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overclocking the Geode chip
Virgin Webplayer, all topics, discussions and general stuff

New Messageoverclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) mindset
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I know there is no jumper switch for it, but if you remove the heatsink, you will find SW1 there.
SW1 can set the Frequency to 200; 233; 266. Hoping someone can show us how to hotwire it to 266.
11-20-2000 21:59:36

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) famewolf
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Normally overclocking isn't a big deal because if the chip fries you go buy a new one..in this case the chip is soldered to the motherboard and already has heat issues...do you really want to aggravate that more?
11-21-2000 05:50:14

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) maldoror
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Not a good idea to overclock a cyrix chip for a small performance increase when cyrix chips run hot as hell already.
11-22-2000 19:09:56

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) delmar
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I havn't gotten my WP yet, but I've been reading up on them. Is the chip really sordered onto the board so it cant be removed? If the chip could be removed you and you could find a GXLV-266 then you set SW1 to 266, you would truely have 266. Here is a link to info on the processor.

http://www.national.com/pf/GX/GXLV.html

11-30-2000 09:48:00

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) famewolf
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It's soldered.
11-30-2000 10:27:20

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) TheKid
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I have my webplayer clocked at 233 right now. I just moved the zero ohm resistor from the 200 to the 233 tabs. Sorry for the poor description, but I don't have my WP open right now so I can't give specific details about R#'s. Once I get a heatsink from Tennmax I'll clock it to 266.

BTW- The guys at http://tennmax.com are very helpful. I told them that I needed a 5 volt fan like the iopener one, but it needs to me mounted with thermal tape instead of clips. They hooked me up and one is one its way. The guy I talked to was Vincent.


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TheKid
12-30-2000 12:34:43

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) TheKid
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I now have my webplayer running smoothly at 266MHz with a modified Iopener fan from Tennmax. All you have to do is remove R97. The chip runs cooler at 266 with an acive fan than it does at 200 with the stock heatsink.
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TheKid
01-03-2001 16:01:43

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) Gorf
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Kid,
Well done. Especially in the face of so many negative comments.

I'm having trouble harkening back to a 266. Could you describe the improvements? I'm mostly concerned with how much more responsive the UI is. It drives me nuts to click a menu and then wait like I'm on a dial-up connection for a simple menu to open.

01-04-2001 08:55:01

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) pappy
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For a decent performance increase, to hell with overclocking. Get yourself 64MB more RAM. I just picked up a chip for $40 off Ebay.
01-04-2001 12:37:21

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) pappy
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Here's where I got mine.

http://www.memoryempire.com/laptopmemory.html

01-04-2001 12:40:46

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) wvgeo
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Bought a 128Mb SODIMM for $53 + $15 shipping at memory to go

http://www.memorytogo.com/?u=7237EEF427323AF2&cmd=prod&manu=apple&media=laptop&prod=CAP161

01-04-2001 14:56:22

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) Baxterzine
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Exactly what kind of memory is in these? Is it sodimm pc100? I know it's 144 pin.
Thanks
Also it would be great to find out exactly how to overclock the chip. I think with more memory and overclocking and a fan for cooling this could be a speedy little unit.
01-04-2001 20:47:30

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) carnagecjb
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OK, I want to check this before I fry anything important... I ordered a fan from tenmax with t10 tape. It came with a white sticker on the bottom. Underneath this sticker is a silver sticker. I managed to get the heatsink off without much problem. Now, looking at the mobo, there's a little white box drawn, and labeled as sw1. To the left of this (when looking at it so that the writing on the chip is right side up), is a pair of things labeled r97 & r98. I believe I need to remove the one labeled r97, and remove the white sticker from the fan, then attach the fan somehow (how?) to the processor. all done?
01-10-2001 12:27:10

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) powaking
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Bump.

Anyone have any success with this? I plan on upgrading my memory. I do notice that playing MP3 streaming from my PC is a little choppy right now (using WinAmp on Win98SE). Anyone suggest a less CPU intensive MP3 player? I'm using a USB nic so the most I can get is 10base (would like 100base but I don't think the USB can handle that speed).

06-06-2002 11:32:41

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) jbrealey
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I overclocked this puppy to 266 no problems, I stuck a blue orb chipset cooler on that bad boy and a little artic silver 3 been running like a charm. NO lockups or mysterious freezes what-so-ever...
I sodered the power cable to the +5 on the usb underside of the mobo and grounded the ground and works great. I was kinda worried that the usb port wouldn't supply enough power for the fan and kill it, but I decided to take a chance and it all works fine. have a hard drive, sodered a usb nic on, have the modem running and the proc is overclocked w/the blue orb and no power problems ;)
to overclock just take the resisters off both the r97 and r98 and presto! you have a proc at 266. beware though needs active cooling it gets pretty hot.
07-03-2002 13:58:17

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 2 times) adam714
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jbrealey,

did you have to modify the case for the fan to fit? And how did you mount it, any pics?

I checked out thermaltake's website. It looks like the orange orb is smaller.

Did you try getting power from the keyboard connection instead of usb?

07-03-2002 15:10:30

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) jbrealey
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sorry i don't have a digital camera sucks i'd love to take pics... yes i dremmeled out a hole over the fan on the case dosn't look that bad. it was just about 2 or 3 mm's to tall. but to mount it i just ripped off the old black heat sync and put the thermatake blue on had to take off a couple of the fins, because there's a cap in the way. but the holes lined up from the old heat sync so just added a little artic silver to the processor and put some on the blue orb let it sit for a little bit the wiped it off the blue orb and put the heat sync on the processor. gotta make sure it's sitting flat on the processor. mine came w/almost like spring loaded clips so it would sit nice and tight. there's 3 wires that come off the blue orb red, blue, and black. red=power ,black=ground. those were obvious so i just clipped the blue one probably a sensor but nowhere for me to soder it to. sordered the red to the 5 volt of the usb and the black can be sodered anywhere there is ground i used the silver part by the screw holes.
07-03-2002 15:29:29

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) rob10000
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I did exactly the same thing..here's a shot of mine with the Blorb. I used a cut off wheel to remove a large square of metal, then marked where I needed to cut the hole..
http://webpages.charter.net/bobackley/computer%20pics/Picture%20003.jpg

All I have to do now is find some type of grill.

07-03-2002 15:35:57

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) icepick72
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http://www.mouser.com/catalog/cat_610/501.pdf

All the grills and fan filters you could need :) Im working on something similar. These
guys ship very fast! Get their catalog its worth it.

07-03-2002 19:57:36

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) bluenevus
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HELP, HELP, HELP

OK, so I've been reading and following the thread. My webplayer has win98me on an IBM 3gig hd and standard 64 meg RAM. Ran fine though a bit warm. I got a blue orb. I removed the old heatsink, removed r97 tested with the old heatsink (before I solder the blue orb power in) booted and nothing no POST. I get the mail light, the hard drive spins, a few clicks of the sound card, no video and it doesn't sound like win98 is booting (i.e. the hard drive spins but not reading). The processor isn't even warm. I expected it to get warm pretty quick. What did I do wrong? Can I salvage?

07-04-2002 08:59:39

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) jbrealey
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Did you put some thermal paste in between the processor and the blorb? did you make sure they were making good contact? I know I had the problem of the orb not sitting flat on the proc. so i had to bend the place where the clips go a little to make it sit flat. But that's all I did. I made sure there was good contact so that the heat could be transfered. I put the retension clips on the back side of the mobo so that they would be pulling the orb towards the mobo. Ensuring a snug fit. If you don't have some already get some artic silver go to there web page to see how to appy it and have at it ;) Also is the blorb spinning? hopefully yes...
07-05-2002 09:04:00

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) bluenevus
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Ok the saga continues. The processor just would not boot at 266. No way around it unless I increase voltage of which I could not find on the schematics but wait...good news I was able to salvage. So when I read just pop off r97 I did just that and lost the diode. I figured, who cares anyway right? Everyone else is overclocking just fine. Well no dice. So I went to Radio Shack and bought a 5.1 volt diode for 69 cents and started soldering. Did you see how small of an area you have to solder? whew. I burned out r97 and r98 woops. Well good news, I found the contacts closest to the usb for r97 and r98 shared the same contact point though they have 2 seperate solder point. So I figure that just make soldiering that point easier. I combined the 2 points closes to the usb for r97 and r98 to make 1 big easy solderable point. OK, why didn't I use solder paste for such a job? I tried and it sucked. Damn thing wouldn't melt...and it said solders with low heat heh...don't waste your money. Anyway I started soldering away and burned away the two points for r97 & r98 farthest from the usb ports. Bad thing is they don't share a common connection. I traced the wire to the 2 points in the left most (closest to the processor) box of sw 1. Well that is where r97 & r98 originates before it goes to the processor. Far easier soldiering points. The good news is I didn't destroy those points. Whew I couldn't afford to...it was my last hope. So, I soldered where r98 traced to (the top left solder point of sw1) and voila. It worked. Booted fine. Well I can say I'm happy it worked but I must say it sure was frustrating especially since I really, really suck at soldering (probably why I burned all those soldering points). I have 2 more WP on the way. I'm not sure if I will try my luck at another processor. I'm glad you guys had better luck than I did.

Frank

07-05-2002 20:11:07

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) bluenevus
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by the way it is running at 233. Menus are moving a bit quicker, mp3 still cuts out if streaming from the net, works fine from hd. Must have active cooling!!!

Kids don't try this at home, you might end up with a wp paper weight. :)

Frank

07-05-2002 20:21:58

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) Lucubrate
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FYI Frank
Those r97 and r98 are not diodes, they are resistors. In fact they are zero ohm resistors also known as shunts or jumpers. You could just use a scrap of wire to replace them.
07-06-2002 08:53:05

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) endodoc
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I am interested in overclocking but so far I've had no success. I have 2 WP's. Both have R97 but neither has R98(labeled but empty). I removed R97 and it wouldn't boot. I tried every combination of R97 and R98 (both opened, both closed, even connected them together)and nothing works unless I connect R97 again and it boots at 200mHz. (interestingly if I connect all of the contacts between R97 & R98 it boots and registers 133mHz). Does anybody have any suggestions?
07-06-2002 12:29:01

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) bluenevus
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Lucubrate

Well thats what I thought but try as I might, no matter how many different wires (copper, Tin, 50/50, solder etc) I tried it wouldn't work i.e I though they were just jumpers also. Thats why I bought diodes (zero ohm resistor not working, certainly not a transistor, couldn't be a capacator so by diagnosis of exclusion tried a diode) 5.1v which worked (must make sure you have the diode in corect direction). I'm not an electrician by a long shot but hey its working.

Thanks

endodoc

Not all processors are created equal. Some will boot @266 some won't. Some will make 233 some won't. Some will continue as 200. By the way do you have active cooling? If it does boot, won't stay up for long without it. Cyrix chips are screaming hot. Try the blorb as described above...works like a champ. The Tenemax cooler is pretty cool also but you need to make an opening in the case some how. You could make some vents however, it is just much easer to drill the hole the size of the blorb and place a grill.

Frank

aka the "IC Toaster"

07-06-2002 17:23:30

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) endodoc
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The cooling never was an issue. I had an old case fan that I planned to use while testing it at the higher speed but it never booted above 200mHz. The stock heatsink never even got warm. If I can get it overclocked successfully, I'll definitely install active cooling.

What about the missing R98? Several posts mention removing it but it is not present in my two WP's. Are there multiple versions of webplayers?

07-06-2002 19:27:35

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) bluenevus
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r98 was never there. Connecting r98 and removing r97 would give you 233.
07-06-2002 19:51:08

New MessageRE:overclocking the Geode chip (modified 0 times) DSPTECH11
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I just soldered four small wires to each of the solder points and then soldered them to a four pin header. Now all I have to do is move a jumper cap do the desired setting. No resistors or diodes are needed.
07-07-2002 08:38:40

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