OpenElec Overvolting Guide

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OpenElec Overvolting Guide

This guide assume that you have Putty on your computer and that you know how to connect to OpenElec via SSH. If you you do not, please refer to HTPCBuild.com Connecting to OpenElec via SSH Guide.

You’ve decided that you want to overclock your OpenElec distro, but you are running into a wall. You just can’t get the MHz you want. We’ll We’ll need to use Putty to connect to your Raspberry Pi and edit the “config.txt” file.

NOTE: Overvolting your Raspberry Pi WILL void your warranty. HTPCBuild.com is not responsible for any damage that might occur when attempting to overvolt your Raspberry Pi.

1. First connect to your OpenElec Raspberry Pi via Putty SSH.

2. Now you need to locate the “config.txt” file. Being that you’ve already tried to overclock your OpenElec Raspberry Pi, you should already have create the “config.txt”. If you followed HTPCBuild.com’s OpenElec Overclocking Guide then your “config.txt” should be inside of the /flash directory. By default /flash is read only, so we need to remount the directory as read/write. Start by executing the following command:
mount /flash -o remount,rw

3. Now that we have read/write access to the /flash directory, we need to enter the directory to check for the “config.txt” file. Execute the following command to enter the /flash directory:

cd /flash

The terminal will indicate that you are inside the /flash directory.

4. Next we need to view the contents of the /flash directory. We can use the “ls” command to list the contents of the /flash directory, execute the following command:

ls

The terminal will echo back the contents of the /flash directory.

NOTE: If you haven’t already added a “config.txt” file you probably won’t have one here. This terminal is echoing that there is a “config.txt”, which I have previously added.

6. Now we can open up the “config.txt” file. Here we will adjust different clock parameters or add parameters if needed. To open the “config.txt” file execut the following command:

vi config.txt

NOTE: If you do not have a “config.txt” file, ‘vi’ will automatically create a text file name “config.txt”.

7. A text editor will launch and display the contents of the file “config.txt”. If you have already been overclocking you may have some overclocking values here.

8. Before we move forward, you’ll need a quick crash course in how to use the ‘vi’ text editor in OpenElec.

  • When you first open ‘vi’, editor will be in “Command” mode. Command mode allows you to save, exit, etc.
  • To begin editing the file you must enter either “Append” or “Insert” mode. Hitting the ‘a’ key will put the editor into “Append” editing mode. Hitting the ‘i’ key will put the editor into “Insert” mode. If you do not enter “Append” or “Insert” mode, you will NOT be able to edit the file.
  • Once you are done editing, you need to enter “Command” mode to save the file. Hit the “Esc” key a few times, and you should hear the terminal beep. The beep confirms you have entered “Command” mode.
  • To save – hold “Shift” + “:” simultaneously and type “w!”. (Must be in “Command” mode)
  • To quit – hold “Shift” + “:” simultaneously and type “q!”. (Must be in “Command” Mode)

9. Here comes the fun part! Here we can enter parameters we wish to add to the “config.txt” or we can adjust parameters already in it. There are a few voltage values that you can adjust for your Raspberry Pi:

  • over_voltage  – Sets the voltage for the ARM and GPU processor. The default value is 0. The value range is -16 to 8. For each positive value increment you step the voltage by 0.025V. For each negative value increment you step the voltage by 0.025V. The default voltage is 1.2V, with a range of 0.8V to 1.4V.
  • over_voltage_sdram – Sets the voltage for over_voltage_sdram_c, over_voltage_sdram_i, over_voltage_sdram_p simultaneously. The default value is 0.  The value range is -16 to 8. For each positive value increment you step the voltage by 0.025v. For each negative value increment you step the voltage by 0.025v. The default voltage is 1.2V, with a range of 0.8V to 1.4V.
  • over_voltage_sdram_c – Sets the voltage for the SDRAM controller. The default value is 0. The value range is -16 to 8. For each positive value increment you step the voltage by 0.025V. For each negative value increment you step the voltage by 0.025V. The default voltage is 1.2V, with a range of 0.8V to 1.4V.
  • over_voltage_sdram_i –  Sets the voltage for SDRAM’s  I/O. The default value is 0. The value range is -16 to 8. For each positive value increment you step the voltage by 0.025V. For each negative value increment you step the voltage by 0.025V. The default voltage is 1.2V, with a range of 0.8V to 1.4V.
  • over_voltage_sdram_p – Sets the phystical voltage for theSDRAM. The default value is 0. The value range is -16 to 8. For each positive value increment you step the voltage by 0.025V. For each negative value increment you step the voltage by 0.025V. The default voltage is 1.2V, with a range of 0.8V to 1.4V.

NOTE: over_voltage_sdram controls three values simultaneously. If you wish to control these values independent of one another, you’ll need to disable over_voltage_sdram and enable the values for over_voltage_sdram_cover_voltage_sdram_i, and over_voltage_sdram_p.

NOTE: There are two ways to deactivate a volt parameter, you can either completely delete the value from your config.txt or place a “#” in front of the parameter you wish to disable. Placing a “#” indicates that the corresponding line of code is a comment and will not be executed.

10. To begin editing the file, hit the letter “a” to put ‘vi’ into “Append” mode. We can see that OpenElec by default has no overvolting parameters. You can add the over_voltage  parameter to set an overvolt on the Raspberry Pi. Changing the value of over_voltage  will set an overvolt on the next boot. Here the value is set to 1, which will overvolt the OpenElec Raspberry Pi’s ARM & GPU to 1.225 on the next reboot.

11. To add another parameter that is not in the “config.txt” file simply enter it in a new line. Here the parameter over_voltage_sdram as been added and set to 1. This bumps the voltage for over_voltage_sdram_cover_voltage_sdram_i, and over_voltage_sdram_p  to 1.225 on the next  reboot.

NOTE: over_voltage_sdram controls three values simultaneously. If you wish to control these values independent of one another, you’ll need to disable over_voltage_sdram and enable the values for over_voltage_sdram_cover_voltage_sdram_i, and over_voltage_sdram_p.

12. When you’ve feel satisfied with your additions and changes, hit the “Esc” key a few time. The terminal will beep at you, this indicates the ‘vi’ editor is now back in “Command” mode. Hold “Shit” + “:” simultaneously to bring up the command line in ‘vi’.

13. Now type the save command, “w!” and hit enter. ‘vi’ will save the file.

14. Now to quit, type “q!” and hit enter.

14. You should now be back in the terminal.

15. Now reboot your Raspberry Pi, and the new settings will take effect! You can reboot your OpenElec Raspberry Pi you can execute the following command:

reboot

That’s it, you’ve overvolted your OpenElec Raspberry Pi. Please make sure to take care when overvolting your Raspberry Pi. Make changes slowly and in small increments. By making subtle changes and testing your Pi you will be able to notice as the system becomes more and more unstable. Look for signs such as random an inability to boot, random freezing, random errors. If you encounter these, SSH into your Pi and back down on the settings.