Post your Phenom II and Sempron unlock or failed unlock results here.

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ordovician said:
Nope. Have others reported this?
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If you Google you can find some info on it. I didn't look in to it to much I was just curious why he asked.

Anyway what I found was some information about what I guess can only be called a bug in the BIOS that allowed the CPU to show up as and engineering sample once the PC was reset. Apparently allowing the multiplier and voltage adjustments that one would expect when using a ES CPU.
 
I found this:

http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?http://www.ocinside.de/html/workshop/amd_phenom_ii_unlock.html

When I get home I'll see if the Biostar TA790GX A2+ has a similar option. We'll see. I'm pretty happy running 250x13 = 3250mhz with all 4 cores Prime stable though. I can tell I'm hitting an FSB (or HT I guess it is now) wall, because it doesn't like to boot at 255mhz+. I could bump the volts to the NB, but the cooling is sketchy at best. This little proc is amazing. Its running cooler unlocked at 3.25ghz under my HR-01 Plus than my Phenom II 940 at stock.
 
ordovician said:
I found this:

http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?http://www.ocinside.de/html/workshop/amd_phenom_ii_unlock.html

When I get home I'll see if the Biostar TA790GX A2+ has a similar option. We'll see. I'm pretty happy running 250x13 = 3250mhz with all 4 cores Prime stable though. I can tell I'm hitting an FSB (or HT I guess it is now) wall, because it doesn't like to boot at 255mhz+. I could bump the volts to the NB, but the cooling is sketchy at best. This little proc is amazing. Its running cooler unlocked at 3.25ghz under my HR-01 Plus than my Phenom II 940 at stock.
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Yea thats what i was referring towards, except i didnt know that only Asrock can do it. It will be interesting to know if your biostar has some sorta option like that. Im looking into buying a x3 or x2 to unlock it because money is tight and i dont feel like spending the cash on a quad core when i can save 50 bucks.
 
Just making sure... One more question, would the Asrock 790GX have any disadvantages compared to the Gigabyte 790GX? Why is it priced lower?
 
should you worry that much about the mosfets? maybe somehow put a fan over them? or small ram heatsinks? I have never cooled mosfets on my boards when overclocking and they have been perfectly fine.

damn that Asrock open box looks tempting. Although I now dont know which to purchase.

open box asrock $65 + x3 710 $99 = 164 bucks for a possible Quad Core with unlocked multiplier.

the asrock A780G is open box for 49.99 and you can couple that with a X2 550 to get $148.99 possible Quad core.

So cooling mosfets is very important?
 
msbbc833 said:
Just making sure... One more question, would the Asrock 790GX have any disadvantages compared to the Gigabyte 790GX? Why is it priced lower?
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Which model 790GX? I think the mosfet cooling and Bios options are different. Gigabyte has a bigger reputation so they can charge more. As long as your motherboard has the ACC option you should be fine.

With my luck i know if i gamble on the CPU it wont unlock lol.
 
1) Only the ASrock board allows for Phenom X3 710 multiplier unlocking.
2) Yes, MOSFET cooling is important, especially with overclocking Phenom II's on the SB750. They need at least passive cooling when you have a quad core overclocked above 3ghz. Or you risk blowking up. lol.
3) My experience with every Gigabyte board I've ever tried has been utter crap. I will never buy their crappy boards again :p
 
I am quite impressed with the chip I have. So far I have it down to only 1.150 vcore with the 4 cores unlocked and it has run prime95 for over an hour. I doubt I will be able to drop it down much lower than this, but I am very pleased with it considering it was 1.35 default with only 2 cores.


primestable80min115v.jpg



My temps would probably be a little better but the cooler I am using (OCZ Vendetta2) can only be aimed up or down, not toward the rear exhaust fan.
 
nice, where and when did you order the CPU?
What motherboard? I think i missed it.
 
I bought the x2 550 locally at CanadaComputers same with the motherboard which is a Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H.
 
Damn i hate how i keep coming back to this.

I have a E7200 that i can run at 3.5ghz or higher, p35 motherboard and a 4850 1gb (4870 bit the dust). And everytime someone unlocks another CPU I keep trying to find someone to buy my parts. Trying to sell them to a friend. I wanna break even, buy a 550 or a 720 and try to unlock. lol.

the urge sometime kills me. So many 550 getting unlocked its nice.
 
^ Thats a great OC, but I kind of cringe at how much power it must use. ;-) Can you still use CnQ?
 
Yea I can still use it. I only have it at 4.0- 4.1 just during testing and Video recoding..not 24/7
 
Phenom II 710 with Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P, bios F2.

Unlocks fine, but cannot load Windows at all. I had to jack up the voltage all the way to 1.575 just to reach desktop without crashing. Didn't even bother testing stability from that point on, not worth it anymore at that voltage. Normal vcore is 1.325. Must have a bad core.

If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.
 
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Phenom II X3 710 on Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P, upgraded BIOS to F2, disabled Cool & Quiet, voltages on Auto

4th core unlocked fine, Windows posted (Windows 7 x64 RTM) and acted stable for half-day of "normal" use plus a short run of Prime95.

I played with some OC settings and was stable at 3.12GHz (13x240) with +0.10v but immediately saw CPU temp get too high (low 70*C) under 100% load with Prime95. I'm using the OEM cooler.

Went back to stock settings (still have 4th core unlocked), re-enabled Cool & Quiet. Very happy with the performance of this chip for $99 and mobo for $85. Decided on this setup instead of a Core i7 just based on value for dollar. AM3 board with DDR3 means still good upgraded potential in the future.


Old specs: Athlon XP 3000+ (2003), Asus A7N8X-E mobo (2005), 2GB DDR-400 RAM (upgrade from 1GB in 2007), Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB AGP & Radeon 7000 64MB PCI video (2002/3), -- I got my money's worth from this old workhorse!

New: AMD Phenom II X3 710, Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P, 8GB DDR3-1333, Radeon HD 3650 512MB PCI-e video primary, Geforce 6200 PCI video secondary

Re-used: Lian-Li PC60 case (2001/2), WD 250GB & 640GB SATA drives (2006-2008), pair of NEC DVD-RW PATA drives (2005), Antec earthwatts 380 PS (early '09)
2x 20" LCD @ 1680x1050, 2x 17" LCD @ 1440x900 -- quad monitor setup for running several RDP sessions and VMs

http://images.miklm.com/i/800/9cb3456b9f180c3c45e8494a06a0c056.jpg
 
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That is insane!! Looks like you have a winner there, and only 90 bucks...

Mine on air at 1.4v only manages 3.7ghz, with the 4 cores activated.
 
Phenom II 720 with GA-MA770T-UD3P F2C

4th core unlocked with no issue at stock voltage. Ran fine in Vista 64 but under load from FSX and ARMA 2 it had issues.

Dropped it back to 3 and will overclock once my mosfet cooler gets here.
 
Cr4ckm0nk3y said:
Phenom II 720 with GA-MA770T-UD3P F2C

4th core unlocked with no issue at stock voltage. Ran fine in Vista 64 but under load from FSX and ARMA 2 it had issues.

Dropped it back to 3 and will overclock once my mosfet cooler gets here.
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Stock volts are still at "tri-core volts" when you unlock. You need to increase the volts in order to run the X4 stable.
 
DTN107 said:
Stock volts are still at "tri-core volts" when you unlock. You need to increase the volts in order to run the X4 stable.
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I figured that was the issue. I will try again after I install the mosfet cooler and put it all back together.
 
Update on my X3 710: Unlocks fine (as already recorded), however will bug up the OS on resume from hibernation. When set to 4 cores it will wake from hibernation, but then windows will freeze when loading. It will continue to freeze from that point on until I set it back to 3 cores and boot to the OS successfully, only then can I set it back to 4 cores. When I set back to 3 cores, hibernation works fine. I ended up disabling hibernation by running cmd.exe as administrator and typing "powercfg -h off".

I suspect some of these successful unlocks do have bad cores, but the "bad" part is not in a mission-critical part of the core. I suspect I have a core that failed some sort of p-state test, and does not like being put into a deep sleep. I do have CnQ enabled just fine. I can run Prime all day, so it doesn't bother me that much. But for those of you strugging, try disabling hibernation.
 
Ok, I've done all the steps in the first post and I've gotten all four cores unlocked and my computer boots up fine- cpu-z shows all four cores. I do run into a problem when I get to my desktop though. I have one of those dream scene backgrounds and with all 4 cores unlocked, it screws up my desktop. How do I go about unlocking individual cores so I can try to "weed out" the bad one? Also, does the ECC Firmware have to be set to "Hybrid"?
 
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Results have been updated. If you did not post your motherboard AND bios revision your result will not be recorded untill you do.
 
Wow this thread has over 25000 views. I bet when you google about unlocking AMD Phenom IIs this thread should be one of the first results.

Also I hear the new AM3 Semprons can unlock into dual cores. Although they are not a Phenom II I thought I just throw that out there.
 
Unlocked all four cores at stock speeds on a Biostar TA790GX XE. Prime95 stable for 24 hours.

This machine is not for me; quietness is a major concern. No aftermarket HSF.

I will attempt a small OC, but the initial build has far exceeded the recipient's expectations.

Board: Biostar TA790GX XE
BIOS: Version 080014 from 1/13/09
 
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I OC'ed it up to 3.2 stable on retail HSF in an Antec 300 Illusion. Again, more than expected, the recipient is thrilled so this one is out the door!
 
New poster here....

Unlocked a Phenom II 550 stamped 0922mpmw (from ZZF) using a GA-MA770T-UD3P on 1st attempt to all 4 cores. F2C BIOS. Haven't tried to OC it yet but right now it is stable. ;)

phenom.JPG

phenom2.JPG
 
Sucessful unlock of all four cores- Phenom 550, 0922apmw batch, Gigabyte ma770t-ud3p flashed to F2c. Stock volts and no overclock. Boots fine and I've run Prime95 to check stability but I have a question about temps. I have Gigabyte's Easy Tune running and it shows my idle temp at 43 C and when I run Prime it hovers around 62 C. Are those numbers high? I'm using stock hsf.
 
Warmer than I would personally care for, but I believe spec lists a max of 70C
 
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