2300 Series Turion 64 X2 TL-50 800mhz?

[Jackyl]

I've been trying to fix this problem since I upgraded to Vista. My cpu core's only run at 800mhz regardless of what I try to do. I've tried the amd drivers, didn't work. I tried the rmclock 225 app and that didn't work either after following the instructions on their site.

I found that the Everex ST 5340T has a newer bios (R1.09 7/6/07) and I was going to go to the store and extract the bios and then flash my bios on my laptop. The units are idential other than the color and branding. All headers are in the same locations, and even the bios layout is the same. And everything in the bios is identical also other than the cpu. That laptop is using a Turion 64 X2 KL or something like that, but it is 1600mhz and both cores are being read correctly by windows.


Has anyone known about this? Or is there a newer firmware for the 2300 series to allow both cores to run at 1600 instead of 800 ?

[powerpack]

I think it sounds like you've done a lot to figure out what's wrong. I do not like the idea of flashing the BIOS a different CPU (single core) concerns me and if it fails you will be in bad shape. I have one suggestion only because it works for me on TL-52. Notebook Hardware Control. 2nd tab to right CPU speed set to "max performance" then check.

You say Windows reads correctly? Can you elaborate on that?

[serenityconsulting]

Please see the thread - "2300 Upgrades available?" For a parallel discussion.

Before you even attempt that flash, I suggest talking with AMI (the BIOS publisher) about compatibility. The Averatec 2370 & 2371 are likely even closer sibling machines, yet AMI told me the 2371 BIOS is NOT compatible with the 2370.

If AMI says the Everex & Averatec BIOS are compatible (both came off Twinhead's production line) please let us know!

[Jackyl]

Well I'm not going to email AMI because I know that it is the same motherboard and the same bios.

I'm just going to go to Officemax with my thumbdrive and copy the bios and then flash mine. If I brick my laptop, oh well. If not, which I'm sure I will not then I will post the bios for others.


Again, I have a 2300 series notebook, not the 2370 or 2371, just plain 2300.

If I could find pictures of these laptops it would make the comparision visual for everyone to see, but since I can't find anything, then I'll just have to A-Team it ;D

[serenityconsulting]

If I go to Averatec's site, support, download drivers and select the '2300 series' the ONLY PC listed is the 'AV2370HM1E-1'; also known as the 2370.

But do let us know how the BIOS flash goes. I really am hoping the motherboards are identical and it works.

[Jackyl]

Ok,

I went to OfficeMax and pulled the bios from the Everex ST5340T that they had on display. No problem, I flash my Averatec 2300 notebook and I reboot and then it says checksum error, Press F1 to go to setup, Press F2 to load failsafes and continue. Pressing F1 just goes into the bios, Pressing F2 just reboots and stops at the same point.


Soooo, now I'm freaking out hardcore. Scouring ebay for a motherboard, looking online for an AMI bios utility. Then I remember, I don't think I use the "clear cmos switch" DOH. So I think about just tearing down the laptop and trying to manually clear the cmos.......Then I was just playing around in the bios swearing and I just went in and chose "disregard changes and reboot" I did that and it booted right into windows. showed both processors at 1.6ghz and 2GB's of memory and I'm typing this on the laptop right now.

I attached the bios that I pulled from the Everex.


Oh, one last thing, the bios splash screen says Everex and not Averatec.

But, have fun.

[Jackyl]

Try uploading again.

After you extract the .zips, then rename each file with .rar and extract them together to get the bin.

[admlam]

Interesting. I'll try this over the weekend, when I have the time to deal with the possibility of bricking my computer.

Any other comments on how the new bios affects the 2370? (i.e. fan behavior)

Edit: Anyone know how to make a bootable CD from the .bin? I've tried Google but I don't want to do it until I really understand what's happening.

[Jackyl]

The fan operation is the same as with the stock bios. The only weird thing that I encountered was that it only read half of my memory. I have two 1gig sticks and it only registered 989mb's. I had it register all 2gigs in windows but I didn't have enough time to figure out if that is just a bios situation or windows.

Both core's read under windows as 1.6ghz instead of 800mhz. The fan does not run anymore or less.


I used a usb thumb drive that I formated and made bootable and used that to boot from in order to flash the bios.

I firmly beleive that if you use the switches like I said above you will not have any issues.


Have fun, And don't worry about bricking your laptop! As long as the flash doesn't get interupted it will work just fine and you will be able to flash it back if it doesn't work out for you or you don't like something. Your not going to brick your unit. I got over that last night after spending a little more time with the laptop.

[serenityconsulting]

One thing I noted is that the Everex ST5340T R1.09 binary is 378KB in size, versus 512KB for the Averatec R1.05.

It's been too long since I paid attention, but as I recall the binary file is a bit for bit image of the firmware. If so, the '2300 series' has 512K and the supplied Everex file is only re-writing the first 378K. Good, bad, who cares?

Since you have volunteered to be our guinea pig Jackyl, please do let us know if you run into any unexpected or inexplicable troubles. My notebook is a production machine so understandably I'm being cautious.

Also, could you please tell us which tool you used to do the flash? Per chance is it the same tool supplied with Averatec's R1.05 release?

Thanks-