How to Overclock Your Nexus One!
Yup, I overclocked my Nexus One phone and it’s running fast 111.5% faster than a stock Nexus One.
Is it safe? Yeah, I think it’s pretty safe as the hack doesn’t change any CPU voltages.
Does my phone run faster? Yes, it runs slightly faster, especially when I am viewing online videos on my Nexus One.
So, here’s the step-by-step guide on how to overclock your Nexus One to 1.113Mhz from the stock 998Mhz:
1) First, you will need to install the Cyanogen mod as this hack is based on that, read the step by step guide on how to install Cyanogen Mod on your Nexus One here.
2) Once your Nexus One is humming on the Cyanogen mod, you are ready to overclock it!
You can either pay 99 cents and download the SetCPU app from the Android market or you can download the following directions to get it for free.
How to Install SetCPU app for FREE! (you can skip this step if you want to donate 99 cents to the developer and download from the App Market)
a. Download the latest version of SetCPU by going here to XDA-Developers.com. (You will have to register to download btw.)
b. Next, unzip the SetCPU zip file and copy the file ending in setcpu.apk file over to your SD Card. Use apkInstaller to browse your SD card and install the setcpu.apk. (You can read up on how to install .apk files here if you need more help!)
c. You should get a nice “Application installed” message after installation is complete. Don’t open the app yet as you need to flash some files to your Nexus One first.
Flashing custom ROMs and modules to your Nexus One
3) Download zImage-cm_2633.1-oc-uv (the version number might change with updates) and download lib.tar.gz. (You can check this website for the latest version btw.)
4) Copy over the zImage-cm_2633.1-oc-uv file to the tools folder of your Android SDK (this is where you unzipped the Android SDK!).
5) Untar (unzip) the lib.tar.gz file you just downloaded. If you don’t have untarring software, download/install the free Alzip, which can untar(unzip) the tar file.
In the folder you just unzipped, find the file called bcm4329.ko and copy it over again to the tools folder of your Android SDK like in step 4.
6) Now, power off your Nexus One then get it in bootloader mode by pressing on the power button while holding onto the trackball.
7) Once your Nexus One is in bootloader mode and it’s connected to your computer via USB cable, open up a command prompt. (type “command” or “cmd”)
Browse to your Android SDK tools directory then type the following command:
fastboot flash zimage zImage-cm_2633.1-oc-uv
You should get a message saying the flashing was “okay”.
9) Next, you need to copy the bcm4329.ko file to your phone’s system modules folder.
First, reboot your phone as adb commands won’t work in bootloader mode! I was sitting there in bootloader mode for half an hour and wondering why adb command doesn’t work.
Once your phone reboots, go back to the command prompt and type:
adb remount
You should get the message, “remount succeeded”.
Then type:
adb push bcm4329.ko /system/lib/modules
You should get a message with number of bytes transferred like below screenshow:
10) Now, open up the SetCPU app you installed earlier and choose “autodetect”. If you get asked questions whether you want to let the app have root access, just keep choosing “allow”.
11) You should see screen like above, if you have congratulations, you have just overclocked your Nexus One successfully to 1.113 Ghz! Hurray!
Pat yourself on the back and tell everyone around you that you now hold the fastest smartphone in the world! (I think right now 1.113Ghz is actually the fastest since the fastest smartphone processor is at 1Ghz Snapdragon. I think…)
There’s also various different options in SetCPU to underclock/overclock in certain situations. I will blog about it later down the road after I play with it more.
You can also download free app CPU Benchmark to test how much faster your Nexus One runs with the overclocking hack.
Well, you will get something like this because I ran it before the hack and after: (It should be similar.)
Resource and Credits
Without these great resources, I would not have been able to overclock my Nexus One.
Huge thanks to AndroidGuys.com, user Persiansown at XDA-developers.com, and user CoolBho3000 at XDA-developers.com for the cool SetCPU app!
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:41 am
[...] You can read full step-by-step instructions I wrote over here at Nexus One Hacks blog. [...]
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Great info. Thanks. Your “how to’s” are great… very clear. Much appreciated.
Would you do a “how to” on using Titanium Pro or whatever your preferred back-up solution is?
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Nexus One Hacks Reply:
March 24th, 2010 at 12:00 am
I was using Nandroid, which pretty backs up the whole entire OS, haven’t used Titanium Pro, I think that’s only for apps, might be great for migrating between Cyanogen and HTC Desire. Nandroid instructions here:
http://nexusonehacks.net/nexus-one-hacks/how-to-restore-your-roms-on-nexus-one-using-nandroid/
[Reply]
March 24th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Hey man … Actually it is running 11,5 % faster than stock Nexus One… Not 111,5% faster …
111,5 % of increase would be like double performance ….
= )
By the way .. nice guide there!
[Reply]
Nexus One Hacks Reply:
March 24th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
Right, I should have said 15% faster!
Anyway, it’s faster!
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March 28th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Works fine for me untill i get to the adb part it keeps going error: device not found. I tried it in bootloader mode and also when the phone is on normally but still says the same thing. My computer says its all plugged in too. Very confused!
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March 29th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Well… if i’m gonna be an arse, its 11.3% faster
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April 20th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Staticjupiter – I had the same problem. Turn on debugging mode for usb, then try it.
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May 4th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
“Fastboot” is not recognised as an internal or external command?
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May 10th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
@Oakman
If fastboot isnt regognised, its probably because you started the fastboot command from a directory wich hasnt got fastboot in it
If you followed the above guide, you should start the fastboot command from AndroidSDK/Tools.
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May 11th, 2010 at 2:33 am
my mac terminal when i type fastboot command for image file it says fastboot command not found please help i know im in the tools folder because i hit ls and it shiowed the file in the folder thanks
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May 20th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
adb remount is not working saying error device not found
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July 2nd, 2010 at 6:21 pm
how come when i type fastboot flash zimage zImage-cm_2633.1-oc-uv on cmd it says ‘error: cannot determine image filename zImage-cm_2633.1-oc-uv
please help
[Reply]
Michael Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:38 pm
wait, sorry i typed the wrong thing on cmd, i added .ko at the end but i successfully did it now, thanks anyway
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July 11th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Well, I have tried all of the steps outlined and made it to step 9. I tried, read all of the posts here, and tried and tried again. Finally, I copied the bcm4329.ko to the root of my sdcard. I then used a terminal app on the phone and entered this:
su
mv /sdcard/bcm4329.ko /system/lib/modules
It went off without a problem. Then I followed the rest of the rules and to no avail. I am using CyanogenMod-5.0.8-N1 with a rooted Nexus One purchased from Google. I use ClockworkMod Recovery – ROM Manager Premium v2.0.0.5. The only difference that I see is that my SetCPU is SetCPU 2.0.1. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. I’m gonna go band my head against the wall for a while…
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July 12th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
This page was not working earlier. i tried accesing it but it timed out 4-5 times now but i can access it now. Why does this occur? Am i the only one having this issue?
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