Dangers of Overclocking?

Chances are the bios are locked.
The only way around that is with software COing and I would highly advise against it.

The bios are locked for a reason, being its not designed for the additional stress or heat.
Being a laptop its even more so of an issue.


If looki g to increase performance, have you thought about upgrading to a SSD drive?
Likely will improve perf. far more than OCing the CPU a little bit w/out any risk.

Have to agree with Ken and Wishmaster. Laptops are bad candidates for overclocking, and software overclocking is generally a bad idea. I know "everyone is doing it", but prepare for it if you want to do it...on your next PC :)

A Guy

Basically, overheating is the only issue. And I'm not downplaying it when I say "only issue".

Product FRED said:

Basically, overheating is the only issue. And I'm not downplaying it when I say "only issue".

Uh...

What about system stability? Chip life and performance? OCing affects all of these, and not positively.

When you overclock, you run the FSB and/or clock multiplier at a higher rating. (so 333MHz FSB and 9x Clock for 3GHz to a 400MHz and 10x clocck for 4GHz). You can also (have to sometimes) raise the voltage put into the CPU (1.2V standard up to around 1.5V I think).

This increased work generates more heat. The more work, the more heat. At a certain point, a few things can happen:
1. System Failure. Your computer will crash (BSoD) because the CPU cannot handle the settings you have put it up to, and the motherboard shuts it down to prevent serious hardware damage
2. Overheating. If your system is stable, OCing will produce more heat regardless. This WILL shorten the lifespan of your hardware, and (especially in a laptop) cause the rest of your system to heat up (thus decreasing their life)
3. Total Catastrophic Failure. This is not an official name, but it sounded cool. This is also really really hard to do. This is where your CPU basically melts by going WAY outside of its safe ranges. And no, it's not a joke. You can LITERALLY melt your CPU. While this will probably never happen (other things would break WAY before this), it is the ultimate failure.

Now, OCing can (ironically), in some cases, cause lowered performance and glitching. This may or may not be noticable, but had been known to happen (read the gaming/graphics cards forum). Certain programs may not work properly on an OCed system, or it may cause problems with the OS itself.
Because every part (even the same one) is different, there are different OC ranges per part and different reactions. Some can even be backwards and perform worse at non-stock settings.

In the end, OCing a laptop is just stupid (decreased battery life and heat being major factors).
Desktops are ideal, but you still need to know what you are doing.

Hope this helps.

~Lordbob

smartman said:

Hi, I was wondering what some of the dangers were of overclocking? I have a laptop, and I know overclocking would produce a lot of heat... = laptop overheating...

Would overclocking a Acer Aspire 5520 laptop, with AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor, be worth it?

Would it be worth it if I bought one of those cooling stations?

Thanks, Smart (or not so smart) man

Lordbob75 said:

Product FRED said:

Basically, overheating is the only issue. And I'm not downplaying it when I say "only issue".

Uh...

What about system stability? Chip life and performance? OCing affects all of these, and not positively.

When you overclock, you run the FSB and/or clock multiplier at a higher rating. (so 333MHz FSB and 9x Clock for 3GHz to a 400MHz and 10x clocck for 4GHz). You can also (have to sometimes) raise the voltage put into the CPU (1.2V standard up to around 1.5V I think).

This increased work generates more heat. The more work, the more heat. At a certain point, a few things can happen:
1. System Failure. Your computer will crash (BSoD) because the CPU cannot handle the settings you have put it up to, and the motherboard shuts it down to prevent serious hardware damage
2. Overheating. If your system is stable, OCing will produce more heat regardless. This WILL shorten the lifespan of your hardware, and (especially in a laptop) cause the rest of your system to heat up (thus decreasing their life)
3. Total Catastrophic Failure. This is not an official name, but it sounded cool. This is also really really hard to do. This is where your CPU basically melts by going WAY outside of its safe ranges. And no, it's not a joke. You can LITERALLY melt your CPU. While this will probably never happen (other things would break WAY before this), it is the ultimate failure.

Now, OCing can (ironically), in some cases, cause lowered performance and glitching. This may or may not be noticable, but had been known to happen (read the gaming/graphics cards forum). Certain programs may not work properly on an OCed system, or it may cause problems with the OS itself.
Because every part (even the same one) is different, there are different OC ranges per part and different reactions. Some can even be backwards and perform worse at non-stock settings.

In the end, OCing a laptop is just stupid (decreased battery life and heat being major factors).
Desktops are ideal, but you still need to know what you are doing.

Hope this helps.

~Lordbob

Please heed Lordbob's sage advice here. The gains are too small and the risks too large to even consider overclocking a laptop; there simply isn't enough space to dissipate the heat you will generate.

As Wishmaster said your BIOS is likely locked, and as Lordbob75 mentioned it's really not a good idea for a laptop.

+1 for Wishmaster's suggestion to get a SSD. You will see noticeable performance improvement and the prices have been coming down, that will be your best bet.

Lordbob75 said:

Product FRED said:

Basically, overheating is the only issue. And I'm not downplaying it when I say "only issue".

Uh...

What about system stability? Chip life and performance? OCing affects all of these, and not positively.

When you overclock, you run the FSB and/or clock multiplier at a higher rating. (so 333MHz FSB and 9x Clock for 3GHz to a 400MHz and 10x clocck for 4GHz). You can also (have to sometimes) raise the voltage put into the CPU (1.2V standard up to around 1.5V I think).

This increased work generates more heat. The more work, the more heat. At a certain point, a few things can happen:
1. System Failure. Your computer will crash (BSoD) because the CPU cannot handle the settings you have put it up to, and the motherboard shuts it down to prevent serious hardware damage
2. Overheating. If your system is stable, OCing will produce more heat regardless. This WILL shorten the lifespan of your hardware, and (especially in a laptop) cause the rest of your system to heat up (thus decreasing their life)
3. Total Catastrophic Failure. This is not an official name, but it sounded cool. This is also really really hard to do. This is where your CPU basically melts by going WAY outside of its safe ranges. And no, it's not a joke. You can LITERALLY melt your CPU. While this will probably never happen (other things would break WAY before this), it is the ultimate failure.

Now, OCing can (ironically), in some cases, cause lowered performance and glitching. This may or may not be noticable, but had been known to happen (read the gaming/graphics cards forum). Certain programs may not work properly on an OCed system, or it may cause problems with the OS itself.
Because every part (even the same one) is different, there are different OC ranges per part and different reactions. Some can even be backwards and perform worse at non-stock settings.

In the end, OCing a laptop is just stupid (decreased battery life and heat being major factors).
Desktops are ideal, but you still need to know what you are doing.

Hope this helps.

~Lordbob

I'm aware. I was summarizing. Hence I said not trying to
downplay it.