Just unlocked 4 cores on my phenom x2 550 BE

Tom|Nbk · 3 Sep 2009 at 16:19

LittleChimp said:
And more expensive its fifty pounds more than the 550 and given the chance it can unlock to a quad I know which is better value.

Ok but that's irrelevant for me since I already have the cpu

I guess if I was to start a new build from scratch it would have to be one of these./

chippy08 · 3 Sep 2009 at 16:37

LittleChimp said:
And more expensive its fifty pounds more than the 550 and given the chance it can unlock to a quad I know which is better value.

I would still have the e8400 if you want the faster chip as i have had both i find the e8400 much better.

Merlin5 · 3 Sep 2009 at 16:51

BIGBC said:
Resetting the BIOS will not unflash it. If the flashing goes wrong then you can be in some serious trouble, but this only rarely happens (power failure etc).
I would expect it to generate more heat but im not really sure.

No sorry, I didn't mean the bios flash, my wording was a bit confusing between bios flashing, and core unlocking.

I meant, if the unlock worked but was unstable or didn't boot into windows, would removing the cmos battery reset the bios to seeing the cpu as dual core again? In other words, can I lock the cores again to re stabilise the system?

As it happens, I just flashed the bios, and boy, did I have a scare! Everything went fine with the @BIOS utility, and it was set to load cmos default after updating bios. However, after seeing "verifying DMI data.. success" it wouldn't boot into windows, it kept going into that screen where you can choose normal or safe modes. Turns out that it had changed my boot up sequence to floppy drive, AND the order of the hard drives was changed too from my windows installed sata drive to one of my ide drives. Lol, thank god I spotted that

Now the bios shows an addition.. EC Firmware. It's set to normal but it can be changed to 0.82, and this works along with ACC. So it doesn't say hybrid, but I believe EC firmware is fine?

Btw, now my cpu is running at 47, where before it was always 36 to 39.

Bios can change temp?

edit: Just flashed again to another bios, FB which is an earlier one and now I have the Hybrid.

I set ACC to auto, and EC Firmware to hybrid, saved, it updated the firmware and told me not to turn off or reset, then it rebooted and I'm waiting for my X4 to show up aannnnnd!!!.. windows doesn't boot. So I turned off ACC, reset hybrid to normal and we're back in windows, and I didn't have to pull out the cmos battery after all. So now I need to figure out what voltage settings I need to make this work, if it's going to work at all.

chippy08 · 3 Sep 2009 at 17:18

Merlin5 said:
No sorry, I didn't mean the bios flash, my wording was a bit confusing between bios flashing, and core unlocking.

I meant, if the unlock worked but was unstable or didn't boot into windows, would removing the cmos battery reset the bios to seeing the cpu as dual core again? In other words, can I lock the cores again to re stabilise the system?

As it happens, I just flashed the bios, and boy, did I have a scare! Everything went fine with the @BIOS utility, and it was set to load cmos default after updating bios. However, after seeing "verifying DMI data.. success" it wouldn't boot into windows, it kept going into that screen where you can choose normal or safe modes. Turns out that it had changed my boot up sequence to floppy drive, AND the order of the hard drives was changed too from my windows installed sata drive to one of my ide drives. Lol, thank god I spotted that Now the bios shows an addition.. EC Firmware. It's set to normal but it can be changed to 0.82, and this works along with ACC. So it doesn't say hybrid, but I believe EC firmware is fine?

Btw, now my cpu is running at 47, where before it was always 36 to 39. Bios can change temp?

you shouldnt use the @BIOS to update bios as this method often bricks the motherboard as this method is so unsafe you should use Qflash instead.

gareth170 · 3 Sep 2009 at 17:31

Merlin5 said:
can I lock the cores again to re stabilise the system?

yes.

just turn off ACC

Merlin5 · 3 Sep 2009 at 17:38

gareth170 said:
yes.

just turn off ACC

Thanks, good to know. My biggest worry is bricking the motherboard or frying the cpu.

chippy08 said:
you shouldnt use the @BIOS to update bios as this method often bricks the motherboard as this method is so unsafe you should use Qflash instead.

Oh, I read the reverse of that somewhere. Someone said that qflash is unreliable and @BIOS was better. :confused:

Here, a member from toms hardware:
"i'd use @BIOS which is located on the cd.
There have been people having problems with Qflash but @BIOS has proven to be very reliable that is if you have windows installed."

canavan · 3 Sep 2009 at 17:40

I wanted to ask anyone who has unlocked their cpu with an ASUS mobo.
I have to enable unleash mode everytime i want 4cores as if i don't it always reverts back to dual core.
Is there any way to make it perma 4cores?

tipsy · 5 Sep 2009 at 12:41

I've just unlocked my Tricore 720 using a gigabyte ga-m720 us3

was just as cheap when it was on special last week all I need to do is oc as its stable at 2.8ghz stock at the mo

canavan · 5 Sep 2009 at 15:29

tipsy said:
I've just unlocked my Tricore 720 using a gigabyte ga-m720 us3 was just as cheap when it was on special last week all I need to do is oc as its stable at 2.8ghz stock at the mo

I tired overclocking mine to 3.5ghz and when i ran prime the pc knocked off near instantly lol

LittleChimp · 5 Sep 2009 at 15:34

You might just need beter cooling canavan and maybe a voltage tweak.

Merlin5 · 6 Sep 2009 at 15:51

Well I tried various permutations to unlock my 550 BE, auto and also per core. I disabled cool n quiet. Core 3 and 4 (named 2 and 3 in bios) set at +2%, didn't work, and then at -4%, didn't work, with vcore at +0.50v (or is that 0.050v) anyway it was two increments up from normal, ie, from 1.34v. Then I tried it again with ACC to auto still with same voltage increase. Most of the time it would get to the windows boot screen (blue squares on black background moving from left to right) but then go back to the gigabyte start up screen for selecting bios. Then it would go to the 'start windows normally'/'safe mode screen' screen.. Then it would keep cycling around these screens. A couple of times it got as far as the blue welcome screen and I thought I'd done it but then it went back to the motherboard start screen and then the previous cycle again. I went back to bios and the cpu temp was a bit hotter from 46c up to 53c on stock cooler. I could feel it getting hotter with my hand at the back of the pc. Does it look like I've no chance of unlocking this? Is there anything else I should try, like upping the NB VID voltage? Upping voltage to NB as well could take the cpu into late 50's or so, don't know if that's dangerous? I'm a bit concerned at increasing the temperature even more until I get my new cpu cooler.

I just watched a youtube vid of someone with the same mobo, well, the US3 but it's the same, and he unlocked his 550 with nothing more than ACC auto and hybrid. No voltage changes. That says to me that mine must not be unlockable. Is it worth trying to unlock just one core and make it tri core? I mean, could trying to unlock two cores stop one decent core working and not let me into windows if the other is defective?

canavan · 6 Sep 2009 at 21:51

Here is a pic of me running prime, does this mean i have a faulty core and i can i use it as a three core processor?
Wierd though becuase when i was on windows xp i ran a stress test with all 4 cores no problem.

[ESRA]Taf · 7 Sep 2009 at 13:09

Merlin5 said:
Well I tried various permutations to unlock my 550 BE, auto and also per core. I disabled cool n quiet. Core 3 and 4 (named 2 and 3 in bios) set at +2%, didn't work, and then at -4%, didn't work, with vcore at +0.50v (or is that 0.050v) anyway it was two increments up from normal, ie, from 1.34v. Then I tried it again with ACC to auto still with same voltage increase. Most of the time it would get to the windows boot screen (blue squares on black background moving from left to right) but then go back to the gigabyte start up screen for selecting bios. Then it would go to the 'start windows normally'/'safe mode screen' screen.. Then it would keep cycling around these screens. A couple of times it got as far as the blue welcome screen and I thought I'd done it but then it went back to the motherboard start screen and then the previous cycle again. I went back to bios and the cpu temp was a bit hotter from 46c up to 53c on stock cooler. I could feel it getting hotter with my hand at the back of the pc. Does it look like I've no chance of unlocking this? Is there anything else I should try, like upping the NB VID voltage? Upping voltage to NB as well could take the cpu into late 50's or so, don't know if that's dangerous? I'm a bit concerned at increasing the temperature even more until I get my new cpu cooler.

I just watched a youtube vid of someone with the same mobo, well, the US3 but it's the same, and he unlocked his 550 with nothing more than ACC auto and hybrid. No voltage changes. That says to me that mine must not be unlockable. Is it worth trying to unlock just one core and make it tri core? I mean, could trying to unlock two cores stop one decent core working and not let me into windows if the other is defective?

Yes, there are some extra things you can try to achieve stability. I assume you have already disabled cool&quiet (there are ways to re-enable this safely after unlocking success, but worry about that later). The first thing you should try is to max out the voltage on all 4 cores, 1.50v should do it. If that doesn't work, then the final thing you can try is UNDERclocking your CPU. Those 2 extra cores may be perfectly fine, but just rated at a lower speed - 3.1Ghz is quite high after all. So underclock your CPU to 2.00Ghz, and if you achieve stability, then start increasing it until you find the sweet spot (tweaking the voltage also if neccessary).

PS. The fact that you managed to get to the windows login/welcome screen is a good sign that underclocking may work for you. I have seen a failed 550 that refused to get anywhere near that far in the boot process no matter what we tried.

Good luck!

canavan · 9 Sep 2009 at 21:29

BobbyUK, what operating system you use?
Since i upgraded to windows 7, i can't get this unlocking to work for some reason

gareth170 · 9 Sep 2009 at 21:46

canavan said:
Here is a pic of me running prime, does this mean i have a faulty core and i can i use it as a three core processor?
Wierd though becuase when i was on windows xp i ran a stress test with all 4 cores no problem.

win xp 32bit (any 32 bit os ) don't use the full features of the cpu, a 64bit os uses the full features of the cpu, im guessing your running win 7 64bit? if so thats why you find you can't overclock as high in a 64bit os than a 32bit os

either clock it down abit till that faulty core is stable or up the voltage alittle more.

canavan · 9 Sep 2009 at 21:50

I was using windows XP 64bit, it unlocked easy with no tweaks needed on BIOS.. Now when i am running windows 7 64bit it boots up now but when i run prime it only shows 3cores working and before i ran a stress test with them all running fine at stock speeds on windows XP.
Most of the time now it crashes about 2min's into windows and brings up a blue screen saying something like "Didn't recieve something from second processor"

gareth170 · 9 Sep 2009 at 21:57

canavan said:
I was using windows XP 64bit, it unlocked easy with no tweaks needed on BIOS.. Now when i am running windows 7 64bit it boots up now but when i run prime it only shows 3cores working and before i ran a stress test with them all running fine at stock speeds on windows XP.
Most of the time now it crashes about 2min's into windows and brings up a blue screen saying something like "Didn't recieve something from second processor"

so in xp u was running it at stock speed unlocked? which was fine..

why is it overclocked now to 3.5ghz?

canavan · 9 Sep 2009 at 22:00

Oh, that is the first screenie of when i just tried it on 7, wanted to try overclocking it too but found out i was having problems with second core now.. I also noticed in windows 7, that your core's drop to around 800mhz when idle then shoot up to whatever you have it clocked at when performing a task

Also, yes in windows xp i ran a stress test with all four cores at 3.1ghz and it was fine, i am wondering if it is the operating system doin this

gareth170 · 9 Sep 2009 at 22:04

canavan said:
I also noticed in windows 7, that your core's drop to around 800mhz when idle then shoot up to whatever you have it clocked at when performing a task

that is because cool n quiet is enabled in the bios.

u should disable cool n quiet when overclocking.

if u put it back to stock does it work fine in win7?

canavan · 9 Sep 2009 at 22:10

Yeah, when it crashes i put bios settings back to norm and it runs fine again..
i am just annoyed that i seem to have lost my quad core and can i just use the three cores then?