Hi All, Today morning I brought a 512MB stick from my hardware chap and tried to fit it into my system but it was not comptable with my existing 512MB ram and so I will return it tomorrow. However, while trying to get the Ram chips to work together I tried various things and now when I go to my bios I find the following setting. CONFIGURE ADVANCED CPU SETTING Manufacture: Intel Brand String : Intel (R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.70GHz Frequency: 1700MHz Ratio Status: Unlocked (this was initially locked) Ratio Actual Value: 17 Ratio CMOS Setting : [ 8] This last option was not available first and I can enter upto a 3 digit no. in that field. I am 100% positive that before today my ratio status was "locked" and I have no idea how it is unlocked today all of a sudden. I tried setting the ratio at 9 first, and everything ran fine, then I set it to 10 and ran 3dmark 05 and I got about 150 more cpu points, although I will check again. I have no idea what "Ratio CMOS Settiing" means and I have no idea how I managed to get in unlocked today after having this processor for over 3 years now. If anyone can help in this regard that would be really nice. Any comments from anyone in this regard will be highly appreciated. Sarosh

The ratio is the multiplier of your processors FSB(front side bus) For example, if your FSB is 133mhz, and you set your clock ratio at 8, you will end up with a processor running at 1064mhz, which is just over 1ghz. As far as i know, the maximum ratio for a p4 is 12, but, you can up the ratio in increments of .5, am i right? I have no idea how it unlocked itself, usually only certain motherboards hold the pentium unlocker. Be careful though, since you are running your processor at a higher speed than it was supposed to, it is putting more strain on itself, and unless you have adequate cooling (fans, heatsinks, or even water cooling) the processor could burn out when you are playing a processor hungry game, or running a big program. Good luck on finding out how it unlocked though. CHECK OUT MY MUSIC AT HTTP:\\ROAST.DMUSIC.COM 1040Mhz Pentium 3 OC'd at 1.2Ghz Aopen MX3WPRO-E mobo Intel 810 chipset Onboard Graphics-RECENTLY UPGRADED TO 64MB PCI SAPPHIRE RADEON 7000<

what exactly happens to your CPU speed when you change the ratio? This space for rent

[sorry to interrupt post, but i must apologise to jam. Sorry, no hard feelings.] CHECK OUT MY MUSIC AT HTTP:\\ROAST.DMUSIC.COM 1040Mhz Pentium 3 OC'd at 1.2Ghz Aopen MX3WPRO-E mobo Intel 810 chipset Onboard Graphics-RECENTLY UPGRADED TO 64MB PCI SAPPHIRE RADEON 7000<

Actually its all a bit confusing and I am still not sure exactly what happened. My friend decided to send a the 2.4GHz from USA and he is not even charging me for it, so I decided to buy another 512MB RAM. My hardware chap gave me 512MB DDR 2700 ram of a company named TwinMOS. I had never heard of this company before. Anyway, I just could not get this ram to work with my current 512MB ram. I didnt try anythng out of the ordinary though, I might have loaded the setup defaults and used the jumper to clear settings. When I would put in the TwinMoS ram the bios would fail to detect either my HD or CD rom or DVD rom and it would go into bios setting. If I would remove the new ram stick the system would booth and work perfectly as before. Anyway, today I took it back and although he offered me a full refund, he has now given me a "transcend" Ram stick. This is DDR 400 but he is confident that this ram will work at 266MHz. Although my system boots fine with the new ram, it reboots as soon as I launch any program. I used "memtest" and it gave me 7 errors before completing 3%. I am not sure if these errors are within the new Ram or from the new ram to the old ram. Anyway, I have removed the transcent 400DDR ram and back to my hynix 512MB ram and everything is working fine now. The only suprise is that the cpu has somehow been unlocked now. A new setting is available in my bios "Ratio CMOS Setting: [xxx]" I can enter a minimum of 8 and maximum of 28 in the text field. If I enter anything lower than 8 or higher than 28 it just returns to the previous value. However, now I am sure that no matter what number I enter it is having absolutely no effect on my processor speed at all. From CPUZ I get the following information: Core Speed: 1702.9MHz Multiplier: x17.0 FSB: 100.2MHz Bus Speed: 400.7MHz No matter value I enter in the bios, either 8 or 28, it does not affect these settings at all. In the help window of my bios the following is written: "Sets the ratio between cpu core clock and the FSB Frequency. NOTE: If an invalid ratio is set in CMOS then actual and setpoint values may differ." It would be great if I could make use of this unlocked cpu and overclock it a bit. If anyone knows anything by which I can use this setting in any way that would be great to know it. Sarosh

"I might have loaded the setup defaults and used the jumper to clear settings" Too many people misunderstand what "setup defaults" are supposed to be used for. They are not optimal settings...they are a starting point. The BIOS is meant to be manually adjusted to best match the hardware configuration...there is no "click it & forget it" setting. "No matter value I enter in the bios, either 8 or 28, it does not affect these settings at all" "The only suprise is that the cpu has somehow been unlocked now" I don't know why the "locked/unlocked" setting has changed in the BIOS, but your CPU is not unlocked. There is NO way to unlock a P4. And the fact that changing the multi setting doesn't change the CPU speed confirms that your CPU is still locked. "I used "memtest" and it gave me 7 errors before completing 3%. I am not sure if these errors are within the new Ram or from the new ram to the old ram." Then test them one at a time. If the new RAM is causing errors in memtest86, return it. This space for rent

intel810: "As far as i know, the maximum ratio for a p4 is 12" not sure what you mean here. I have a 2.4Ghz P4 on a 133 FSB. So - 2400/133=18 multiplier. WILL POST FOR FOOD.