Omnibook xe4100 CPU upgrade

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

I replaced the old Celeron 1.13GHz with a Pentium III-M 1.2GHz in my hp omnibook xe4100. It works but only at 800MHz (133x6). So I searched for a while and it seems to be a speedstep problem. Is there anything I can do to make it use the higher multiplier?

I have tried to find software to do this but nothing seems to work. I think the chipset is VIA ProSavage PN133T (TwisterT) and it should support speedstep. I have the latest bios and while booting it shows the correct CPU name. The bios setup doesn't have anything about speedstep...

So I think the speedstep feature is somehow disabled in bios but could it be still possible to enable the higher multiplier or is there a way to modify the bios? I tried phoenix bios editor and found some read-only speed switching options but don't know what to do. So somebody (sharedoc? ) please help me...

You could try Rightmark CPU clock utility to switch PentiumIII-M CPU to higher multiplier. It works under Windows XP.

There are other similar utilities which may support your CPU.

Thanks for the answer!

Rightmark CPU clock utility or anything else I have tried don't seem to work. Can it be like this because the bios doesn't allow the multiplier 9? The old CPU had a multiplier of only 8.5. I could ask HP about this but doubt they would help...

I doubt BIOS can prevent utility programs for switching to higher frequency. BIOS normally sets the initial speed.

Did Rightmark CPU clock utility recognise the PentiumIII-M correctly? What CPUID does it report?

One possibe explanation could be that the mainboard hardware does not support SpeedStep. Based on the datasheet it seems that PentiumIII-M cpus have hardware GHI# signal that selects the multiplier. This pin has internally pull-up resistor, so if this pin is not driven by the motherboard to 0V during powerup, then low multiplier is chosen. GHI is pin R2 in MicroPGA2-pagkage. What you could do is to seek this pin and wire it to 0V (GND) via a 1kohm resistor.

Additionally you may need to run DeepSleep program by W Marcus Miller to help CPU to switch the multiplier but I am not sure if this is needed.

Thanks again for the quick reply.
RightMark CPU Clock Utility has all the needed options grayed out. It says the CPU is a Genuine Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) III-M Tualatin tA1 6B1 and all the FID/VID entries are N/A. Save diagnostic info gives:

Code: Select all

CPUID      EAX      EBX      ECX      EDX
00000000   00000002   756E6547   6C65746E   49656E69
00000001   000006B1   00000006   00000000   0383F9FF
00000002   03020101   00000000   00000000   0C040883
80000000   80000004   00000000   00000000   00000000
80000001   00000000   00000000   00000000   00000000
80000002   65746E49   2952286C   6E655020   6D756974
80000003   20295228   20494949   69626F4D   4320656C
80000004   20205550   20202020   30303231   007A484D

MSR      EDX      EAX


The RMClock Utility site says:

NOTE: Intel(R) SpeedStep(tm) technology and the "old" vision of Enhanced Intel(R) SpeedStep(tm) technology found in mobile Pentium III-M and mobile Pentium 4 processors are not supported.

And as I said almost all the fields in the Management page are greyed out. I could try to do the soldering part if I can figure out how to do it the next time I open this machine.

ps. Huomasin vasta nyt tuon Location: Finland -kohdan

I was googling for something and found this post. I checked my MSR at 0x2A and it is 0x46c40000 which would translate to multiplier 8.5 (same as my old 1,13GHz celeron) and I think it should be 0x46040000 (9x if I calculated right). I don't know if this means something but thought it is worth a post.

Sharedoc wrote:

GHI is pin R2 in MicroPGA2-pagkage. What you could do is to seek this pin and wire it to 0V (GND) via a 1kohm resistor.

I downloaded the datasheet from Intel and I think the correct pin would be L5? That could take care of the GHI# but what to do with the voltage? Will it change automatically or what?

An operating mode transition to the high core frequency can be made by putting the processor into the Deep Sleep state, raising the core voltage, setting GHI# low, and returning to the Normal state.

And does it make a difference that this CPU supports the newer EIST(V2.1)? It needs 1.1V at 800MHz and 1.4V at 1200MHz. I'm wondering what the voltage is now when the cpu runs at the lower clock rate. Is there an easy way to check this?

Vcore is set by the VID code given by the CPU.

CPU-Z utility shows the Vcore voltage

[cp]

did you try this?

http://crystalmark.info/software/Crysta ... dex-e.html

Did you get any further with your upgrade? I have the same laptop, trying to upgrade the Celeron 1133 to a Pentium 4M Looking at the service manual, there appear to be two motherboards (KB = P4M 1.4-1.7 ad KC = Celeron 1.06-1.2) So I'm doubtful I can just drop in the P4M

If you've had any success though - I'd love to hear!

Hi,

I've exactly same problem with my xe4100.

The only answer (and i've been researching for few weeks) i have is that:

Mobile Celeron Tualatin (freq. ranges as in laptop specs) is NOT Micro-FCPGA2. As indicated on Intel site those Celerons come in 478 package.

Twister-T chipsets is perfectly able to manage both Celeron and Pentium processors, manual for xe4100 states that there is no problem when upgrading for faster Celeron CPU (i.e from 1.06 GHz to 1.2 GHz) and those Celerons need different voltage. So BIOS should recognize Pentiums without problems - and because it does and they work without issues may indicate that this is the case.
Mine P III 1GHz/133/512 works as 733/100/512 (even if BIOS correctly identifies it as 1000 MHz), but it seems that exchange was a gain for me anyway: fan does not start when watching .ogm or .mkv files at all, when with Celeron it started regularly as a clock - every 10 minutes or so. Also battery time is considerably longer.

After some reading regarding other laptop brands i am left with one conclusion: if one want Pentium III in an xe4100 one need another motherboard. Because CPU socket is wrong, even if PIII fits and works (castrated, of course).

@gball
KB motherboard simply means xe4500 Omnibooks, and thus working with 400 MHz (not sure though, it may be 533) FSB, and not 133 MHz (which is the case with KC motherboard). So Centrino or P4M is a no no in xe4100.

Follow-up notes on upgrade.

Seems to be unsuccesful after all. Reason why CPU cooling fan does not start when stressing processor is because it is not working at all. I mean normally - in laptops i mean, and somewhat older to boot - fan starts when certain treshold is crossed for certain amount of time. Normally it would be temperature-based (as is in my desktop) but in laptops it is percentage of CPU load.
Or at least should be.

So when i began experiencing momentary freezes and complete hangups and everything stopped after reinserting Celeron it means only one...

Time for new (or at least newer) laptop.