Feedback about the pencil trick on L1 bridges?

[Nuno]

I haven´t used it before with my A7V because I didn´t need it, fsb overclocking would do it.

Now with my new A7V133, it´s really nice to run the TB 900 at 1ghz (7*144, 1.75v). The chip itself is a dog to overclock, I can´t get it stable at 1066 even at 1.85v.

Everything works just fine, high fsb and memory bandwidth/latency are the way to go, I´m scoring higher values in 2dmark2001 (2164) than TB 1200/100, for instance.

But how about the longevity of the graphite traces? I´ve seen both versions floating around: that you have to redo the traces once in a while (mostly when you try to turn on the pc and it doesn´t boot) and that the former situation is an "urban legend" and the traces last forever (at least if you´re not reseating/changing heatsinks twice a week)

What are your experiences?

[Strogg]

Check this out

www.overclockers.com in beginner guides.

[Wombat]

It's not a legend. The graphite can sometimes stop working. It happened to me several times within the first few days. Then I switched pencil lead brands. Twice. The first alternative didn't even connect the bridges at all. The second choice has held up fine for the past 5 months or so.

A wooden pencil may work better than the mechanical pencils. The mechanicals use lead that is often "hi-polymer." It makes for a good writing lead, but bad conductor. Also, go for a softer lead, like an HB.

[Greebe]

@Strogg, he's not asking how, just what your experiences are.


@Nuno, I know many whom had to go back and redo the pencil trick after repeated tinkering with their HS/cpu. The ones that didn't either used silver paint/ink or window heater repair conductive paint (or similar type material(nickel, copper, etc.)).

[CHHAS]

My penciljob is still holding, going on 5 months now.

[DentyCracker]

Me Duron has been pencilled once, in September of Last year and absolutely no problems. I've changed several HSFs in this time without there ever having been a problem. Currently running a Globalwin WBK38 (loud), looking to get a Glaciator

[Nuno]

Thanks guys.

So I see it basically depends on the pencil you use and how much you mess around with changing heatsinks.

And may I ask what the symptoms are? If like 1 trace wears out, does the pc simply not boot or do I loss the ability to change the multiplier? It would be fun to see the TB 900 trying to boot at 1300

[Electric Amish]

My Duron 900's been running @ 1035 (wasn't stable @ 1050 ) 7.5x138 for a couple months now. No problems.

Just put on an Alpha HS and am working on using a 120mm fan+duct for cooling.

Just finished my Rheo-bus.

amish

[Indiana]

I had to do the "pecilling" several times as well. The strange thin here is that I can change the heatsink/do whatever I want and the pencil traces keep working for months if I only turn the computer off for a short time.
However if the computer is turned off for about two days or more it's very likely that the pencil drawing stop working correctly - so it seems to depend quite a lot on temperature as well, at least here.
Symptoms for bad pencil-traces are varying: from simply working at the default-speed to random speeds (my Duron800 once booted at a multiplier of 7 instead of the 10 that were selected in the bios) to not booting at all all had happened here.
No big deal if you know the reason, though...

[Indiana]

I had to do the "pecilling" several times as well. The strange thing here is that I can change the heatsink/do whatever I want and the pencil traces keep working for months if I only turn the computer off for a short time.
However if the computer is turned off for about two days or more it's very likely that the pencil drawings stop working correctly - so it seems to depend quite a lot on temperature as well, at least here.
Symptoms for bad pencil-traces are varying: from simply working at the default-speed over random CPU speeds (my Duron800 once booted at a multiplier of 7 instead of the 10 that were selected in the bios, resulting in 735MHz instead of the wanted 1050) to not booting at all all had happened here.
Of course the reason for the not-booting error might as well be a wrong CPU multiplier that's just out of the chips capabilities...

Not a big deal though if you know the reason, just repencil and you're fine.

P.S.: You don't have to pencil every single bridge on it's own, a thick graphite drawing that's covering all bridges at once is just fine. For the Duron at least, can't speak of TBirds...

[drzaius]

By: Indiana
You don't have to pencil every single bridge on it's own, a thick graphite drawing that's covering all bridges at once is just fine. For the Duron at least, can't speak of TBirds...

really? i've been told this is why many computers doen't start up, or atleast have problems doing so.

maybe i'll give it a try though

[Wombat]

Maybe a thick line on the L1 bridges is fine, but I don't know if I'd risk it on the others.

[Indiana]

Yes, I was surprised as well as I had previously read somewhere that this would fry the CPU.
But after seeing this as a tip on one of the "AMD-unlocking-with-a-pencil"-sites and having problems to repencil my Duron because the only pencil I had available was not conductive enough I just tried it - and this is working since then...
And hey, I needed a reason to buy one of those AXIA TBirds anyway - "unfortunately" I'm still using the old Duron800@1050 since it didn't fry...

[Technoid]

Or you could do as I did:

I bought a KT133A motherbord and a very inexpensive duron 700.

And then I uped the bus from 100(200) to 133(266)!

Voila : 930MHz Duron that kicks a regular duron 950 in the rear!

No messing with pencils bridges and jugling....




OK:

I am using it untill I can get my hands on a Tbird in the 1.3 GHz range!

[Indiana]

Technoid, I have the KT133 non-A and it won't go over 110MHz FSB stable. But the Duron800 at 10*105 is still quite nice, especially considering its price.
But since I'm vid-capturing/mp3-compressing a lot every further speed increase would be very welcome (with an average movie deinterlacing, denoising and encoding to DivX/mp3 takes about 6-7 hours, a TBird@1400+MHz surely would help here...)