Thread: MOVED: Mobile Athlon XP Question

You're complaining about a motherboard that doesn't work properly with your CPYU.
It has no place in the FAQ on the pin mod, so it is moved to the NEwbie forum.

Please don't post in any thread or forum with FAQ in the title unless you're posting informational content for everyone to utilize.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Lithotech

I recently came into possesion of an unused XP2500 mobile Barton cpu, and had intended to run it in an Asus A7N8X Rev2 mobo I also aquired

nice, that CPU and that motherboard make a great overclocking combo.

Sure enough, if I put this cpu in the Asus it boots to 800mhz, via 6x 133fsb

there's nothing wrong with that. since it's a mobile CPU, it's default speed is 800MHz (133 x 6).

The board is running 1007 version bios, I haven't yet checked to see what is the most recent. I would have thought Asus could release a bios that would work properly with these chips

they did, in fact they released a few BIOS's, all of which work properly with those CPUs.

is this pin mod really the only way to get the cpu at it's proper speed?

of corse not, just go into the BIOS and set it to whatever speed you want it to run at. there's certainly no need for physical chip modifications.

Do some other mobos run these properly?

yes and no. not all socket-A motherboards can run mobile CPUs, good ones like the A7N8X can.

They are supposed to idle at 800 and boost to full speed under load

in a laptop, yes; in a desktop, no! in a desktop it will run at whatever speed you tell it to!

The bios has a multiplier setting, I simply cannot fathom what use it is if all the desktop cpu's are multiplier locked ~ Weren't the desktop XP's fully locked, up and down?

no, not all desktop socket-A's were locked. some were unlocked, some were partially unlocked, some could be easily unlocked, and some could not be unlocked at all

mobile athlon-XPs are unlocked, so the multipler setting is required to overclock it or to simply run it at any speed faster than 800MHz.

if you put an unlocked mobile in it doesn't run properly at all!

IT DOES RUN PROPERLY!! you just have to set it in the BIOS!

Most socket A mobos don't even have a multiplier setting, yet this one does (as do others), but what use is it on a locked CPU?

true, most socket-A mobos don't have multiplier settings because most mobos suck and cannot handle overclocking. the good ones like the A7N8X have those settings available to you because the motherboard is good quality and can handle the resulting overclock.

BTW, the motherboard manufacturer does not make the BIO. they buy it from award, AMI, pheonix, etc. the original BIOS already has all those features/settings in it, the motherboard manufacturer can remove settings if they wish.

It just would be so much easier if the cpu would work properly when the multi is set to auto, and stay locked in at 14x if set to 14x -- in other words, does not throttle down at idle unless the multi is set to auto.

first off, "CPU throttling" is Intel, not AMD. second, socket-A desktops do NOT have an automatic speed adjustment based on load. if set to auto, it will simply run at its default speed and stay there. you must change it to manual and set it yourself to run it faster or slower than it's default speed.

while socket-A laptops have the ability to change CPU speed based on system load, but socket-A desktops do NOT. AMD introduced "cool & quiet" beginning with the socket-939 Athlon64, where both desktops laptops would change speed based on load.