How to pinmod and further overclock the M11x R1 (SLG= Hardmod only)

Sorry guys ( ICS owners) im not ignoring you. i just dont know much about the ICS mod nor do i own or have access to a ICS PLL mobo to try to recreate what you guys are experiencing.

 

It's all good Some Guy... you've helped a ton in this thread already ha!

OK, I have finally been able to make some changes to my PLL without a lockup, need input on what this means:

I do have the ICS, and I show A5 101 in setFSB, and I have purchased the full version from Abo to try and make this easier, and load the ICS9LPRS387BKLF.

With OC mode enabled in the bios, I IMMEDIATELY get a system freeze when changing the PLL, even 1 tick in setFSB as soon as I click set FSB.

With OC mode disable in bios, I am currently running at a FSB of 266 for a CPU speed of 1729mhz.

It never occured to me before to try it in non OC mode, but it seems I can infact control the PLL, but any change at all in OC mode instantly freezes my system. Is this a VID issue for the CPU? Thats what I think it means, but seems weird to me that even one mhz more causes a hard freeze every time.

Thanks for all the info in this thread and any help or suggestions.

EDIT: If it is a VID issue on the CPU side of things, is the VID mod possible and the same for the ICS equipped machines?

 

Thanks.

From a guess it sounds like a software issue. reason being is the RAM runs a higher clockin non OCmode. @ 266 bus speed your looking @ 1.73ghz/1066 Cas6. With a tiny bumpin bus speed with OC mode enabled (say 270?) you would only see 1.62ghz/810 Cas6. which is much less stressful...

Oh and the VID mod should work the same as its not the PLL that changes the vcore. the only thing you should be looki g for is that OC mode enabled/disabled chnges the VID...



Just remembered the VID changes from stock to 0.90v when you run OC mode enabled (less voltage). so maybe it could be a vcore issue?

 

Okay, it feels good not to be the only one.
If i have the usb-microscope , i´ll try to take a picture from it, too.
To the volt mod: my temps of the cpu never exceed 45°, so this volt mod surely can´t hurt to try. Only thing is we need a super-mini soldering tip (and some flux - the last try nothing stuck on those pins...).

 

thanks for the input... I'm not really sure what's going on.

I just tried rebooting and repeating the process, OC in BIOS off, previous boot I was running smoothly with a 200-->266 overclock using setFSB, and now it instantly crashes and freezes again like it was doing before... even an increase from 200-->225 is locking up instantly... no idea what's wrong.

According to CPU-Z with overclock mode enabled I get a voltage of .9 steady... with OC turned off in bios is ranges from .8-1+ depending what I assume is speedstep changing settings.

About to abandon the mission and put it all back together... an ICS is not necessarily an easy shot at overclocking ha. It's been in pieces on my kitchen table all week trying to figure this out and I'm getting in trouble now not to mention frustrated. Thanks for the help though man, you put a ton into this thread.

 

Wait!

Try with speed step dis abled. and also try with just one stick of ram.

Hope that helps

 

No it's not just you guys, I've been working on this for about a week myself.... by no means is it an easy mod, and even now that I supposedly have TME unlocked, I still can't overclock without a hard freeze requiring pulling the battery. Good luck!

 

I feel the pain. This Notebook is not as easy to mod as my former ones (MSI GT725 and stuff like that). I´ve tried it about 5 times now. The second time i noticed that i don´t have to disassemble it in order to reach the ICS Chip... a LOT easier.
If i had the A5 and your problems, i surely would go for the (easiest) volt mod and try it with OC enabled. This should give you 1,1V and a MUCH better chance.

 

Well, this is annoying... May have broken my M11x /facepalm

I get more reckless each time i try to do the mod, and this time i left the battery in (yup, bad idea). When i was reconnecting the strip with the power button on it to the motherboard, it started to self boot and then shut down after a second or two. There was a bad smell (one of those stories with the burning and the melting and the horror), which i quickly found out was the connection on the motherboard that the ribbon from the power strip clipped into (makes sense). The copper at the end of the ribbon had melted and turned green/black and some had got onto the motherboard connection. I stripped the ribbon back to expose fresh copper to try booting again, but nothing happened when i pressed the power button. Will try and see if i can clean the motherboard connection at all, but this looks like a lovely little pickle i've got myself into ._.

 

I have a spare power button and ribbon cable if you need it.

 

It would be greatly appreciated, but I should at least give you something in return. I'll keep trying to get it to boot for now and get back to you. Thank you very much for the offer, though.

 

Well, just pay shipping and they are yours. I got them with a bunch of other parts I ordered for my tablet mod.

 

What country are you in? Just checked out the tablet mod - looks amazing ._.

 

I am in the US

 

Seems to be $14 from the US to the UK via USPS. Will keep trying to make it boot myself first, though.

 

Looks like there are all the parts you need on ebay.uk, but its pretty expensive for them... I think me shipping my spares would cost 1/4 the price of you getting them there.

 

Oh my God... It lives :'D Just exposed more copper on the ribbon and got as much of the 'gunk' off the motherboard connector as i could. Never been more happy to see a boot screen in my life...

EDIT: And you'll never believe this; SetFSB is now reporting A5 xD Well, anyway, this is the warzone that is pin 14 and the digging required to get it to report A5:

 

Haha.... Congrats! I swear mine looks worse than that! Let me know how the next part goes... that's where I'm stumped now.

Next up for me it appears is another war with the pins on the VID!

 

Nice work Shokz, let me know if you end up needing those parts.

 

I'll be honest, i'm stuck on understanding the instructions for using setPLL. There's some directions missed out and it's not exactly worded well...

EDIT: Nevermind, skipped all the things i didn't follow and just used 'setpll Alienware-m11xR1 270' as a test and my clock speed is now 1618MHz xD Looks like it's working fine!

EDIT2: Tried 310 (1858MHz) and what was 67 seconds in TS Bench 32M is now 55 seconds!

 

Cool... so I'm assuming you are doing this with OC mode enabled? I get a hard freeze everytime I run setPLL or set FSB full version. I dont think I'm doing it wrong as I run it exactly as you stated. Oddly even with a single MHz jump I get the freeze when OC mode is enabled.

 

Tried stepping it down instead of up to see if the same thing happens?

EDIT: Unfortunately, system seems to become unstable at anything over 314 (1884MHz) and i don't really feely like messing with the VID for now, at least. My GT335M seems to overclock brilliantly though - so far got up to 581/1380/893 and i haven't even flashed the modded BIOS. 3DMark06 score at those speeds is 7527.

 

Not sure what's going on exactly... just tried stepping down as opposed to up and it will lock the machine as well, not sure what's up. Any change at all in OC mode enabled instantly locks the machine using the full version of setFSB or setPLL. With OC mode disabled I can get some very limited success (ie doesn't lock the laptop up everytime) with really small increases, but can't get the CPU reliable near 1600 or past so not much point.

Spent this morning trying the VID mod, cut the pin, put it all back together, and voltage didn't change. So, buttoned it all back up and calling this week a failed attempt at overclocking but figure I might as well stop before I brick the motherboard. Was hoping to get a bit more life out of the little guy, but if nothing else at least now it's got fresh MX-3 on the CPU/GPU ha.... even if it's still only running at stock clocks.

As a side note, I do randomly get weird readings in setFSB, is that normal? About 25% of the time it will give me a pll read error or just all around weird values... rest of the time it reads and load totally fine. Is that normal?

Thanks for the input and help guys.

 

Just two things i noticed. Your volt mod is not shown anywhere, the system still thinks it´s on 0,9V, and CPU-Z and that stuff will only show this. You would have to measure it manually (barely doable) or notice a heat increase.
The other thing: are you sure you´ve picked the right ICS in SetFSB? DavyGT wrote that you should use the ICS9LPRS365BGLF. Did you do this?
Edit: considering the vmod... "cut" the pin? For 1.1V, don´t you have to connect two pins?

 

It does the same with both the ICS365 used in the free version, and also the correct ICS387 in the upgraded full version of setFSB. The reason DavyGT says to use the ICS365 I believe is because the free version of setFSB doesn't support the actual ICS387 the M11x has but is close enough to determine if TME is disabled, and is why he has a step two in his instructions to change the pll with setPLL which is a free alternative. SetPLL had the same crash results as the full version of setFSB.

As for VID mod, I thought it was to cut a pin on the VID chip as stated on the first page of this thread.... it's entirely possible I'm completely wrong though and read it wrong. Thanks for the heads up on it not changing visibly anywhere, that I wasn't aware of... I was checking CPU-z. I have no idea if temps are different because of voltage though, as when I put it all back together I used MX-3 for the repaste and that would change temps anyway... dunno

 

For the volt mod disrepency.

I was the person that tried this out by cutting the pin (suggested by DavyGT) and i noticed about a 3 deg raise in CPU temp delta. (basically confirming it worked)

The method nando4 has mentioned i have only tried once on a friends M11x and it did not boot. i tried a few times again and same result. dont know if the M11x was faulty or what but that was the only occasion i tryed the soldier method.

 

Thanks a lot, some guy! So i just have to disconnect pin32 on the voltage regulator chip instead of bridging two pins (the other method i´ve found and tried, but i couldn´t get the solder stick to the pins...)

 

and it doesn't work...

 

So...I was wondering, would there happen to be anyone in the fairfield county area of CT who might be able to help me do this mod? I could throw you a little cash for helping out. I really want to do this, but quite frankly I'm not comfortable enough disassembling my laptop, cutting things on the mobo, then reassembling it correctly.

 

Another two tries - nothing. Nothing except some casual system crashes/reboots. Seems i´ve screwed my system.
I really have to look out for a new board, which i will have to keep my fat fingers off...

 

If you're not comfortable even just opening up your laptop, you should stay away from this and just buy a cheap desktop that has the same power as your M11X. My rule of thumb, never trust anyone else with YOUR computer, it's like handing someone your bank account and pin and asking them to not steal money.

 

I read in the first page that you need to use setpll and not set fsb as it will freeze your system...

 

Not if you are using the full version of setFSB... that one includes the proper PLL coding.

 

I replaced my motherboard, cut pin 14 and now my keyboard and mouse are not working, they light up but no input. Any ideas???

 

Try re installing the ribbion cable.

 

I did ill try again once i get home

 

No luck, could it have anything to do with cutting the pin?? Strange that it still lights up

 

:cry:

I attempted the Pinmod on my ICS R1.

Removed the pin but it was still E5 111 so I took it apart and dug more but then the stuff I dug seemed to fuse with pin 13 next to it. So I tried to dig away from that and ended up scoring through the track of one of the components in front of pin 13.

In my desperation of trying to un-short them I've basically just dug a huge whole in the mobo and I'm pretty sure its now bricked.

When I try and boot I get keyboard and power lights and 7 beeps repeatedly. There is continuity between pin 13 and the crater where pun 14 is but its just so tiny I can't see it and as you can see from the pic its pretty much a wreck now.

What do you guys think? Bricked? New mobo? new m11x?

 

PEOPLE!!! this is why you don't cut pins!!!!! there is a perfectly good solder point 2mm away from the pin that you can take to ground!!!

 

holy crap. you should have been more careful. when i used to cut pins on m11x's i used a needle, and a magnifying glass. requires a steady hand. but you should not have dug it out lol. looks like a meteor just crash landed there =o and it's probly time for a new motherboard.

 

new mobo on eby is $130,
NEW K1PWV Alienware M11x Laptop SU7300 Motherboard | eBay

I would get one.

Another thing you can do is ask someone with the exact same notebook to go into setfsb and ask them to disable output for pci1 (bit 1 of byte 2) and see if the notebook still works.
If it does, you might have a chance to fix your old mobo.

 

cutting pins is easier. its almost too simple. people just arnt being careful enough.

 

I don't think its so much that cutting the pin is too difficult. Probably more because I tried to rush it with the wrong tools and am therefore an idiot.

For sure soldering onto the pin would be much harder unless you have a very thin iron. For future reference is there another terminal further down the track from the TME pin that you can solder a resistor to more easily.

I was put off soldering because the first page guide just shows soldering straight to the pin.

 

Update: i took the labtop apart, disconnected everything, including the ccell batt. Put everything back together and now everything is working. Tme was unlucked so i overclocked to about 1.85 ghz and everything was successful. Restarted the laptop and now when i checked the pll was locked grrrr. Tried a couple of restarts but nothing changed. Took it apart once again and used a thin needle to clean up the pin. Put everything togethet and now it wont start up at all. No beeps or nothing. Its as if it has no power at all. Tried to taje it apart and check all the connections but nothing has worked. Any ideas?

 

The pic attached shows were you can solder some micro wire+SMT 10k resistor to...


If you have an old pair of headphones/earbuds, the wire in there is extremely small and works wonders for soldering to small pads. You can find a surface mount 10k resistor on most dead electronics you have, It will have a code of 103 on top.




Solder the wire to the pad I circled, and solder the 10k resistor to the nearest ground pad. The most obvious one is were the screw threads through the motherboard.



A standard 20-30w iron can be bought for under $10 and most will come with a little bit of solder with them.

 

I first tried with some headphone wire, it was about 3x the size of the pin lol. Heqdphone wire will not work

 

DO NOT SOLDER TO THE PIN!


All of my headphones/earbuds us a coated copper wire that is a little thicker than a hair... even the free/$1 pairs I buy use this wire...

 

whitrzac, thanks a lot for that input. Very good ideas! I´ll try that soon!
So, i can solder anywhere on that... i think it´s a resistor itself, right?

 

no, its just an empty spot were a resistor would go... solder on the closest one to the PLL chip.

 

ignore....