Daniel N

I recently purchased a new Alienware M17x. The laptop with the Quad Core Extreme overclockable Processor. Don't discourage me from overclocking my laptop just because I am a laptop user because you will not help me. My question however is that when I overclock my CPU from say 2.53 to 3 GHz, my graphics card seem to play haywire. Recently they have been going more haywire it seems from the overclocks. Even though these graphics cards (Dual 280m's) should run any application without breaking a sweat. When I overclock my graphics in game lag up at certain places and have an almost 5 second slow down where it was as if my graphics cards were in time warp. After decreasing the FSB and multiplier back to normal the same glitches occur randomly. Any suggestions? Do I need to overclock my graphics card as well? Is there something wrong with the timing of the components? Some games are becoming unplayable, which out the box were playable to the utmost level.

Thanks to anyone who has an answer.

Phædrus2401

It's probably overheating. It may have overheated to the point of damaging components, though diagnosing it at that would be premature. You might try opening up the laptop and blowing the dust out. But overclocking produces heat, and laptops are not good at heat dissipation.

greenbrucelee

what was it like before you overclocked it?

Daniel N

Before I overclocked it, it was perfectly normal, with one glitch here and there. But no to the extent of what it is running at now. If i listen closely to my computer the graphics card literally stop processing for a specfic amount of time which shows up on the LCD as lag. This is a brand new computer basically, i think that there is no need to blow out the dust from the fans. There has to be another explanation. Isn't a simple overclock that is performed supposed to work without any damage to the graphics card? Because it is the graphics card that are stopping to process, not the processor. The cards don't overheat from what i know and have tested. So far the only temperature I have gotten to was about 79 C, whereas the blow-out circuit to shut off the graphics cards are at 105 C. The CPU has not gotten, i would say, above 55-60 C. There has to be another problem. Voltage wise, or RAM, or the processor even. Does it matter whether or not the FSB speed is higher than the multiplier. For example: Running a higher FSB and lower multiplier better than vice versa? Thanks again to anyone who has a suggestion.

Phædrus2401

You've obviously missed the concept of what overclocking is.

When you overclock something, you are violating its design parameters. That means that what you are doing is inherently *unsafe*. The card/CPU was designed for a given voltage and clock speed. You are running it at higher than it was designed to. That means that unless the engineers left *really* large safety margins (which is unlikely) any but the slightest of overclocks will shorten the lifespan of the components, and may potentially cause instability. You overclock at your own risk.

Which is certainly high enough to cause the card to suffer lag and glitches, if not hot enough to cause permanent damage. Usually you start to see performance drops around 75C. Actual instability starts around 80-85C, which is right where you are. Permanent damage will occur in long-term exposure to 90-115C degree heat, and short term exposure to temperatures over that can cause permanent damage as well. Just because you aren't hitting the thermal cutoff point doesn't mean everything is fine and dandy.



The computer was fine before you overclocked. Overclocked, it's glitchy. Obvious explanation: the overclock screwed something up. Possible solution: don't overclock.

greenbrucelee

what he said ^

Plus it's an alienware. i.e sexy looking machine but crap at overclocking.

Daniel N

All right now I have a different problem. Now the computer won't start at all anymore. It loads the initial Alienware Screen, but doesn't get to Windows load bar, nor does it enter the BIOS setup when i hit F2. But what is happening is that the CAPS Lock is flashing while SCROLL and NUM are lit. Any suggestions? I have no idea what happened. I just restarted my computer after trying a lower clock speed than default. Down to almost 1.3 Ghz. It worked at that speed when i booted it but then when i wanted to restart it, it started doing this. I've had this problem once before, but it went away on it's own the next day. I had overclocked the RAM from 1333 to 1600 on one overclock... dumb idea, i know. From there the computer didn't turn on. I shut it down and then it worked the next day... which i found odd.

Thanks for any answers.

greenbrucelee

you have underclocked and screwed the settings.

You will have to do a CMOS reset.

To do this you power down the computer if not done already, take out the battery and move the jumper pin from 1 to 2 after 20 minutes put the pin back then the battery and then power back up this will have reset the settings to the default settings.

Daniel N

I don't mean to sound like an idiot... but I have no idea how to do that. From what is sounds like that jumper pin is on the processor? Could you give me a brief explanation perhaps visual aid. Thank you.

Daniel N

Why is it not possible to underclock in the first place.

greenbrucelee

I explained what to do, its the battery not the processor the pins are located beside the battery.

greenbrucelee

here it is again

Follow this guide carefully and be sure to push the power button as stated:

Clearing The CMOS


Clearing RTC (Real Time Clock) RAM:


Turn OFF the computer and unplug the power cord.


Hit the ON button (power button) on the case to remove any residual power.



Remove the onboard motherboard battery.


Move the Jumper Cap from pins 1 & 2 (default) to pins 2 & 3. Keep the cap on pins 2 & 3 for ten seconds, then move the cap back to pins 1 & 2.


Reinstall the Battery.


Plug in the power cord and turn on the computer.


Hold down the DEL key and enter the bios setup menu to re-enter data

greenbrucelee

if you go below what its set at on your motherboard to run at you will encounter problems although it can be done but doing it the way you have done is the wrong way to do it.

Daniel N

I still don't understand where these pins are supposed to be, or where to place them. I am supposed to take out the battery, and then move the pins to a different location? How am i supposed to get to the onboard motherboard battery?

greenbrucelee

Open up the case

the battery is a big shiny silver coin looking thing which is located usually on the right hand side of the motherboard. You take it out as described above and locate the pins which should be right next to it or below it on the motherboard. you do what is describe above.

If you have a motherboard manual it should have a diagram of your motherboard inside it and will show you were your battery and the pins are located.

greenbrucelee

here is a picture the silver thing is the battery the red arrow is pointing to the jumper pins. click on the picture to make it bigger. in this picture the cap on the pins would be taken of and moved down so pins 2+3 were covered leaving pin 1 exposed. As you can see from the picture pins 1+2 are covered and pin 3 is exposed.

Attached Images

cmos+jumper.gif (42.0 KB, 4 views)

Phædrus2401

Since it's a laptop, the CMOS battery may be quite small and located in an awkward position. But there should still be a CMOS battery somewhere.

greenbrucelee

I forgot that.

it will still be there but you might need some tweezers to get at it.

Daniel N

All right that problem is solved now. Thank you guys, even tho taking the laptop apart was a *****. Now back to the graphics card problem. I have one more question: why do companies advertise these overclockable extreme processors if they can't handle anything? I mean you said that the engineers design them to run at a specific frequency, but if they advertise this stuff online, assuming that they tested it and it didn't work either, why do they sell it to everyone. Obviously this can't work for anyone else... except for maybe people gaming it up outside in Alaska... is there a proper way to do an overclock? I have the tools to read in temperatures and monitor my components, but I do not have the tools to overclock properly.
Thank you again greenbrucelee for all your help, I thought i might have had a brand new computer to throw away.

Phædrus2401

Overclocking can be done; I have my CPU overclocked by 43%. The thing is that overclocking produces heat, and lots of it. So you need a way to get rid of the heat, or the components are going to start malfunctioning. I have a CPU heatsink that is six inches tall and almost as wide, made of copper, that looks like an old-timey fan, and it has a high RPM 110mm fan in the middle of it. And my CPU still gets hot enough it could burn skin. If I were to overclock my graphics card more than 5% I'd want to get an aftermarket graphics card cooler, and some of those can be simply massive with as many as three fans.

Laptops don't have the cooling needed to do overclocking. You couldn't fit my CPU cooler into your laptop, or a decent VGA cooler. Yours probably has a better fan than most laptops do, but it still won't be enough for anything but a mild overclock. Laptops just are not good to overclock, because there's no cooling whatever, and there can be issues with the battery not physically being able to keep up with the power demands.


If you had a desktop it would be a different story; invest some money in decent heatsinks and such and a good power supply and you'd be good to go. As is, overclocking just won't work out for you.