The Truth About The Pencil Trick

[reaper79]

Where di you measure vcore ? Is it really between T7 and T8 ?

​

Yepperz, one is vcore, the other, T7, is gnd.

Well then, after doing the pencil trick my GP overclocks at 224 MHz with 1.4V at vcore.. that's most unusual..

​

Very unusual, either your GP32 is extremely odd, or your not measuring something right. Make sure you are on volts and not ohms or amps, and also make sure your measuring DC voltage and not AC voltage. Sometimes you may have to clean the T7 and T8 pads a bit to get an accurate reading. Does your multimeter have a Phold button? :blink:

I have a quicck question. I'm not saying that you are wrong, but have you ever really had a computer or a handheld die from overclocking or "overuse"? I mean not from burning it up immediately, but from just having it overclocked for years?

Oh yes, I've been overclocking since the Celeron 300A. About two years ago, I had a 1.3gphz Athlon T-bred overclocked in my HTPC system. It started crashing about a year after I built it and I actually had to underclock it to 1.2 to get it stable. I had a 1.4 t-bred that I tossed in and overclocked instead. More recently, myself and a team of friends were overclocking a 2500+ Barton last year for an O/C competition using peltiers and a water block. It lasted for a couple weeks, but eventually gave out, we had it running at 2.8ghz, and the temp never got above 10C.

Please don't spread stories about OC'ing killing or even shortening the life of your GP unless you can prove it. It's stuff like this that keeps people from wanting to try new things.

​

I offer you the opposite challenge Bast, if overclocking/overvolting WON'T kill or shorten the life of your GP, prove it. Actually you can't, it is proven scientific fact that you will cause any electrical component to age faster by adding more stress to it. The real question, one that neither you and I can prove without wasting a GP32, is how much it will shorten the life and at what point to you reach diminishing returns. Sorry, but it is a handful of us trying to get more out of our GP32's, not a giant industry like the PC with thousands doing research. What would be interesting is to find out how hot the CPU in the gp32 is before and after a volt mod and OC, and see what it says in the white sheets as the cpu's thermal limits. And certainly, it does not keep people from trying new things. Hopefully it will keep people from doing stupid things, such as uping your vcore without even measure it. :rolleyes:

There are several guys who have done the pencil mod already and are having no problems. Until someones GP fails due to that mod people should really refrain from trying to put a scare into others talking about how the pencil trick will shorten the life of your system.

​

The people who have done the pencil mod have been running for what??? 2 weeks??? Please, lets wait a couple months and see. I think your afraid that I am shitting in your proverbial cornflakes. My intention of what I first posted has very little to do with scare tactics. I myself have mine volt-modded and overclocked, and I have tried the pencil trick. I'm all in favor of overclocking the GP32, either with a resistor or with a pencil mod. Certainly I favor the resistor, but the pencil mod can be useful for those that can't mod their GP32 in the appropriate manner. What I am arguing against, is everyone that scratches on their resistor with a pencil without measure their vcore. If you want to use a halfhazard mod, then at least make sure it is within limits. 1.95 volts is VERY safe, it is 100% within specs. Surely a 10-15% overvolt(on top of that) along with a subsequent overclock is probably safe. Do not think that you are getting something for nothing? There is always a trade off, you cpu life WILL lessen, however the risk is certainly worth it IMHO. Thinking that you are safe just because your gp32 is not locking up is insane if you don't check your vcore, you could be at a very high voltage. If these chips could run forever at 2.2 volts @ 200mhz, I have to ask you Bast, don't you think that Samsung would have marketed it that way rather than having scientists test the hell out of it and publish the white papers for the processor? Think how many more they would have sold if they offered a 200mhz processor for the same price as the 133mhz one!

Anyways, this topic seems to be getting confused a bit, half of us are talking about the GP's CPU frying from excess voltage, and half of us are talking about the GP frying from overclocking. They are two seperate things. You could fry your CPU from too much voltage even at 133mhz, whereas many people that have GP's that can OC well past 166mhz with no mods at all, seem to be having no problems after years.

​

Indeed, overclocking your gp32 should not hurt it too much to worry about, as Bast said, it will let you know when you've gone too far. As for voltage, that is where the real concern is. Certainly this processor is durable, as I already pointed out, but if you want to do the pencil mod, just take the time and borrow or but a volt-meter. It takes seconds and is well worth it.


Cheers!


EDIT: deleted a bracket and the quotes got all screwed up, fixed now.

 

[Talyz]

For me it's worth overclocking, as I've got a NLU (not too expensive now...) and I use it for playing MD games (most games play perfect at 192mHz). If my GP32 stopped working due to a broken CPU, I would only buy a BLU+ instead! It certinly would feel rather stupid doing this on a perfectly new GP32 BLU+, though...

 

[LuvClub]

I was among the initial people who had foolishy had my Gp32 pencil-modded to a stable 220mhz. I suspect the vcore voltage of my GP32 is probably way up there (maybe over 2.5v). I can't really be bothered to measure the vcore voltage even though I'm sure I have a meter somewhere.

There are probably people who like me have had their GP32s for a few years now (and also have other gadgets like Zodiacs). We would probably only pick up the GP32 and give it a quick go for maybe an hour or two each week.

If by overclocking it it could give me a better gaming experience then I don't really care if it fries after half a year, though I highly doubt that it would.

It would probably be more of a waste if I had not used it to its full potential and still have it in working condition in 5 yrs time (when there would be other even better gadgets).

Well, these are only my thoughts.

I'm sure some people use their GP32s way more than me.

 

[Zap]

Very unusual, either your GP32 is extremely odd, or your not measuring something right. Make sure you are on volts and not ohms or amps, and also make sure your measuring DC voltage and not AC voltage. Sometimes you may have to clean the T7 and T8 pads a bit to get an accurate reading. Does your multimeter have a Phold button? :blink:

​

Yes I'm on volt, and yes the pads are clean.. and yes I know how to measure a voltage.
But what would a Phold button do ? If I get it right, its supposed to hold the display. No I don't have that. My reading are good.

 

[GP40]

IMHO, the wrong point is getting the most debate. The biggest problem is the time it takes to get it right and the fact that you'll probably have to redo the trick every month or so. Where as if you (or someone else) changes the resistor or parallels two resistors, its quicker to acheive and its a one off.

 

[The_Sheik]

So what lesson can be gained from all this? Basically, that my GP32 will outlast all others, and that if you wait 20 years to overclock your GP32, it will die of clogged arteries

​

Thanks for this great lesson !

 

[bagmouse7]

1) However long it takes, it will lower cpu life, whether its noticable or not
2) Its inaccurate, takes ages and then the coating wears off after a while
3) ICBA

​

Who cares about any of these points!
People said that same thing 10 years ago when people started overclocking CPUs. These failures you talk about just are not worth worrying about.