Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 09:52:51 -0600 From: John Liu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Alas, L100 Wasn't Reliable At 266MHz
I went ahead and overclocked my L100 using a conductive pen as mentioned in the earlier post. The pen worked fine, in the sense that the L100 booted up and functioned normally after the modification. Unfortunately the overclocked machine was not reliable. It would lock up (screen looks normal but no response to keyboard or mouse, have to restart) after appx 20 minute of running. The heat shield under the keyboard got hot - not too hot to touch, but too hot to keep your fingers pressed to it for more than 10 secs. I restarted the Lib several times with the same result. It even locked up with the keyboard lifted up, the upper PC card slot empty, and no application running. This is using Win XP Pro with a 20GB harddrive and a Linksys wireless card. I examined the drawn trace under a loupe and it looks fine - is connecting the two points, no apparent deterioriation due to heat etc. So, I reversed the mod and now the Lib is running perfectly. I've sort of convinced myself that it really wasn't much faster at 266MHz anyway, although to be honest it did feel peppier during the short period that I actually got to use it overclocked. I am now going through Windows, disabling services and so on, to get a bit of extra speed from that source. Bummer. I've read that 90% of L100s will run well at 266MHz, apparently I'm in the bottom decile. Someday I may try 200MHz using CPUIdle and thermal grease. But I'm not hopeful of success. It was only 68F in the house last night when the overclocked Lib was locking up while merely idling, and I want the machine to be reliable running any application(s), sitting in the sun in 100F ambient, with the drive spinning and both PC card slots working. Oh well, it was worth a try and only took 15 minutes. By the way, it seems like all or most of the English language webpages showing how to disassemble a L100 have gone 404, so I thought I'd post the procedure I used here, in case it is ever useful for someone: LIBRETTO L100 DISASSEMBLY TO OVERCLOCK: 1. Remove battery and unplug Libretto from power. 2. Turn Libretto upside down. Remove lower case half (remove 7 long screws from underside of Libretto, pull sliding "handle" of the hard drive out a bit, carefully separate lower case from upper, note tabs on either side of battery compartment need to be gently separated). 3. Note location of PC card assembly and the 4 screws that hold it down (from the underside, you see the ends of the screws, not the heads). 4. Turn Libretto right-side up. Remove the plastic strip between the keyboard and screen (fingernail-pry up the right end, lift it out, unhook the left end). Lift up the keyboard (gently lift the side closest to the keyboard, careful not to stress the ribbon cable). While keeping the keyboard raised, detach the right and left keyboard retaining straps (remove short screws fastening them to the case, slip strap ends from slots). Remove shiny metal heat shield (it was held down by those same screws). 5. The screen and upper case half should now be loose from the motherboard of the machine, although still connected by the display cable (right upper corner of the keyboard area) and another cable (screen power? left upper corner of the keyboard area). The keyboard is still connected to the motherboard by its ribbon cable. So you haven't actually disconnected anything, but you have gotten access to the screws under the heat shield and the screen. 6. Now remember where the PC card assembly mounting screws were located, find their heads, and remove them (over by the right-hand side of the machine, two by the edge of the keyboard closest to you, two under the screen). 7. Now close the screen (put the keyboard back in place, be careful not to pinch anything) and turn the Libretto upside down again. Remove the PC card assembly (verify the four screws are missing, then pull up at the end closest to the middle of the machine). Lift up the black plastic sheet covering the motherboard (use tape to hold it out of the way). 8. Find the points you need to solder and do the job. 9. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly. Verify that everything is secure before you close up the Libretto (check LCD display and power cables, memory card, keyboard cable, CMOS battery in its plastic cover). You should have two short screws for the keyboard straps, four long screws for the PC card assembly, and seven long screws for the lower case half. 10. If the case halves aren't meeting on the left-hand side (near the hard drive), check that the hard drive handle is pulled out, then push it back before inserting screws. If the case halves aren't meeting at the back (by the audio in/out jacks) check that the PC card eject levers and the corresponding levers on the PC card assembly are not interfering with each other.
