Overclocking the Sager NP9260 ( D901C )

Hi,

i'm trying to find some information on overclocking the np9260. The bios right now seems to restrict access to the the cpu multipliers and the voltage, but is there a way right to bypass these limitations. Any modded bios enabling these missing features or are there any cpu unlocker for vista 64 (found one called rm clock utility at http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml, but it doesn t seem to support vista yet...). Any information would be appreciated, also any third party software to check cpu temperature under windows vista 64, might come in handy if overclocking becomes possible.


cheers


configuration :

4 gig ram
1 x 7950 gtx
e6700
160 gig ram

 

Nice notebook, does it run hot? ClockGen can speed up FSB check if Vista capable.

 

They run freakishly cool at stock speeds.

 

yes... im pretty sure the D901C has one of the best cooling for a notebook system.

 

So far oc of video seems to be all that can be easily accomplished. I keep looking for info on the Net, but nothing so far.

Problem is that the board must use newer devices, PLL and clock generator, that existing software can't touch, and the bios is very simplistic. Patience...

 

Its actually really cool, the cooling system with the 3 monster vents makes a great job. I m thinking it should be a nice over clocker if done right + at worst an external cooling system is always an option, i d be monitoring it with some temp software just to make sure its ok, but my bet is it should be able to handle it easily. I ll check clockgen, hopefully bios update makes things easier, but yeah its very very simplistic, used to full blown bios so was a bit disappointed in the limited options in the bios, but otherwise an amazing laptop . And yeah ntune makes a great job of over clocking the gpu, i clocked the gpu core at 601 and memory at 723, higher clocks would cause some artifacts.

thanks for info guys!

 

Update : tried clockgen and right now it doesn't recognize the hardware so guess it wont work for right now, will have to either wait for an update or until a modified bios is made available.

 

With SLi activated, I can run 624 core and 750 memory without issues, including the licensed version of 3dMark06, which I use as a stress verifier.

I found that exceeding 625 on core limits memory to 719/720. But lowering core to 624/621 allows memory to go to 780790 without any issue. So I back off core to 624/621 and memory to 750 for a cushion of safety/cooling. The Sli DOES make a huge difference when it comes to Riva oc. That is something that doesn't get mentioned in this forum...

Chasing speed, I've upgraded from E6700 to X6800 [Ebay at ~$520]. Minor gains.

Upgraded from 2gb Samsung 800mhz memory to 4gb OCZ sticks. Very minor effect.

Added cooling [6 external fans]. Helps stabilize the oc for some higher speeds without artifacts, but NOT as great an effect as running the Laptop fans locked at full speed.

I believe the biggest gain will be from moving +266mhz on cpu speed from an oc. But unfortunately, I don't have the skills to make that happen. Any experts out there?

I know that with the old processor from the Laptop in my desktop, and reclocking from 2.66 to 3.40mhz makes a difference in operating that I can feel.

 

AlanP, messaged you about OCing the CPU. I have a feeling the CPU can be overclocked by ClockGen similar to how we all figured it out on the M570U, by editing the PLL register. You can read the proper CLOCK/FSB from the PLL registers with ClockGen when selecting certain ICS PLL's. By reading the vendor ID byte in the PLL it verifies its an ICS in the D900C as well. The revision ID has the low 2 bits set, so it's equal to 0x3. I tried the same technique as the M570U on the D900C by changing 0x7E in byte9 to 0x7F, enabling the lowest bit. No luck this time. I am looking for the service manual to the D900C as it will tell me what PLL is used, so I can find the datasheet on it and figure this all out. ;P

 

I also tried playing with the bits in Clockgen. You can get some of the values to change and lock in, but not the FSB or CPU. Changing the spread value only yields a very minor increase.

I think that Notebook Hardware Control will be a good answer, but this Laptop uses a desktop processor, which he currently does not support. But an E-mail to me indicated that he was working on it, and to be patient.

SETFSB and Clockgen are old versions, based on their release dates. I'm not surprised to not have support for this ?newer? PLL and Clock genrator supported.

I am surprised that Europe hasn't yielded some kind of fix by now. They seem driven to get more out of equipment, as Canada and Australia are also...

If you have suggestion on which values to try changing in Clockgen, send it to me and I will try them... I played around with (5) or (6) of the banks of values [the system of numbers in Clockgen mean little to me beyond the M570U postings that I had seen], but only succeed in locking up the Laptop, or minor change in the Spread Value....

 

From the looks of the datasheets on idt.com...ICS PLL's tend to use byte 9 as either an overclocking register, watchdog register, or sometimes they use the term "Trusted Mode Enable". These basically can enable you to use software to modify the M/N Programming registers. There's also the M/N Programming Enable bit that is usually the highest bit on the register right before M/N registers. I found a read-only bit in Byte 9. Still trying to figure out which PLL this is.

 

I went to your Ebay post... If you buy a slower CPU with the Laptop, you can upgrade to a brand new sealed box X6800 off Ebay for about $500... If you accept a slightly used version, the price falls about $100+. The installation is quite simple, and Artic Silver is available from Tigerdirect for $5 for a tube that will do about 4 to 5 installs.

I got OCZ 2gb 800mhz memory sticks from Zoomfly, and again it's an easy install, while your into the CPU area... You just need to have a good quality small Phillips head screwdriver...

Pricing for the Q6700 is also low on Ebay for anyone wanting to experiment... I don't see the point, as oc of the X6800, or even the E6600 would get you to 3.4 mhxz...

 

You will most likely need to edit a register value (resets after power off) or do a pin-mod (can be permanent) to get things to overclock without an extreme version core 2 duo multiplier unlocked. Since I have an E6600 the only method I can OC it is via FSB. So the PLL dump'd data given by ClockGen that reads the SMBus, is very important. There will need to be a certain bit to unlock software control of the FSB. But finding the bit is hard since we dont know which ICS (I'm sure its ICS) made PLL it is. If I can find the service manual to the D90xC it will give the PLL model in it.

 

Oh I already got the D900C. Specs:
- D900C WUXGA 1x7950GTX Barebones with DVDRW + WLAN-N Module
- 2GB DDR2 667 CAS LAtency 4 modules. I went with DDR2 667 since it's all the E6600 needs, so might as well get CL4 over CL5.
- 2.4GHz E6600
- 2x 80GB 7200RPM

 

The series of ICS starting with ICS 954119 thru ICS 954519 allow reading the clock and allow the PLL Control slide bar to set vales, they just don't lock in when you apply the selection.

When I was chasing oc some weeks ago I copied the ICS 954204 data sheet. I think that one of the foreign sites referred to this ICS version.

 

Changing the 01 bit from FF to FE raises the CPU from1596 to 1600, and the FSB raises accordingly. But changing the 09 bit did not allow for PLL Control, at least any values that I have tried. Applying the wrong values locks the Laptop, forcing a reboot...

It is interesting to note that opening CPU-Z, while Clockgen is running causes an error in CPU-Z and locks out memory reads..

BTW the 266 mhz timings for the OCZ chips are CL3.
CL4 at 333mhz and CL5 for 400mhz.

The change in value 01 to FE does make a change for CPU-Z reading of the CPU speed...

 

Yeah I get 333MHz CL4 on accident, instead of 266MHz CL3 :x
I'll look into byte 01. It could be the spread spectrum?

 

I noticed you said 1.6GHz. If you use RMClock from rightmark.org you can disable C1E (SpeedStep) on the D900C in the advanced menu section. This is important for overclocking as it wont throttle voltages/etc. It will stay at the max cpu clock and appropriate voltage.

 

Ran the RMClock dropping the C1E, oc'd video at 634_803 and left spread spectrum altered. Then ran 3dMark06, hit 10,001. Nothing to get excited about, I was expecting more like 10,030+

BTW, ICS 954119 and ICS 954148 read the PCIE and PCI correctly. ICS 954123 errors on the PCIE and PCI. ICS 954519 errors on all numbers, giving large values for all. The correct ICS chip must be in the ICS 9541xx series...

 

634 oc might be a bit too high, i was only able to get 613 if i oc d higher i would start getting small artifacts in a few games. Might be faster but if its uglier not worth it .

For processor overclocking might have to wait until there are new utilities that support this hardware... wish the bios had these in, would so much easier!! Hopefully we ll soon be able to oc at 3.4 g

 

Do you have SLi? If you don't, that's probably the difference. At 634 oc there is a flash or two in Deep Freeze test, but otherwise everything runs clean [with Vram at 800+].

Actually run 621/624 for daily use, as it is very stable, cool and yields a good fps, with vram at 750. If I disable SLi, then I can't pass RivaTuner testing with these type settings...

 

On oc, I'd settle for 3.192 CPU speed [266 fsb x 12] But unfortunately, I have not found a way to change the multiplier from the current 11x to 12x Not good for an Intel CPU that is supposed to be unlocked.

BTW, using RMClock to lock the processor to full operating speeds [disabling C1E stepping] raises the temps from 36c to about 50c!

 

Yep no sli, that must be why. Hmm 14 c more seems alot... In a stress test that would way beyond 60 c...

 

AlanP: Try these steps to unlock the FID (Multiplier) with RMClock:

#1. Open the RMClock directory and edit the RMClock_Tweaks.reg where it says:
// Unlock full CPU multipliers (FIDs) range.
//
// NOTE: Your CPU may not actually accept all FID values from the "unlocked" FID range.
//
// Default: 0 (disabled), Valid values: 0 (disabled), 1 (enabled)
//
"UnlockFid"=dword:00000000

2. Change this
"UnlockFid"=dword:00000000
to
"UnlockFid"=dword:00000001

3. Save the .reg file.
4. Run the .reg file to merge it into the registry.
5. Restart RMClock if running or run RMClock if not.
6. Change the CPU Defaults to a new FID/Multi in the Management section of RMClock or if available change it in the profiles section.

 

Yep, unfortunately the multiplier only goes up to 11x. There is no 12x available. Is there a way to get RMClock to offer 12x as an option?

Resetting voltages for the CPU does not have an effect, according to CPU-Z as a monitoring check...

Found another program Crystal CPUID ver.4.13, which does have higher multipliers available, but they don't work to reset, according to CPU-Z.

I went wandering looking for software to reset the CPU multiplier, since that is an Intel function, and probably not motherboard related, I hoped.

 

I found out the PLL on the D900C is either the ICS 954227 or something extremely compatible register-wise. Thing is, I get a weird pattern on the screen when enabling M/N Frequency Programming. It may be due to this, as stated in the 954227.pdf:
• Supports programmable spread percentage and
frequency
• Uses external 14.318MHz crystal, external crystal load
caps are required for frequency tuning

Either we dont have these crystal load caps (?) or something is wrong with the way SetFSB/CPUCool and I configure the 954227 to enable the programming of frequencies in the PLL's registers. If we dont have the required hardware to overclock, then CPU overclocking won't happen.

If someone wants to take a look at the 954227.pdf doc, here it is attached to this post...Let me know if you take a look at it and find something.

 

is there anything special to OC'ing the SLI setup, like an extra step or something, versus OC'ing a single-card setup?

 

No, if you use RivaTuner, -> target adapter, ->customize, -> hardware monitoring - gets you temp monitoring... There's another thread here that steps you thru making resident...

Driver settings -> customize -> system settings -> performance 3d +check driver-level hardware overclocking. Use the slides to set oc, the click test, and then check Apply overclocking at Windows startup...., then check apply box at the bottom. That's it. Pretty darn easy....


Without SLi, the coretemp will be limited to about 610, with SLi you can hit 640... But that high limits memory to about 720. At 621/624 settings, I can run 750 to 775 on memory without issues, assuming that fans are on full.

With RivaTuner, you can hit roughly 3 on incremental changes [like 621 or 624]. You can't set at 625... With Coolbits you have greater numeric control, but ther isn'tbuilt in temp monitoring. If you use Coolbits, and then run RivaTuner, the Coolbits gets overwritten, and you then loose the ability to set single digit changes in over clock or the ability to click to increase by +5.

The trade off for 1) temp monitoring is worth it, only one program running, good speed gains in video, and still cool running on the graphics cards. They stay around 35c to 40c. The EVGA8800 Ultra Superoverclock card in my Desktop lives at 65c to 69c with the factory settings [655 core, 1125 memory]. The SLi cards do run cool, you gotta love em. And they oc clock really friendly....

BTW, the E6700 versus X6800 make insignificant difference in SLi video oc from my testing experience. The sweet spots seem to be E6600, if we can get oc working on the CPU, and E6700 if we can't... X6800 is a luxury excess in spending with little gained, even if we can get oc working for this Laptop, the E6600 will hit the same clocking range as the E6700 and the X6800....

Hope all that rambling helps someone....

 

It just makes me wonder how the X6900 with a x12 multi will work. I wonder if a BIOS update will be needed.

 

Holy cow, thanks for that amazing guide, Alan!
I'm sure it will come in lots of use.
Now I know some good place as to where to start.
And thanks to you too, Wu for the PM of the same theme. I just wanted to see what a few others had to say about it. The CPU OC talk is completely greek to me, but now I may actually work up the courage to OC my laptop.

 

OK, I've been trying out some stuff.
And, neither ATI Tool or RivaTuner will save any of my settings. I click on Test, Apply, & Save, and afterwards, nothing changes.

I open either program, and they report the factory settings. I try loading a saved profile, and Riva's profile that I just saved with the settings is now at factory. I reboot, and the same thing happens.

ATI Tool just wont even let me save or apply any damn thing. Only thing it'll let me do is scan for artifacts, though thats why I dl'd it in the first place anyway...

 

Akilae Hunter: Some drivers for NVidia cards dont allow overclocking via software. I don't use SLI, but I have the latest 163.44 drivers for Bioshock from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com ...These drivers allow software overclocking.

 

A.Hunter,

I am using the "standard" video drivers that came on the CD with the System.

In RivaTuner, at the settings menu -> Send to tray on close and Always on top are checked boxes, along with Run at Windows startup.

Now you will a "sunflower" icon on the toolbar. Left click once on it. Click on Main, click on customzie in the "Drivers settings". Click on System settings.

Box at "Enable driver-level hardware overclocking" is checked and set to performance 3d, should get you there.

----------

A quick check for problems would be this... Download Coolbits. http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815

when you unzip, you will have a "setup" subdirectory. Double click coolbits_forceware.reg. It will do an automatic update of your registry - with your permission, of course. Now when you right click on the Desktop, and open display properties, the "settings", then "advanced" at the bottom right, then the Geforce Go 7950 GTX, then click on the green arrow on the left center of the box - it expands for more command options. You have a SLi multi-GPU setting to enable the SLi and a overclocking option which is very user friendly. But there is no built in temp monitoring, and activating RivaTuner now will overwrite the Coolbits registry settings. No to worry, use Speedfan for the monitoring - minimized. If you hover the mouse over the blue temp now in your tool tray, a box opens showing the temps. But you will not get temp displays in the upper right corner during games.

 

OK, so after following the directions from multiple sources including here, I have come to the conlusion of Zodttd. Its my drivers. But, I don't think I'm quite yet willing to play the SLI driver roulette again so soon. (Bioshock was near-unplayable on Stock drivers...) So maybe after I beat Bioshock, or hear about a new wunderdreiv3r here I'll putz around with it. For now, Stalker, SupCom, Oblivion, Carbon, Most Wanted, and all my others work nicely and I dont want to fsck it up.

 

I found this overclocking article which is pretty good.

Also found this article on getting the most cooling from a C2D desktop processor. Looks a bit dangerous to me, but if it lowers cooling by 10C....might be worth it for a Quad user.

 

Lapping helps heat transfer a bit, but you still need a pretty extreme cooling solution for that to make a difference. TEC is where it's at if you ask me. Find a way to fit a thermoelectric cooling solution into a notebook, and you'll burn someone's lap for real

 

Ouch thats some major warranty voiding right there !1

 

Great article. A little mish-mashed on the information though -- and the main focus seems to be changing the CPU multiplier. I'm looking to change the FSB base frequency, so I have a few questions:

1. Did anyone have success using SetFSB or ClockGen to tweak the FSB frequency
2. Was the FSB frequency settable independent of the other clocks like memory?
3. Were the settings persistent or do you need to reapply every boot?

My 9261 shows up soon and I hope to bump the base FSB freq for my Q6600 from 266MHz to 333MHz (should be possible if I raise my core voltage a bit -- and I get a little lucky).

I'll OC my GPUs using either RivaTuner or nTune. Not worried about that part. Just the FSB tweaks.

 

Kozi: The PLL seems to be the ICS 954227. I attached a datasheet for it somewhere on this board. In order to change the FSB via software you need to program the PLL via the SMBus. It seems there's something within the BIOS restricting programming the PLL (for FSB) and also the MCHBAR (for memory timings). I spoke to Eurocom about this and it seems they're considering idea's for allowing some sort of overclocking of the CPU, whether it be presets in the BIOS, or allowing it via software.

You *might* be able to do something similar to the Clevo M570U PLL trick by setting a bit within the PLL registers to allow for overclocking via ClockGen/SetFSB. The bit that M570U PLL uses doesn't allow software overclocking on the D901C. If you try SoftFSB with the ICS954227 you will get an instant crash and the screen will fill with a graphical pattern. The same sort of crash occured with the M570U until that certain bit was set. I never was able to find out what that bit controlled in the PLL register, and if it applies to the ICS954227.

 

Thanks zodttd. I just read the datasheet and checked the M570U trick. They set bit 0 of byte 9 to a value of 1. This is strange because that bit is "reserved" in the datasheet -- no specified function.

Someone must have gotten really lucky with their setFSB tweeking to find it.

I'm not 100% sure the PLL is the 954227, especially if it thrashes your display. However byte 9 is the LCD Clock register -- maybe your display crashed after setting bit 0?

Best bet is to have someone open their 9260/1 and look for the PLL chip (by the 14.318 MHz Crystal).

I don't have my 9261 yet so I can't help for a couple weeks.

 

Kozi: The ICS 954227 is used in the D900C, I believe. The M570U does NOT use the ICS 954227, therefor that datasheet isn't relevant to that registers data. If it helps you find out why byte9 bit0 of the M570U's PLL works as such, I think the M570U is using the ICS 954226.

 

Thanks zodttd.

The ICS website is here:

http://www.idt.com/?app=search&searchType=documents&source=products_navBar

But no datasheets for the 9542xx family of PLLs. Where did you get the original 954227 datasheet? Maybe we can get the 954226 datasheet there as well.

 

Looks like you can try setting different bits in Byte 8 which would select which SRC clock to control. I'm not sure if the SRC clocks are even used since there are 3 CPU clocks as well. But this would be an easy thing to try.

Also bit 6 of byte 15 enables M/N freq control. At first blush that should be turned on, but byte 15 is an LCD clock control register so this may not enable the clock we really want.

I may play with it some time after my lappy arrives.

 

ANy updates....

Thinking of ordering from xoticpc the same laptop....


Would like to know if I could overclock the q6700.


joe

 

Anybody thought of doing something like this? http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=499340
to overclock?
It is pretty ballsy.... Would be interesting to try.

joe

 

Very interesting post,

Any brave man with a spare Q6600?

Trance

 

Anybody know what type of bios the d900c and the d901c have?
Phoenix?

Trying to see if there is a possiblity of getting an upgraded bios for this box...

Joe

 

I'd be willing to give it a go, but not yet... I'm in a critical project and I don't have a "spare" Q6600.

The pin-mod doesn't look that bad -- rather easy actually. It reminds me of the AMD K7 unlock trick with a pencil a few years ago.

I'll probably download the Q6600 Data Sheet from intel before trying it. I would really like to know the function of that pin which is being shorted to Vcc.

 

Kozi,
Can you get your bios info to me??

I would really to try to get a better bios...

joe

 

I'm using the BIOS received on my laptop from sager. It's Pheonix Trusted Bios 6. I don't know the exact bios version but I bet it's the one posted on the clevo or sager website.

Don't get too excited because it's pretty lame. If a BIOS could contain almost no features -- then this would be it.