iori
August 31st, 2004, 01:22 PM
Alrighty, I found this extremely odd. Yesterday a friend gave me one of his old Processors, apparantly a Pentium 166 MMX. This is better than my current 166 stock, so I was a happy camper. Now...
I install it today, and it doesnt like me, and I dont know why. On old Socket7 motherboards, the cpu speed is controlled by 4 jumpers, 2 each for both Mulitplier and Frequency. Now before I installed the MMX, I had the jumpers set at 3.0x and 60 respectively, 180mhz (when I got the mobo ages back they were set at 2.5x and 66, 166mhz). I change the processor this morning, and even though my jumper settings tell me that it should be a 180, it says in my bios that its a 150. Weird.
So I adjust the jumpers again, setting them to the maximum of 3.0x and 66, which normally would be ~200 mhz. All that did was up my cpu speed one 'level', to 166mhz. I find this extremely odd... its like the cpu has a built in limiter or something, but I thought that MMX CPU's came at a minimum of 166mhz. That aside, the jumpers should overrule what the 'recommended' settings for the processor is, on Socket 7's at least.
Anyone have any ideas as to why this occurs?
//edit: Answered my own question, MMX chips from the latter end of 1997 had their multipliers locked. Great. Now I can get a new Socket 7 motherboard from a friend which might have a higher frequency delimiter than 66mhz (which isnt locked)...
//edit2: I ALSO found out that having my cpu clocked at 180 was actually having a detrimental effect, because the multiplier shouldnt be higher [on the chart] than the frequency. So I guess I'll sit with 166mhz for now, but If I get that motherboard with the frequency capped higher, I can yet further the life of this old beast.
I install it today, and it doesnt like me, and I dont know why. On old Socket7 motherboards, the cpu speed is controlled by 4 jumpers, 2 each for both Mulitplier and Frequency. Now before I installed the MMX, I had the jumpers set at 3.0x and 60 respectively, 180mhz (when I got the mobo ages back they were set at 2.5x and 66, 166mhz). I change the processor this morning, and even though my jumper settings tell me that it should be a 180, it says in my bios that its a 150. Weird.
So I adjust the jumpers again, setting them to the maximum of 3.0x and 66, which normally would be ~200 mhz. All that did was up my cpu speed one 'level', to 166mhz. I find this extremely odd... its like the cpu has a built in limiter or something, but I thought that MMX CPU's came at a minimum of 166mhz. That aside, the jumpers should overrule what the 'recommended' settings for the processor is, on Socket 7's at least.
Anyone have any ideas as to why this occurs?
//edit: Answered my own question, MMX chips from the latter end of 1997 had their multipliers locked. Great. Now I can get a new Socket 7 motherboard from a friend which might have a higher frequency delimiter than 66mhz (which isnt locked)...
//edit2: I ALSO found out that having my cpu clocked at 180 was actually having a detrimental effect, because the multiplier shouldnt be higher [on the chart] than the frequency. So I guess I'll sit with 166mhz for now, but If I get that motherboard with the frequency capped higher, I can yet further the life of this old beast.