A question about unlocking cores in Phenom X2 550

Hi everyone, I've done a search and couldn't find an answer to my question. I am trying to unlock the two extra cores on my X2 550 BE. The first thing I did was update my motherboard bios to the latest version. It's a M4A79T Deluxe motherboard which came with my PC a couple of years ago and I never updated the bios but it is now updated to version 3303.

After updating I got random freezes needing a soft reboot to get back to the desktop but they stopped after a while. I don't know what that was all about. I then decided to try and unlock my cores. The new version of the bios has an automatic core unlocker from ASUS. When you reboot you see an option to press 4 to unlock the cores. I did that and the cores unlocked and it booted into Windows. I'm using Win7 64 Ultimate.

I read that there were various steps to unlock the cores but it went straight into Windows. Task manager showed 4 cores and so did CPU-Z and all 4 cores were at 3.1 as you would expect. So it seemed I successfully unlocked the cores but I kept getting the random freezes.

I ran Prime95 to do a stress test but each time as soon as I started the test the screen froze and I couldn't get out of it without a reboot. The mouse cursor wouldn't move so that was the only way out. I wondered if Prime95 just froze while it did its stuff but I don't think it does that or am I wrong?

Anyway, eventually, tired of the random freezes I managed to get back into the bios (I couldn't at first) and loaded the default settings. This reset my cores back to just two and rebooted and now I am not getting the random freezes anymore.

So my question is... is it worth trying again to unlock the cores? It seemed odd that the system recognised them and was presumably using them. I read somewhere about giving extra voltage to the CPU since I had four cores but I'm not sure how to do that and would it make any difference?

Has anyone had this happen before and can confirm it's the unlock causing the freeze? It happened a couple of times before the unlock so I don't know.

I should probably point out I'm only trying to unlock the cores so I can upgrade my ATI HD5750 and I don't think the dual core 550 will be enough to power something like the nvidea 560ti for example.

Any help greatly appreciated I am completely confused by all this.

 

Contrary to what board manufacturers pitch, core unlockers (either in the BIOS or placed as a switch on the board itself) aren't a foolproof way to boost performance.

There may be some tips and tweaks others may post; however, the fact remains that any attempt at overclocking and/or core unlocking has an inherent risk of making the system unstable. In addition (even if you successfully unlock the cores), you'll need to pay careful attention to the system operating temps and possibly upgrade your colling fan to avoid a meltdown.

As for the video card, I don't see an issue with the dual core CPU being able to "power" an upgraded video card. The "power" concern is checking to be sure your current power supply has enough wattage to handle the video card mfr's minimum rated wattage (I usually go 15-20% over the minimum just to be safe).

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks gman I realise nothing is guaranteed I was just surprised that the cores unlocked straight away and went to the desktop. Some new software was installed and I rebooted and it was fine then randomly froze up. I'm thinking if prime95 kept freezing one of the cores must be a dud, I don't know.

On the card, what I meant was I'm worried the Phenom II X2 550 will bottleneck and good card. A few things I read on the net suggested it would so I thought I'd try to tweak this cpu before having to buy a new one.

Incidentally I had to try this reply twice as the PC froze completely again while I was typing so it seems it's nothing to do with the unlocking it must be the bios upgrade. Anyone got any tips on how to identify the problem?

 

First, try a free tune-up/registry cleaner such as Advanced Windows Care:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5927

If this doesn't solve the issue, try running System Restore to a point before the new software was installed. If that fixes it, I'd contact the software company's support site before reinstalling it.

 

Hi again. I just installed Advanced System Care as suggested and it went through my system and gave me an option at the end to repair which I did. It went through everything one by one then the screen just went black towards the end. The PC was still on but the monitor light was blinking on and off as though it couldn't get a signal. I had to turn the PC off to reboot but before it went into Windows ACC did a registry clean so I don't know what it did in the end apart from that.

Got to add I tried running prime95 again with my normal dual core setup to see if the core unlock was what messed it up and it did exactly the same thing again just froze completely when I started the test.

This has all happened since I updated the bios to the latest version is it worth trying to rollback to an earlier bios? I don't even know what bios version I had to start with it's whatever came with the system. Thanks again for all your help.

 

On the issue of rolling back the BIOS, it appears your board has a feature called ASUS Crash Free, allowing you to restore the BIOS back to the OEM version using the CD that came with the motherboard. If you do not have the CD, I would check ASUS' website and/or the owners manual for the board for specific instructions on using Crash Free restore:

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A79T_Deluxe/

One other thought: since you mentioned the video went blank, I'd also check at www.ati.com to verify you have the latest drivers for your current video card.

If nothing else works, try borrowing an extra video card from a friend, swap it out in your system and see if it fixes things - if so, the video card itself could be the culprit.

 

Thanks gman I'll take a shot at that tomorrow it's getting a bit late here. I still have the original motherboard CD. The 5750 is actually a newish card, my 4890 died and I just grabbed it from a shop as an emergency fix and the first thing I did was update the drivers.

I suspect the oem version is very early the MB is a couple of years old now do you think I should go back to scratch and try different bios versions step by step? Thanks again for all the help I really do appreciate it.

 

I'm a bit confused with you trying to unlock 4 Cores ??/ is this the actual CPU you have if so it states that theere are just 3 cores............

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2GHz Socket AM3 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

AMD Phenom II processors deliver the ultimate visual experience for high definition entertainment, advanced multitasking performance, and power-saving innovations for smaller, cooler machines that are energy efficient. Live your life in HD. AMD Phenom II is for high definition entertainment, gaming, creativity, and beyond. With AMD Phenom II processors as the foundation, you'll enjoy a level of responsiveness and visual intensity. AMD puts high definition computing within everyone's reach. Do more than Dual Core - take advantage of a third core to get performance that turns your imagination into reality.

Specification

Core Speed (MHz) 3200
Voltages 0.875-1.40V
Max Temps (C) 70'C
Wattage 80 W
Virtualization Yes
cache 6MB
CMOS 45nm SOI
Socket AM3

http://www.ebuyer.com/198349-amd-ph...ion-3-2ghz-socket-am3-6mb-cache-hdz555wfgmbox

 

Hi Toke, thanks for the reply. The processor you posted is the 555. The one I have is the Phenom II X2 550 which is dual core. I'm going to try to revert to the original bios later but I'm unsure what to do after that.

Prime95 froze completely back at dual core configuration too so I no longer think the unlock caused the freezing problem. I'm still getting random freezes now so if I can get back to a stable bios I might try to unlock them again since it seems I have two good cores waiting to be opened.

At the moment obviously my main priority is to stop the freezes. I've searched the net and people say my motherboard is known for such freezes but I never got them with the old bios. It could be a lot of trial and error trying various bioses before finding a recent one that's stable but I guess that's what I'll have to do.

 

Hi again, I have a few updates. Firstly, I found the motherboard CD and checked the manual and it said insert the CD and the crash free utility would start up but it didn't. The CD ran when I got to the desktop though, and one of the things was express gate install and since I keep getting an error on boot that express gate didn't install completely I tried to reinstall it. As soon as I started the install the PC froze completely again and I had to reboot. Now I get a message saying internal error code 7 at the desktop I have no idea what that is.

BIOS: I went into the bios and into the EZ flash utility and pointed it at the support CD. I found two rom files there. I tried running both, first one said version in ROM file is older than existing board and the other said ROM ID is incompatible with existing bios.

This is turning into a nightmare. I'm wondering if a clean install of W7 would help with the error messages and random freezes or if I should just roll back the bios to an earlier version. I can get the bios files off ASUS and point to them in bios using EZflash outside of windows so there is no risk the PC will freeze while I'm trying to change the bios.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

I found this tip elsewhere for the error code 7 worth a try and may also fix the other .. apologies for info on incorrect CPU............

hi i had the error 7 message. it usely occurs when bios has been altered.
i simply reset to DEFAULT and bingo worked first time.

 

That's what I would do and start from scratch.

@ Sacrosanct BTW, get rid of Express Gate, one of the most useless ASUS 'advances' ever! I really doubt you will ever use the 5 second boot to internet(more like 15 secs on my 2600Krolleyes :crap) 8 Mb line. Horrible website rendering as it doesn't load your video drivers. If you want to go do something on your machine, then you have to reboot anyways, and it slows down your normal boot. I would also get rid of the EPU power savings feature in BIOS or AI Suite II if you have that installed.

 

Thanks Toke I went into bios and loaded setup defaults and the error message disappeared. Augiedoggie I don't know how to get rid of express gate I suppose I could disable it in bios I'll try that.

The PC is still hanging randomly and needs reboot every time. I'm a bit concerned at how many times I'm booting my PC. I tried prime95 again with the new bios and defaults loaded and it hangs completely on the blend test but the first test works okay. Is there any chance a fresh OS install would fix some of this? I'm worried though that if the PC freezes during Windows install I'll be in an even bigger mess.

 

It's in the BIOS somewhere, I don't have your board so I can't help you. I also edited my post with EPU after you saw it. Run memtest86 booting from CD to check your RAM without any interference from Windows. Also run the drive makers diagnostics to eliminate those items too.

If all that fails then I think it's RMA time.

 

Thanks augie I'll try all that tomorrow. The PC is out of warranty unfortunately so I'm stuck with what I've got. I don't mind if I have to replace something it's figuring out what needs replacing thats the problem

 

Ya, hopefully it's an inexpensive fix. See ya tomorrow.

 

Another update. I ran memtest from CD and got no errors. I can't find a good utility to check the hard drive for errors. It's a Samsung 1tb drive. The support CD that came with the PC has no disk test utility on it. Are there any good hard drive utilities out there from a known source?

I ran the Advanced System Care hard drive check and it found no errors I don't know how reliable that is. I don't know what would cause random system freezes outside of ram or hard drive error if anyone could recommend any other system tools I'll gladly go and try them out, thanks

 

What's wrong with Samsug's ES Tools?

 

Thanks, I somehow managed to miss that on the Samsung site, don't know how. I ran it and it did a normal test and found no problems. It started a full test but was only about 8 per cent in on the read test after about an hour and a half so I might run that overnight. 3 programs I've tried now that found no problem with the hard disk though.

I wouldn't mind testing the CPU but Prime95 froze completely when I tried to run the blend test any recommendations for something reliable to test the CPU with? No system freezes today so far touch wood maybe I've just been lucky.

 

Only other thing that I can think of, that's OCCT which is a torture test much like Prime95 yet records all parts of your machine and can be accessed on your hard drive up until it ends or BSOD's. I use it everytime I build a new machine for 24 hrs.

 

Thanks again augie. Well, I'm beginning to think I know what the problem is now. The PC has been fine all day no lockups till I ran OCCT. I did the CPU test and it froze straight away one second into the test just as Prime95 did on the blend test so it seems I've done something to the CPU when I unlocked the two extra cores then reverted back to dual core.

The settings in bios I assume should be okay as I loaded all the setup defaults but it seems anything that tries to test the CPU hangs the system immediately. I am now flummoxed as to what to do outside of just buying a new CPU. If I could guarantee that was the problem I would just go buy a new one next week. Only other thing I can think of that may be a problem is the PSU but I don't know how to test that.