How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

I need to turn off all overclocking on my computer, but don't know how to do so. Could someone please give me some instructions on how to do it? I did a Google search, but couldn't find anything informative.

In case you're wondering, turning off all overclocking was given as a possible solution to some crash to desktop problems I'm having with a game I just bought. No error message, nothing. Drivers up to date, I've done everything possible and am on the verge of ripping all my hair out (which is a lot of hair! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif ) So hopefully turning off overclocking will prove to do the trick!

Thanks in advance for any help! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

From what I remember from a bit I did, it depends on your cpu, motherboard and bios.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Actually computers from electronic store are not overclocked by default in my experience.
But the idea of downclocking is amusing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Give some information (the more precise the better) about you MoBo, processor, and videocard - they're the main objects of overclocking.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

I'll give the information tomorrow....right now I need to get some sleep so I won't sleep as much in school tomorrow. Good night.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

If you have to ask how to un-overclock your system, if you don't know what overclocking is and you had to google it...



...You don't have an overclocked system. Unless perhaps you got it from a friend who built it for you, in which case you should go ask him.

Overclocking is done usually when you're first building a PC, by setting the jumper settings for the CPU higher than they "should be." On some mobos this is quite simple, on others it can be a little tricky. On jumperless mobos, it's impossible. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Well, you can do it on jumper-less MoBos, as long as the BIOS supports it. So the "jumpers" don't really have to be of the physical let's-stick-the-pLastic-connector-thingie-on-it variety, it could be part of the firmware.

But, like was already said, if you are asking about it, most likely your system is not overclocked, unless someone else did it for you (unlikely, since most people realize that there is only a small performance boost, and a shorter component lifetime when oc-ing).

You might want to take a look at some of the other causes to the issue, some games have problems with specific hardware.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

I sort of thought this might be the case. I'm not exactly knowledgeable about the deeper aspects of system hardware or fixing problems such as the one I have. I didn't think my system was overclocked, but I couldnt' find a lot of information about it, and figured I'd ask just the same. Thanks for all the replies, it's given me the information I need.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

What type of problems are you having exactly? Perhaps we could help you out.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

I've had very good luck doing this with CPU's that displayed "overclocking symptoms". Although doesn't directly address the overclock issue but may be of some help. Probably won't though if the problem is game-specific. If it is computer-wide, it may be of help.

DISCLAIMER: Write down / record *all* your BIOS settings before you do this.

Generally, you can test the overclocking theory with almost all MB's manufactured in the Last 4 years or so by going into the BIOS and loading the "Fail-Safe Settings". If the stuff works then, try going back in and putting your BIOS settings back until it fails. Then you should have a better ideas as to the culprit.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

The problem only occurs with the game "X2 - The Threat". Its a space simulation game. The problem is, I install the game, load the most recent patch, and launch the game. The initial loading screen shows, stays around for about 5 seconds, then crashes to the desktop with no error message whatsoever. I updated all drivers, checked for viruses, got the latest Version of DX, checked for adware, spyware, etc., and did a whole bunch of other things that I can't remember right now. I posted on the technical forum at the site of the game, and none of their tips and suggestions did any good. If you have any other suggestions on what to do, by all means, give them!

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Sound card? Can you access a settings utillity for the game? (sometimes it's a seperate program or configuration text file) If so, try disabling sound.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

I talked with guys in russian x2 forums and they told me it could be a patch issue. You only should update to 1.4 (latest) from 1.2 Version of the game. Does it crash without latest patch installed?

Another thing they told me is that game, in spite its uncountable merits, is very buggy. They experienced a lot of ctds too.

I remember one issue then game always crushed in particular location at 10:41:51 (local game time). Very odd.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Boot to bios and see what the FSB is set to. If it is the same as the CPU rating, then check the memory. If the memory is at rated buss speed and the timings are not altered look at the vidio card. If it is set to default, nothing is OC'd. If the system is OEM like Dell or Compaq, it is not OC'd.

If you want to see what you have, DL and run Sandra. It will show you what the system has under the hood and let you run some bench marks.

Many games need patches to make them run stable. SE4 was a real PITA until the first patch.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

The Version that came on the CD was the UK Version 1.3 (or it might have been 1.2...I can't remember). I installed it, ran it, and that was the first time I got the CTD. I then downloaded the patch, installed it, and got the exact same issue at about the exact same point in loading.

I'm beginning to expect that there may be an incompatibility issue with the game and some of the hard/software on the computer.

Thermodyne, I've already determined that there is a 99% chance that my computer is not OC'd, so I don't think it matters anymore. But thanks a lot for the instructions!

I've downloaded Sandra, run a system report, and found a strange thing...when it was "analysing processes" it hung up and would not continue. Froze, it seems. I disabled the analysis of the processes and it ran just fine and generated a report of my system. Most of which I don't understand! However, the fact that it hung up when analysing the processes tells me that there may be something running in the background that is screwing things up. This seems odd though, as one of the solutions I tried to get the game to work was to disable as many of the background processes as I safely could, and it made no effect. But its still an odd thing...

Thanks once again Aiken and Thermodyne for the assistance.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

If you want to investigate what's running on a background, you can do following:
Download Hijackthis utility. It's small.
Lanch it. Click on Config... button, then Misc Tools. You'll see Generate StartupList log button. Make sure that option List also minor sections (full) is enabled. Now click Generate StartupList log button and you'll get detailed log of starup apps and processes in a notepad window. Save this log to txt file and attach it to your reply on this board. Probably together will be able to find the source of your problem (if it's not a hardware problem of course).

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Hijackthis is good for getting the details on a worm or virus when you really know something is wrong but it's rather a lot of trouble when you don't know you've got a problem. You could just the the 'Power Toys' and 'Kernel Toys' from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/

And use 'Wintop' from the Kernel Toys to check your running processes. This displays CPU usage, too, so it would tell you where your CPU power is going. It's originally for Win95/98 but as far as I know this works under Win NT/2000/XP as well.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

The Task Manager in Win2k/XP lists all running processes as well as CPU and RAM usage by default. It just tells you process names though, not where the program is located. Does this WinTop tell you more than just the process names?

Hmm... WinTop.exe failed to run on Win2k for me.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Thanks Aiken. The list is attached to this post, I'd appreciate it if people would tell me if I've got stuff I don't want running in the background, running! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Well first off you have this program running...

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

That is a major security hole. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Most of the bad things that infect PCs get in through the vast number of security holes in Internet Exploder...

Mozilla Firefox

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Hmmm, that's quite strange...as of the time I did the analysis of system processes, I didn't have IE running...however it still shows up the system processes? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif I just Alt-Ctrl-Del and terminated the process, but it truely is odd that it would be running in the background, especially when I haven't told it to launch for quite some time....although I guess my parents or sisters could have launched it. Still doesn't explain it being present in the background though...damn Microsoft...

By the way, the Firefox link was unnecessary, you converted me to Firefox about 4 months ago! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

hehe. Damned Microsoft indeed. I have Kerio (firewall) set to deny all connections to iexplore.exe. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

How do you run Windows Update?

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

There is nothing new for me, seeing as I run Windows 2000... If I need to run it, I can just remove the block in Kerio temporarily.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

OMG, what a crap is your process list, Renegade (no offense) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Really, first you have some spyware running:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\CMEII\CMESys.exe
+
C:\Program Files\Common Files\GMT\GMT.exe
+
C:\Program Files\Common files\updmgr\updmgr.exe

to remove them use Spybot Search & Destroy or run Hijackthis full scan (from the main window), then check this checkboxes
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [updmgr] C:\Program Files\Common files\updmgr\updmgr.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [P2P NETWORKING2] C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\P2P NETWORKING\P2P NETWORKING2.EXE /AUTOSTART
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AltnetPointsManager] c:\program files\altnet\points manager\points manager.exe -s
and hit Fix checked

plus C:\WINDOWS\System32\P2P Networking\P2P Networking.exe - it's a Kazaa addon afaik and it's responsible for serious system slowdowns and sometimes crashes. It's installed together with Altnet spyware. So uninstall P2P Networking through Add/Remove Programs.

I would also recommend to turn off all this HP utilities if you're not using them.

That is just a first impession, I'll look into another items later.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Yes, and the task list supposedly lists all running processes in Win9x ... but virus writers know how to prevent their processes from being listed. Wintop is a non-standard process lister that I don't think any virus writer has taken into account -- yet. So you could likely see otherwise hidden processes by using this. There are other 3rd party utilities out there which will do the same thing on Win NT/2000/XP if Wintop doesn't work.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

I know Aiken...but unfortunately I'm not the only person who uses this computer (my 3 sisters and parents all use it also), so some stuff gets added that I personally wouldn't install! Thanks for the suggestions, and I'll uninstall all those crap utilities and programs as soon as possible. I would also be very grateful for any other suggestions for cleaning up processes that you may have.

Thanks a lot!

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Might want to tell the other people in the house what and why.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

The problem is thus:

My sisters are not at all computer literate, and do not understand why/why not something should/should not be installed. Its basically useless to try.

My mom is fine, she always asks me if she's not sure about something.

My dad...well he doesn't take kindly to advice, and tends to blow up if he's in a bad mood, so I've given up on him.

I clean up the computer as often as I have time to, but between school and other commitments, I have no time.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Try partitioning the disk. Tell everybody to save their stuff to the D drive if they want it to stay.

Then you can "format c:" away the nasties http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
If you can get yourself a clean disk image, all the better, but even reinstalling everything from scratch should only take an hour or two.

Re: How do I turn off Overclocking??
 

Create separate system user profiles for them: Mom, Sisters, Dad or Renegade and Family. Set easy to remember passwords. Disable os autologin (so they will have to enter their passwords). These Users (not you) should belong to Restricted Users group (not power or administrators), so they couldn't install any dangerous software, or change whole system enviroment. NT is a multiuser os, afterall.
I have some problems with internet connection, so new exciting details about your system will wait until monday http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
Good luck with your struggle for clean system. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif