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New Info on Upclocking Titanium


Obligatory warning: this procedure is not endorsed by Go2Mac.com it will void your warranty and can destroy your logic board. Read our previous story Upclocking Your Titanium, a Bad Idea, first.

Jason,

I just received an e-mail back from Rich Voelker, who hosts the TiBook upclock page, and he told me that the “resistors” used in the TiBook PLL section were rated at 0 ohms !? This means that a jumper (small wire or metal strip) should work just as good to reset clock speed. I would still want to verify this for myself, or hear of several different sources getting that ‘zero ohm’ value for the “resistors”, but if true it makes the whole process MUCH EASIER!?It also makes the procedure somewhat reversible (just in case the PB needs to be sent in for warranty work).

The devices are so small that a jumper strip with a dot of dark coloring? would probably pass a routine inspection, unnoticed.?It would appear almost identical to the original resistor unless closely scrutinized.?? And the powerbook would exhibit no unusual performance characteristics due to such a device.?I would dare say this just put TiBook upclocking into the hands of meticulous do-it-yourselfers, rather than only that of the “Olympic soldering team”, so to speak.

It also affords one other NON-SOLDERING option.?There is a product called a ‘circuit works conductive pen’.?It deposits a solution of Silver metal, mixed with resin onto any surface. While this may brittle over long term use, and need to be re-applied in a couple of years, it is a ‘no-solder’?solution and produces an acceptable conductive ‘trace’ on the circuit board.?It can be ‘erased’ with a standard pen eraser ( and a little elbow grease) as well….making it a non permanent, yet viable solution.? The pen is produced by:

Circuit Works
Division of Chemtronics
8125 Cobb Center Drive
Kennesaw, GA 30152

I believe they sell for $15 or $20 bucks.

The hardest step in the whole procedure now, is removing the original? 0 ohm resistor.? I’ve had acceptable results by wearing away the solder bead with a high quality stainless steel dental pick.? You have to rub for a while, but it eventually makes it through most of the solder.

At that point, the joint is usually weak enough to gently pry the device off of the board with a VERY SHARP (read: brand new) Xacto knife blade.?Heating the jumper for a second or so with a small soldering iron should also loosen any glue that was used to secure the device in the first place.?After that, all you have to do is?DRAW THE JUMPERS WITH THE PEN! Woooo Hoooo.

After getting this new information, I would actually recommend it to any “MacGuyvers” in the office to give it a try, as it is a MUCH SAFER procedure than one that requires soldering. If you know of any?Go2Mac reader in the Sacramento, California area that would care to guinea-pig his TiBook, I would be happy to perform the upclock for him,?and take pictures for the rest of the O’Grady’s crowd.

Best Regards,

Tom

Ok, I am posting Tom’s email address for exactly six hours or until I wake up (and I expect the full details to be posted here, capice?) Please be nice to Tom, we LIKE Tom.

Wow man, and you wonder why I never sleep?

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.