HP Pavilions and Overclocking

[CWestfall]

Ignoring the fact that the computer came loaded with useless trial software, Norton Antivirus, had a bad graphics card, and hardly any RAM, I've found one more reason to hate my HP Pavilion a1132n today. I was going to try to overclock the thing so I could keep up with software for another year or so, (I like XP, what can I say.) and noticed something strange with the BIOS. I contacted HP Customer Support where I got a scolding that reminded me of when I was 12.

The reason is computer simply may not work. Increasing the speed of a processor is not recommended: It may work, it may not. If we push the processor too hard, normally it will refuse to start up, there will be occasional crashes or some programs will not work, etc. Besides this, when it does work the first time, problems may arise later with the processor owing to three features of the electronic circuits: 1. Increase in heat
2 Electromigration: This is a rather ambiguous concept. We know that faster operating speeds cause a kind of ‘erosion’ in the processor’s circuits.
3 A change in the overall configuration of the machine
4 Machine guarantee: Overclocking the processor or changing the factory configuration of any of its internal components implies the automatic loss of guarantee.
So, considering these all HP disabled the option of Overclocking of the Processor and other components.

I don't know if this applies to all HP computers, but if it does, I have some strong advice for you all; buy a Dell.

[darkorb]

all prebuilt computers have blocked oc'ing in the bios

i had that same exact comp, and i used clockgen to OC the CPU. although i could not raise the voltages

[FreqE1]

Almost all OEM machines are like that. HP, Compaq, Medion, etc. To be honest I thought Dell was the same. They don't want to deal with all the RMA and warrenty problems with people killing their hardware. I've got two HPs in my home. They are my roomate's and I keep trying to talk them into getting even just cheap replacement motherboards so I can overclock them for them (I really want to try AMD o'clocking).

[CWestfall]

Originally Posted by darkorb

all prebuilt computers have blocked oc'ing in the bios

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. (If you couldn't tell, I don't exactly know a lot about "oc'ing")

[crazyazn]

Pretty much all pre-built computers have blocked OC'ing...the only way is to use Clockgen or some other software to do it. I have an HP comp too and I used Clockgen to OC it but the only prob is I can't raise VRAM so I'm limited by the RAM.

[3.0charlie]

Originally Posted by CWestfall

buy a Dell.

Dell does not allow oc'ing too on all their lines.

I do not recommend oc'ing on any prebuilt computer, since the installed HSFs are not made to extract the added heat output.