How To Overclock The Nokia N900

N900 had been overclocked to run at speeds upto 1GHz. Since then a lot of people have tried overclocking their N900’s for that speed bump and have reported that the N900 stays stable and performs faster even after being overclocked.

But before you start flashing your own N900, please keep in mind a few of the ramifications pointed out by Lehto:

• They (the modded kernels) will make the about page say for the hardware and software. (So the Nokia Software Updater will not work and you will have to manually flash your device if you wish to upgrade to the new firmware).

• There is an additional speed step down from 250mhz. So instead of 250mhz idle it now sits @ 125mhz idle with lower voltage. 125/250/500/550/xxx instead of 250/500/550/600.

• You are sacrificing machine lifetime by running it overclocked and stressing it at 100% for longer periods of time.

• Everything will feel faster and is faster.

• The fastest kernels might not work on your phone, this is purely down to luck of how good chip you’ve got in your phone. Climate affects it also along with many other variables. (If you like in a warm climate, do not try anything more than 800 MHz).

• This (the overclocking procedure) requires only flashing the new kernel in, the phone setups and apps will stay. Only the clock speed increases.

Personally, I am going to resist from overclocking my N900 as the long term effects of this procedure are yet unknown. Secondly, I know that I do not possess the experience or the technical skill to full understand the nitty gritty of this hack and thirdly I do not wish to void my warranty. I shall have no responsibility if anything goes wrong and your N900 is damaged in anyway whatsoever, based on this tutorial or otherwise.
If you still think you want to overclock your N900, Maemo Briefs has published a tutorial, based on which are the following instructions:

• Download one of those modded Kernels, depending on the speed you would like or simply download the entire package here.

• 125 – 900mhz kernel.
• 125 – 825mhz kernel.
• 125 – 800mhz kernel.
• 125 – 750mhz kernel.
• 125 – 700mhz kernel.
• 125 – 600mhz kernel.
• 125 – 930mhz , 500mhz DSP (stock 430mhz DSP)

• If you don’t already have the Maemo Flasher, download and install it.

• Next, place the kernel you would like to flash in the Maemo Flasher folder. It is usually found in the Program Files folder.

• Switch off the N900, make sure the battery is fully charged.

• On the PC, open the Command Prompt by going to Start then Run and type cmd, then press Enter.

• Change directory to the flasher’s program path by entering:

cd “C:\ProgramFiles\maemo\flasher-3.5″

• Connect the USB cable while holding the ‘u’ key on the N900. Within an instant you will see a USB icon on the top right corner of the N900. Now leave the ‘u’ key.

• Run the following command:

flasher-3.5.exe -k zImage-800mhz -f -R

• Replace “zImage-800mhz” with the name of the kernel you would like to flash.

• Within a few seconds (usually under 10) the flash will be complete and you would have overclocked your N900.

If you are serious about flashing your N900, I recommend going through this thread. Maemo.org member ‘jakiman‘ has complied most of the information from that large thread into this single post if you do not wish to read through the 100 plus pages.