unless that chip had an unlocked multiplier (and 233 mhz MMX's were already at the max multiplier, anyway), the only way to overclock that chip (since those old socket designs didn't have the 100 FSB settings yet) was to set a jumper on the motherboard to change it from 66 mhz to either 75 or 83 mhz. 75 mhz is 37.5 mhz PCI, which is USUALLY Safe, but 81 (40.5 mhz PCI) mhz can scramble some hard drives. (Western digitals could usually handle this; Maxtors were famous to scramble at 41 mhz PCI).

I was lucky enough to find an unlocked 166 MMX retail box, before they vanished from the channels (years ago), as my first upgrade from a friend's P133, and it would do 75 * 3.5=262.5 mhz but required 3.3v, and wasn't fully stable....and boy did THAT run hot on the POS retail HSF..... those chips were 2.8v, and 3.3v was reserved for Cyrix processors I think(?)

Anyway your only chance to overclock it is to set a 75 mhz FSB via jumpers. And only good overclocking motherboards allowed this (Abit, Asus, Shuttle (which was pretty decent back then).