high multipliers with an old motherboard?

[felix88]

ok, i've got a MSI K7T Turbo LE motherboard and an XP1800 T-Bred "A". the motherboard has a KT133A chipset, and the multipliers in the BIOS go up to 15x.

anyway, the multipliers above 12x don't work correctly. i can get 12.5x by selecting the 13x multipiler, and the 14x and 15x ones give me some strange low number.

so, if i cut the correct L3 bridge on my XP, what is my motherboard going to do? will it work with the higher multipliers?

normally i'd just jump right in and start cutting bridges, but i can't afford any new parts right now, so i've got to be careful.

[candjac]

Originally posted by felix88
ok, i've got a MSI K7T Turbo LE motherboard and an XP1800 T-Bred "A". the motherboard has a KT133A chipset, and the multipliers in the BIOS go up to 15x.

anyway, the multipliers above 12x don't work correctly. i can get 12.5x by selecting the 13x multipiler, and the 14x and 15x ones give me some strange low number.

so, if i cut the correct L3 bridge on my XP, what is my motherboard going to do? will it work with the higher multipliers?

normally i'd just jump right in and start cutting bridges, but i can't afford any new parts right now, so i've got to be careful.

http://www.beachlink.com/candjac/index.htm link to Workarounds article, has ideas on accessing high range of Multiplier. See how you feel about them. Going from low range to high range are untested.

If you don't like them, then you might consider hard modding the L3s. There's a Table of Bridge Settings in the Tbred article...look it over to see which you'd have to open and close to set what you want.
John C.

[felix88]

thats some damn good info you've got there. just read the whole workarounds page and bookmarked the rest for later.

so i should be able to cut the 5th L3 bridge and my multipliers should start at 13x and go up. the numbers in the bios will stay the same, i'll just have to remember to add 8x to them(except for 11-12.5).

what method do you suggest for disconnecting the bridge? i've been reading about blowing it out using a couple of 1.5v batteries in series. i'd love to solder the 100 ohm resistor on there, but i don't have a soldering iron(or a steady hand).

[candjac]

Originally posted by felix88
thats some damn good info you've got there. just read the whole workarounds page and bookmarked the rest for later.

so i should be able to cut the 5th L3 bridge and my multipliers should start at 13x and go up. the numbers in the bios will stay the same, i'll just have to remember to add 8x to them(except for 11-12.5).

what method do you suggest for disconnecting the bridge? i've been reading about blowing it out using a couple of 1.5v batteries in series. i'd love to solder the 100 ohm resistor on there, but i don't have a soldering iron(or a steady hand).

If you open the 5th L3 you should get into the bios asap cause O-C-C-C-C = 11.5X default for 1800 and O-C-C-C-O = a 3.5X "Reserved" setting for Mobile CPUs which has Remapped to 19X in desktop CPUs. (Better read the Table of Settings in the Tbred article). So with little chance of booting at 19X you'd best get into bios before system hangs and try to set a more reasonable Multiplier setting. Hope you're convinced that it's best to know as much as possible about AMD's Multiplier Code, Circuits, bridges etc before starting to hack away, saves a lot of time and grief.

About opening bridges, safest procedure is to "wear away" material from middle of bridge with a hand tool held in fingers like a surgical instrumenmt or pencil, stroking just with fingers motion like writing number "ones" across the bridge. Inspect progress often to avoid going too deep. Use optical magnification.
We use the finest pointed diamond coated rotary burr we could get from our dentist, ( a used one), epoxied into a tube for handling as stated. Find similar at hd'we/hobby shops?? Key is very fine point so you just wear away the middle and not the whole bridge. Anything similar would be OK, like a jeweler's small pointed file, doesn't have to be diamond coated, CPU's organic body is soft, not hard like Duron/Tbird's ceramic...that's where diamond's were an oc'ers best friend.;-)
John C.

[felix88]

i should be able to reconnect the bridge using a conductive pen if anything goes wrong.

i'm still contemplating whether or not i should do this. i don't need to, but i want to. you know how it goes.

[Schitzo]

Originally posted by candjac
If you open the 5th L3 you should get into the bios asap cause O-C-C-C-C = 11.5X default for 1800 and O-C-C-C-O = a 3.5X "Reserved" setting for Mobile CPUs which has Remapped to 19X in desktop CPUs. (Better read the Table of Settings in the Tbred article). So with little chance of booting at 19X you'd best get into bios before system hangs and try to set a more reasonable Multiplier setting. Hope you're convinced that it's best to know as much as possible about AMD's Multiplier Code, Circuits, bridges etc before starting to hack away, saves a lot of time and grief.

About opening bridges, safest procedure is to "wear away" material from middle of bridge with a hand tool held in fingers like a surgical instrumenmt or pencil, stroking just with fingers motion like writing number "ones" across the bridge. Inspect progress often to avoid going too deep. Use optical magnification.
We use the finest pointed diamond coated rotary burr we could get from our dentist, ( a used one), epoxied into a tube for handling as stated. Find similar at hd'we/hobby shops?? Key is very fine point so you just wear away the middle and not the whole bridge. Anything similar would be OK, like a jeweler's small pointed file, doesn't have to be diamond coated, CPU's organic body is soft, not hard like Duron/Tbird's ceramic...that's where diamond's were an oc'ers best friend.;-)
John C.

Lol, you're really going around correcting people on that reserved mobile multiplier setting. Good stuff, although you should just start copy-pasting it

[felix88]

the 5th L3 bridge is the 8x bit, correct?

by cutting this bridge, most of my multipliers would be +8, save the odd few reserved ones.

i'm pretty confident i could do the mod, but i'm not willing to risk my CPU at the moment.

candjac, have you heard of the method where you blow up the bridges using a battery? Schitzo and a couple other members have tried it succesfully. would this method be safer than cutting the bridges with a knife?

[candjac]

Originally posted by felix88
the 5th L3 bridge is the 8x bit, correct?

candjac, have you heard of the method where you blow up the bridges using a battery? Schitzo and a couple other members have tried it succesfully. would this method be safer than cutting the bridges with a knife?

Yes, 5th L3 = 8X Bit.

Blowing bridges...anything would be safer than a knife with no depth control, might cut something lower in susbstrate. We'd never use a knife.
We have no experience blowing bridges, but as you say, reports are getting better all the time. Last one we saw used 2 C cells in series. But we're conservative and like the gradual "wear away" tool/technique we posted above.

Schitzo wrote..."you're really going around correcting people on that reserved mobile multiplier setting. Good stuff, although you should just start copy-pasting it"

Thanks for the idea and concern...but....
There are 4 settings in the 3X-4.5X + 4 other Reserved
settings and response has to be in the context of questions...which are not always the same. That makes "one size fits all" large/clumsy/not perfecly clear. Besides we're not going around "correcting" for the sake of correcting like an ego trip....trying to "inform" to save people time and trouble...tell them always to "learn the Code"/read the article/s.;-)
John C.

[felix88]

ok, this makes sense now. i'm going to have to blow the 5th L3 and the 3rd L3 like Schitzo did.

now my other question, i don't believe my MSI motherboard has the 5 bit multiplier. will it even work with the chip if i blow the bridges?

[candjac]

Originally posted by felix88
ok, this makes sense now. i'm going to have to blow the 5th L3 and the 3rd L3 like Schitzo did.

now my other question, i don't believe my MSI motherboard has the 5 bit multiplier. will it even work with the chip if i blow the bridges?

Yes it should work because when you open both bridges the default Multiplier will "change" to 13X. So as long as you put the mobo/bios Multiplier option into "auto" the system should boot into 13X..as long as CPU has the oc'g headroom. Try with Host Clock = 100MHz to prove Multiplier "tests".

Read the workarounds article if you want to try 13.5X, 14X...as you may have to set 8X less 5.5X, 6X, in the bios user-defined option...depends on the mobo...read some speculation etc about this issue.
John C.

[felix88]

thank you very much for all of your help candjac!

i'll probably try this as soon as i have an extra $50 for a new chip. just in case something goes wrong, ya know?

Originally posted by candjac
Read the workarounds article if you want to try 13.5X, 14X...as you may have to set 8X less 5.5X, 6X, in the bios user-defined option...depends on the mobo...read some speculation etc about this issue.

this is exactly what i want. cool!

so it should work like this:
5x = 13x
5.5x = 13.5x
6x = 14x
6.5x = won't boot(reserved correct?)
7x = 15x
7.5x = 15.5x

just checking to see if i completly understand you.

[candjac]

Originally posted by felix88
thank you very much for all of your help candjac!

i'll probably try this as soon as i have an extra $50 for a new chip. just in case something goes wrong, ya know?
so it should work like this:

5x = 13x
5.5x = 13.5x
6x = 14x
6.5x = won't boot(reserved correct?)
7x = 15x
7.5x = 15.5x

just checking to see if i completly understand you.

Yes but 7.5X-->15.5X has booted/Remapped into 22X (100MHz Host Clock)...see Table in Tbred article....
And, were assuming your mobo "may" require" those lower (-8X) settings...and "might" work. Has worked on other older mobos, but no one can guarantee specific mobos until tested. But your hard modded 13X should work...then if you can't get 14X via bios, you can always hard mod/open the 2nd L3.
John C.

[felix88]

must have missed that one, thanks.

probably won't be using multipliers that high anyway.

i may give this a try as early as tomorrow. i'll post my results. i'm going to go into my bios right now and check some stuff out.

thanks again

andy