Is my friend getting screwed?

Is my friend getting screwed?

  • Yes

    Votes: 44 80.0%

  • No

    Votes: 6 10.9%

  • Yes, but the OC won't hurt anything

    Votes: 5 9.1%
  • Total voters
    55
I

icthus13

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 18, 2004
Messages
2,370
I just was playing around with my friends new laptop, when I noticed the following rather interesting information in CPU-Z:



Sorry about the quality of the red circles; I'm terrible with a touchpad. But do you see what I mean? A Celeron-M is not supposed to run at 1.8 whatever GHz. Oh, and i'ts running at 65 C idle. Screwed or not?

Edit: I should probably mention that she got this from one of those "local" type companies.
Edit again: I asked her, and she paid ~$1300 for this; definitely not a Celeron M type of price considering it only has a 40 gig HDD, 256 RAM, GMA 900, etc.
 
wait so its running @ 1.8 instead of 1.4 and you think your getting screwed and the temp thing take it apart and add as5 not that shit pad they use 1.8ghz labtop for a 1.4 price fine with me
 
I'm not sure what she paid for it; I'll have to ask. The point is they didn't tell her that they were going to overclock it and now it's running rather hot. She is not particularly tech savvy, so a Celeron-M 1.4 is perfectly fine for her. I checked the bios; there's no OC options, so how can I turn this thing down?
 
mikelz85 said:
what kind of laptop is it? What is it supposed to run stock?
Click to expand...


It's a homebrew from a local-type company. It has a Celeron M 1.4 GHz, but has been OC'd to 1.86 GHz (100 FSB --> 133) it uses an Asus mobo with the intel 915 chipset, but I haven't been able to determine what model mobo yet.
 
I'm very confused. How the hell is that mobo running a 533mhz fsb? Also, did she pay thinking she was getting a chip that runs at 1.8ghz? Or did she purchase a 1.4ghz chip that the company somehow has running on a 533 fsb mobo?

edit: whoops. I didn't know there were 915 / 533fsb P-M mobos. My bad.

so what's the problem again?
 
Problem: Friend paid for a "Centrino" computer (not tech savvy enough to know more, and I told her to buy one of those at least), and received this thing. The OC is making it idle at 65 C, not good. So, I suppose my real question would be how I turn the OC down. There are no bios options to do so and I cannot find a version of ClockGen for this particular motherboard.
 
I am guessing the used the pin jumper mod thing to get the FSB to run at 133 instead of 100. If you took it apart you would see a small wire between two pins of the CPU. She should take it back and demand a full refund.
 
I voted yes - if your friend bought one and they didn't tell her that they overclocked, that's a problem. Also, $1300 for those specs? Not very good, you can get a better system from somewhere like www.discountlaptops.com.

I agree with elfetcho, get a refund since it seems like they did not tell her they were OC'ing.
 
Get your money back. Now. It's not so much the fact that the laptop will fail earlier (which it will) as it is false advertising.
 
Was the laptop sold as 1.4Ghz, or 1.8Ghz? When they told her I mean. If 1.8, then it's their cheap way to sell slower CPU's as if they are faster, which is stupid of the shop. Go get a refund, plus thats overpriced for the specs.
 
From the price, I have to assume 1.8 GHz, but she's already gone home, so I'll have to ask her tomorrow. Thanks for the responses all.
 
elfletcho said:
I am guessing the used the pin jumper mod thing to get the FSB to run at 133 instead of 100. If you took it apart you would see a small wire between two pins of the CPU. She should take it back and demand a full refund.
Click to expand...


Can you give me more information on this? Will it be on the top of the processor or the underside?
 
icthus13 said:
Can you give me more information on this? Will it be on the top of the processor or the underside?
Click to expand...
underside - pins BSEL0 or BSEL1 will be bridged to a gound - cant remember which. these two pins control the FSB settings on boot.
 
icthus13 said:
Can you give me more information on this? Will it be on the top of the processor or the underside?
Click to expand...

Underside. You would have to pull the CPU out. But don't. It would just give them a reason to deny a refund. Confronting them with a CPU-z screenshot is plenty.
 
I would contact your local BBB, and perhaps even law enforcement. This is probably going on with more than just one laptop, and if sold as a 1.8, and not 1.4, is completely illegal. Intel might want to hear about it as well. Overclocking is one thing, rebadging is another (even if they didn't "rebadge" in the traditional sense, it's still a slower CPU sold as a faster one).
 
mikelz85 said:
I would contact your local BBB,
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, and if they won't own up I may (and probably Intel as well).

pigpen said:
But don't. It would just give them a reason to deny a refund. Confronting them with a CPU-z screenshot is plenty.
Click to expand...

I thought about that too. I have no intention of breaking any of the seals they have on the thing. I talked to my friend and she's going to take it back over there next week and see what they say.

Edit: Found the website for this company; Holy High Prices, Batman!
 
the scary thing is that, at least from the looks of that website, this isn't some fly by night operation, but probably a local company that does a fair amount of business, and has sold a good number of these machines that are modded. This is something to check into, as other consumers have a right to be protected as well.
 
Even if there weren't rebadging issues, a 1.8GHz Celeron for $1300 is pretty hard screwing to start with. :p
 
...Not to mention only 256 RAM. You could have an Acer from Newegg with a Celeron M 1.5, 512 memory, and 40GB drive for like $800 I think.
 
Or get in on one of those 750 off 1499 deals like I did at Dell Home. 756 for my i6100 with 1.6 centrino.
 
Those prices are insane!!!!!!!! Take the thing back and get one from Dell, or off Newegg for half those crazy prices. I would report that site, company to the BBB ASAP. I would have her take it back ASAP and DEMAND a refund. With those specs and that price OMG, there is no way they should be able to sell those things. :eek:
 
See this: http://www.overclockers.com/articles1230/index05.asp


Shows the set of dip switches that controls the FSB. Its an easy as sliding a little dip switch to change you from 400 to 533FSB or vice-versa.

Its not a big deal b/c the CPU should throttle down when it doesn't need the power and/or if it overheats. So no big deal. And if you're really concerned switch it back to 400FSB. They may have OC'd it on purpose, or they MIGHT have done it on accident!!!

The default position I believe is 533FSB, so when they put a Celeron in there instead of a Pentium M with 533FSB, they need to set it to 400FSB setting.

ASUS ships the notebook set for 533 MHz. Using SW3 means that all peripherals are running at spec - not overclocked.
Click to expand...

Anyway, I don't think its a big deal reguardless. She should thank them for giving her 33% more power for free!
 
chrisf6969 said:
Its not a big deal b/c the CPU should throttle down when it doesn't need the power and/or if it overheats.
Click to expand...


Well, it's a Celeron M, so it doesn't throttle. That's a Pentium M only feature, and a big reason why the processor is idling at 65 C.
 
chrisf6969 said:
Anyway, I don't think its a big deal reguardless. She should thank them for giving her 33% more power for free!
Click to expand...


What was free? It's my understanding she thought she was buying a 1.8ghz chip. This is fraud.
 
Go back and make those Bastards pay up! :mad: They deserve whatever happens to them . they are scamming people.
 
Xbrid said:
Go back and make those Bastards pay up! :mad: They deserve whatever happens to them . they are scamming people.
Click to expand...
I honestly don't believe they got the CPU speed wrong and they probably knew about it from the start. I'd go get my money back.
 
pigpen said:
What was free? It's my understanding she thought she was buying a 1.8ghz chip. This is fraud.
Click to expand...

Oh, I read through too fast!!

Yeah, if it was sold as a 1.8Ghz.... then she was ripped off.

GO back & make them put a Pentium M 1.8+ Ghz chip in there.
 
Ok, so my friend just called me from her meeting with the computer guy that he finally had time for, and the attempt to rip her off continues. He's throwing out a bunch of BS about how CPU-Z is not registering the proper clockspeed because it's a "centrino" etc, etc. As far as the aforementioned bus switches that set 400 or 533, he denies their existence because (and this is a quote) "it's not an AMD processor." Why is it all guys like this just have to be just plain stupid? I told her what to say to him; we'll see if he owns up.
 
icthus13 said:
Ok, so my friend just called me from her meeting with the computer guy that he finally had time for, and the attempt to rip her off continues. He's throwing out a bunch of BS about how CPU-Z is not registering the proper clockspeed because it's a "centrino" etc, etc. As far as the aforementioned bus switches that set 400 or 533, he denies their existence because (and this is a quote) "it's not an AMD processor." Why is it all guys like this just have to be just plain stupid? I told her what to say to him; we'll see if he owns up.
Click to expand...

wow that is quite funny. I wasn't aware that AMD made 533fsb chips :p.

Is windows registering the chip as a celeron as well? Make it aware to the douche that "centrino" packages do not contain celerons.
 
sKiDmArK said:
wow that is quite funny. I wasn't aware that AMD made 533fsb chips :p.

Is windows registering the chip as a celeron as well? Make it aware to the douche that "centrino" packages do not contain celerons.
Click to expand...


Yeah, and apparently AMD makes "inferior" processors as well... :rolleyes:

Unfortunately, I was not at the meeting but I sent her a little intel.com link explaining how Celeron M does not equal Centrino. I hope she showed him.
 
Ok, she just called me back. The guy refuses to admit wrongdoing or even negligence, and still denies the laptop is overclocked, but he DID give her a full refund 'cause she complained enough! Excellent. Thanks for all your help guys.
 
GOOD for her.

The sad thing is he probably doesn't even know about the dipswitch.
He just plug & played the system with out reading manual.

And didn't know why it wasn't running at1.4GHz, so he sold it as a 1.8Ghz system!! Doh!

I think he might be the DIP SHITCH
 
Well that pretty much confirms that this guy is a complete fraud. What an asshole. You think now that your friend has her money back it would be okay to link him to this thread so he can defend his business practises? That is some real shady shit trying to rip off this poor girl. And then making up bullshit about cpu-z and the "centrino" processor. It's a real shame that he's probably gotten away with this a bunch of times. And made a ton of money off of it. Luckily your friend knew somebody that could help her out.
 
icthus13 said:
Yeah, and apparently AMD makes "inferior" processors as well... :rolleyes:

Unfortunately, I was not at the meeting but I sent her a little intel.com link explaining how Celeron M does not equal Centrino. I hope she showed him.
Click to expand...

Well in regards to mobile chips I think that is correct. AMD doesn't really have a true contender for the Dothan peformance and powerconsumption wise. On desktops though, IMO AMD is currently blowing Intel out of the water (concerning technology and performance).

Glad your friend got her money back. That was a total scam.
 
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