Overclocking Forays
March 24, 2008 at 3:20 am (AMD, CrystalCPUID, Everest, Everest Ultimate Edition, FSB, IDE, IDE cable, PSU, RAM, action, add-on, administration, administrator, asrock k7vm3, boot, computers, cpu, cpu temp, customize, desktop, effects, error, fix, free, hard disk temperature, hard drive, hitachi, lm sensors, maintenance, management, mem test, mods, monitor, network, online, operating system, overclock, overclocking, pc, programs, samsung, seagate, sempron, slave drive, stress test, syntax, system, temperature, temperature monitor, upgrade, wattage, windows xp, xp, xsensors)
I know nothing about overclocking but I am intrigued by it. I’ve read articles about the pros and cons and how-to’s but still very much apprehensive about the whole thing. One day I thought, as I was spending time “fixing” windows XP yet again, what the hell. If this old pc is gonna die, it might as well die overclocked.
So here’s what I have (hopefully it lasts longer): AMD Sempron 2200+ 1.5 GHz, Asrock K7VM3, PQI 512MB DDR 400, GeForce FX5200 128MB, 80GB Hitachi and 160GB Seagate HDD. I think the PSU is dying slowly by being choked with dust. It’s the only thing that I haven’t cleaned. After doing a lot of reading, I found out that the CPU is locked so I couldn’t touch the multiplier. The only thing that I could change was the FSB.
I then searched for the perfect software to go with this experiment. I got CrystalCPUID and Everest Ultimate Edition. The CPUID showed me all the numbers I needed to know about my CPU, motherboard and RAM. The Everest gave me all the temperatures I needed. Knowing how hot things are running is crucial as what I’ve learned. It also allowed me to do memory tests and stress tests to see how stable the setup is. I pressed F2 during the computer’s boot up process. I upped the FSB 1 MHz at a time until I reached 1.6 GHz. A bit over 6% of my original CPU speed. I did this using the BIOS. It gave me an option to manually set the FSB. It was pretty exciting for me.
This is measly compared to what experienced overclockers do to their systems. I am now in search for a better PSU and more fans so I can play with this old thing to push it further. I don’t wanna touch my newer X2 4000+ pc unless I feel confident that I’ve learned enough.
Win XP hal.dll boot error fixed without CD
March 19, 2008 at 2:19 am (Firefox, NTFS, add-on, administration, administrator, boot, clone, computers, cpu, cpu temp, customize, desktop, error, fix, free, hal.dll, maintenance, management, media, mods, network, no cd, online, operating system, pc, programs, system, upgrade, windows xp, xp)
As much as I don’t like using windows, it is a necessary evil for me because I need to create and edit flash websites. While uninstalling useless programs, installing a new anti-virus and running registry cleaners, I somehow managed to get the hal.dll file corrupted. XP won’t start, not even in safe mode or command prompt.
I have my Linux Ubuntu on another drive. So I boot up Linux and get online to read about that. Almost all articles pointed out that I need to use a win XP CD and go into the Recovery Console. Problem is I don’t have one and I don’t wanna reinstall windows. I did have internet access (broadband, not dial up). I read some more and other articles discussed about editing the boot.ini file.
What I did to get my windows back up was to download a hal.dll file dated 08/03/2004 (I got a 2002 version at first which did not work) and pasted it onto my windows C:\windows\system32\ folder and said yes to overwrite. Logged off my Linux, booted up XP and prayed. It worked! It looked ugly though so I just let it search and install the drivers over the net. Once it was done, I just changed my visual settings to what they were before, reboot and windows will get to stay on that drive another day!
This is the hal.dll that I have that’s currently working, just right-click and save target as.
