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Advice On Unlocking Phenom II X2 550 BE

R

RussellS

New Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2009
Messages
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Location
UK
System Specs
Processor AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 (rev 2.0)
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
Memory 2gb Generic DDR2 800mhz
Video Card(s) Palit nVidia GTS 250
Storage Western Digital WD3200AAKS & WD6400AAKS
Display(s) iiyama E2207WS 22" LCD
Audio Device(s) Sounblaster Audigy 2 ZS
Power Supply Corsair TX850W
Software Ubuntu 9.10 / Windows 7 Home Premium
Hi,

I have a Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 motherboard and an AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition which I am trying to unlock the extra cores on. I also have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU cooler fitted which is keeping the temperatures at 27 idle and 34 running Prime95. Also, in case it is relevant, I have a Corsair TX850 PSU.

I have unlocked the extra two cores by setting the "Advanced Clock Calibration" setting in the BIOS to Hybrid and it is then recognised as a "Phenom X4 B50". However, it is not stable and Windows 7 blue screens, sometimes during boot and sometimes after boot. Now, before I give it up as a lost cause, is there any other settings that I could change to bring stability. I have tried raising the core voltage slightly, but that didn't seem to make any difference.

I have also tried enabling the extra cores one at a time in case just one of the cores was faulty but, once again, Windows crashes regardless of which core is being used.

I do appreciate that I may not be able to do this because the extra cores are faulty but I don't want to give up just yet. At one stage I did actually have Prime95 running on all four cores for quite a while but havn't since been able to repeat it.

So, if anyone has any advice I would be very gratefull.


Russell
 
i would try upping the voltage to make it stable, some of the unlocked CPU's require a large voltage increase to become windows stable.

Whats you current voltage?
 
RussellS said:
Hi,

I have a Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 motherboard and an AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition which I am trying to unlock the extra cores on. I also have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU cooler fitted which is keeping the temperatures at 27 idle and 34 running Prime95. Also, in case it is relevant, I have a Corsair TX850 PSU.

I have unlocked the extra two cores by setting the "Advanced Clock Calibration" setting in the BIOS to Hybrid and it is then recognised as a "Phenom X4 B50". However, it is not stable and Windows 7 blue screens, sometimes during boot and sometimes after boot. Now, before I give it up as a lost cause, is there any other settings that I could change to bring stability. I have tried raising the core voltage slightly, but that didn't seem to make any difference.

I have also tried enabling the extra cores one at a time in case just one of the cores was faulty but, once again, Windows crashes regardless of which core is being used.

I do appreciate that I may not be able to do this because the extra cores are faulty but I don't want to give up just yet. At one stage I did actually have Prime95 running on all four cores for quite a while but havn't since been able to repeat it.

So, if anyone has any advice I would be very gratefull.


Russell
Click to expand...

Well what you can do is play around with the percentages on the Advanced Clock Calibration settings, for those 2 unlocked cores. If that doesn't produce any gain in stability, your locked cores are simply unstable.
 
Thanks for the replies,

Reefer86 said:
i would try upping the voltage to make it stable, some of the unlocked CPU's require a large voltage increase to become windows stable.

Whats you current voltage?
Click to expand...

I have gone as far as upping the CPU core to 1.425v which I read was the max you could go to.

Thrackan said:
Well what you can do is play around with the percentages on the Advanced Clock Calibration settings, for those 2 unlocked cores. If that doesn't produce any gain in stability, your locked cores are simply unstable.
Click to expand...

I assume you mean the settings marked "Value (Core 2)" & "Value (Core 3)" which can be set between -12% and +12%. What is this actually adjusting, is it the frequency or the multiplier or something else.


Russell
 
RussellS said:
Thanks for the replies,



I have gone as far as upping the CPU core to 1.425v which I read was the max you could go to.



I assume you mean the settings marked "Value (Core 2)" & "Value (Core 3)" which can be set between -12% and +12%. What is this actually adjusting, is it the frequency or the multiplier or something else.


Russell
Click to expand...

It's a "Calibration" setting, so I assume it's meant to keep the clocks in sync or something.
Mine are on +2% by default on all cores.
 
the percentages, on the ACC i beleive throttled back the certain core or upped according to the percentage.

V core.. depends on your cooling tbh i have had my 965 up to 1.5v, and filling out your system specs would help us alot.
 
Hi, thanks again.

Sorry about the system specs, totally forgot about that. They are now filled in appropriately.


I am now playing with the ACC percentages (have them all set at zero at the moment) and am writing this while Prime95 is running on all four unlocked cores. Prime95 has been running for 15mins now and so far so good.

Fingers crossed.



Russell
 
Just keep in mind that 550's are C2 stepping chips. I just sold one that was produced this year and unlocked four cores, but was not stable at all, even with a voltage increase. Having a 550 unlock and remain stress stable is a rare occasion. It was however a very good overclocker as a dual core. It ran 3.8ghz on only 1.44 volts while running a 2.6ghz northbridge.

I just picked up a 555 from Micro Center that unlocked to four cores stable at 3.2ghz with no voltage increase. The temp sensors were stuck at 19c however.
 
Also remember not all will ever get stable...

I have had a few x2's even after heavy voltage increases and drops on the clock speeds, still couldn't get them stable.
 
Goodman said:
Off topic... are you really running XP 32bit with 6GB of Ram...?
That is a waste of money & you will never use more then ~3.2-3.5GB , get 64bit OS right NOW!!...:D
Click to expand...

That's on the bench rig...64 bit OS blows on most benchmarks. :)
 
I have real close to the same setup as you are running (see specs). My guess is you got a poor unlocking chip. I can unlock my X2 550BE stable without any voltage changes at all. But when you start to overclock you will have to up the voltage. I can run mine @ 3.2GHz unlocked with a + .075v added. Much over that and mine gets iffy. Also I learned you might need to drop your NB multi to x9 (under 2000MHz) but your HT freq MUST stay higher than your NB freq at all times, or it will clock it down way down. Also try clocking your memory down and see if it stablizes. The X2 550BE is a great chip either as a X2 or X4. 770 chipsets arent the best to unlock on, but it should do it fine. Good luck :toast:
 
Last edited:
I agree with blkhogan 100%.
I managed to unlock mine as well, got it to 3.4 at 1.36v.
Although, I do have the 785g chipset, that might be part of it.
Try dropping the multis like blkhogan said, and get back to us.

You are gambling on those cores though I heard somewhere that you have a >50% chance of getting a 550BE with 4 stable cores.
 
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