My secondary computer is very old (2001), and I am trying to overclock it in its final days of use. My BIOS is made by Award, and is dated back to 2000. I have no idea what to do, can anyone help me?

The first thing you will want to do is update your BIOS. You can go to your comp manufacturer's website and see if there is a newer BIOS available or if you know your mobo make and model you can go to their website and check for an update. For our information you will want to post your secondary sys specs (I didn't look in your profile to see if you had it listed there).

After you update your BIOS there may be some options to overclock.

I have Award BIOS CUSL Dated 12/28/2000. The Award website is very odd and did not offer any updates. I ran software by them, and they will contact me in 12-24 hours. Here are the computer specs:

866 Mhz.
Sony VAIO PCV-RX360DS
Intel Pentium III EB Coppermine 2 1.6 Volts
128 MB. FSB
384 MB SD-RAM
40 GB. Ultra ATA/66
Windows XP Home Edition
256 KB. L2 Cache Ratio: Full
Award BIOS Revision 1002 12/28/2000

You can go here for a BIOS update: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=PCVRX360DS&upd_id=186&os_id=7

I cannot update the sys BIOS (I have no idea why, the program is not writing to the floppy drive correctly). Is there any other way to overclock the system?

The only way I know how to overclock is by upping the FSB or changing the CPU voltage. I have heard there are ways to physically overclock (via jumpers and such) but have done it myself.

hi cfitzarl,
a system like that can still be useful for basic tasks like web browsing and word processing. I still use my 700MHz PIII dell laptop (although if it wasn't a laptop i wouldn't use it at all). now about the overclocking...

to overclock a CPU by raising the FSB or multiplier (or both). depending on how far you go, the CPU may need more power because it's doing more work. that is when you raise the VCORE to give it the extra "juice" it needs to run stable. raising the voltage without rasing the FSB or multi will not make it run faster.

i highly doubt that any sony BIOS will not allow you to overclock. 99% of OEM computer makers disable options like that (after all, they don't want you to get more than you payed for )

there are windows based overclocking utilities that can raise the FSB and multi if the CPU isn't locked, but they are pretty much useless without a PCI/AGP lock in the BIOS. when you raise the FSB you also overclock the PCI and AGP bus (both are very intolerant to speeds above their defaults).

you may be able to raise the multiplier through a windows based utility, but that will most likely be your only option

good luck

Thanks for all of your help!