Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

Overclocking: tell me about it

I just got rechargable batteries for my VDx, and I though, "Hey, maybe I should try that overclocking thing that everyone is talking about!" One problem: what the heck is overclocking? I know one thing: it makes the visor go faster. Here's what I want to know:

• How does it work?
  
• How much faster does it make things?
  
• Is it safe?
  
• What program(s) do I need?
  
• Are the programs free?
  
• How quickly will it eat my batteries?
  
• A list of programs that it tends to screw up.
  
• Everything you possibly know about overclocking.
  

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-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
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Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 447

Re: Overclocking: tell me about it

quote:

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Originally posted by ernieba1
I just got rechargable batteries for my VDx, and I though, "Hey, may

• How does it work?
  
• How much faster does it make things?
  
• Is it safe?
  
• What program(s) do I need?
  
• Are the programs free?
  
• How quickly will it eat my batteries?
  
• A list of programs that it tends to screw up.
  
• Everything you possibly know about overclocking.
  

---

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 206

quote:

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ernieba1 wrote
How does it work?
How much faster does it make things?
Is it safe?
What program(s) do I need?
Are the programs free?
How quickly will it eat my batteries?
A list of programs that it tends to screw up.
Everything you possibly know about overclocking.

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1) If you want me to get technical, tough, I'm not in the mood Basically your CPU speed is set by multiplyers of voltage. The settings can be manipulated by software: overclockers.

2) With a VDX, you can get 33 MHz with a registerd version of Afterburner if you hardware can take it. I'll write more on that in a minute.

3) As a matter of fact it is. Why do I say this is a fact? Well, check out this post: http://discussion.visorcentral.com/...light=overclock

Scroll down to the 9th post of the thread by MPM which gives an Engineering view of overclocking a PDA. Basically, you can't hurt the CPU in regards to heat. Why does Handspring not overclock? My guess is that Motorolla distributes these processors at the set speed, not Handspring, and therefore, to keep the warranty they have from Motorolla, Hanspring doesn't mess with it. Did you ever hear of the trouble computer distributers got into for changing the clock speed of CPU's they received from the manufacturer?

4) Several choices, biggest sellers right now I think are FastCPU (currently at ver. 2.5 I think) and Afterburner (currently ver. 3.0z I believe) If you use Afterburner, you need a hack program like Tealmaster, Hackmaster, or X-master. Another useful program is Benchmark. It will show you a comparison of speed of your VDx and other PDA's. I also recommend Quickbits, it's not an overclocker, it changes certain wait states (pause like commands) to be faster. Another program I'd recommend is Runtime. With it you can watch what kind of performance your getting from your batteries.

5) See thunderbird's post

6) That depends on what speed you set. I actually underclock mine in most applications to conserve battery life. I don't know how effective that is but you can experiment. I use runtime and I've gotten over 17 hours of actual runtime from a set of Duracell Ultras and over 18 hours from the Panasonic batteries that came in the box. Of course, I haven't tried rechargeables so I can't give you info on that.

7)I've heard that certain clock programs that run their own clock instead of using the system clock could suffer from over/underclocking. I haven't run accross one because I mostly use citytime and clock+.

8) Look at the thread above I linked above, it's very informative.


SPECIAL NOTE
I do have one more thing to add. Your VDx may not overclock to the same speed as someone else's PDA. This is just a result of your CPU being your CPU and the other CPU being the other CPU. Each CPU has it's own tolerance of overclocking. When I say tolerance, I don't mean that it will overheat and explode, it just doesn't function well. My friend can overclock his Platinum to 45 MHz while I can only overclock to 42 MHz. What happens if I try to go higher? My visor locks up and I have to do a soft reset, lower the speed and test. This is where Tealmaster comes into play. It asks what profile you want to set up after a soft reset. Using each preset to test a different speed after reset can be very useful

Anyway, I've gone to long with this but I hope it's helped.

- Burns

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 251

I tried overclocking a while back. The problem I had was that I only wanted the screen to paint faster in certain apps then slow back down. For instance, AvantGo take a long time to paint the screen, but after it's painted, I read for a while. I'd like the clock to slow down when things are relatively idle.

Datebk4 is another one. When you launch it, prepare to wait a few seconds. After you're in, no problem...

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

If I install it, and don't like it, can I uninstall it?

__________________
-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 65

Yes!

quote:

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If I install it, and don't like it, can I uninstall it?

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 206

quote:

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ernieba1 wrote:
If I install it, and don't like it, can I uninstall it?

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As dessa so elequently put it, yes you can uninstall it, but my advice would be to perform a soft reset just to make sure all settings are back to normal (or as close as they're gonna get to normal

- Burns

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

Okay, I installed it and here are my problems:

1. The keyboard won't work on overclocked programs.
   
2. AvantGo flickers when higher than 23 MHz.
   
3. Contrast varies for differently overclocked programs.
   
4. I get fatal errors a little more than I'd like (never).
   
5. It's just a little too unpredictable.
   

__________________
-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 206

What program did you install? If it was Afterburner, you have some options to deal with the flickering. If you look on the config screen, you will see two options that deal with this problem. One of them is Gray, the other is LCD/n. If you tap the I in the upper right corner, you can get information about these options that might help you more than I can. Even after that, it will probably require a little trial&error till you get something that you like. This should fix the flicker problems.

As far as the contrast goes, I haven't figured that out yet either. It's a result of the programs that are being overclocked setting their own contrasts and then not setting them back after you exit from them.

As for the keyboard, you might want to ask someone else who has one about that (I don't have one). I think I remember something being said about IR and serial not covered in the Unregistered versions, but taken care of in the registered version. I don't know. Check around and read the Readme.

The fatal errors might be caused by some of your other hacks (if you have any). If not, try lowering the speed a little. Remember, each CPU has it's own threshhold of overclocking.

Experiment some and see what happens. It's not gonna hurt anything.

- Burns

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Silicon Valley, California
Posts: 173

Don't give up yet! You may just need to experiment a bit.

I run my Prism (and, formerly, my Deluxe) using Afterburner +/- QuickBits. I basically speed up everything! Many games which are graphic intensive, like RayMan, etc. would be (for me) unplayable at regular speed...they're just toooo slow. I even speed up the built in launcher and SilverScreen (makes it a usable replacement!) I use a MatchBook CF adapter and speed up PowerRun (don't know if that's legit or not but it hasn't killed anything yet)

Also, some of the larger applications, like WordSmith, iSilo, HanDBase, etc. definitely benefit from the speed. I also have a StowAway. One of the workarounds is to type in the Memo Pad (which doesn't really benefit from overclocking)and then cut and paste into WordSmith. Depends on how much of a hurry you're in. Last week, I didn't feel like taking my laptop to work, so I took my keyboard, travel charger and Prism. Since I could only type between patients, time was of the essence so I just typed directly into the memo pad and edited later. Worked like a charm! Plus, everything fit in my purse!

Anyway...one of the reasons I switched from WinCE was the long wait times. It was like waiting for my laptop to boot up every time I wanted to do something. I didn't want my Prism to end up another expensive paperweight as the software became more complex and (often) slower...

Purplemd