AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE Unlock Help

[emphasyty]

Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE Stepping 3
Mobo: Asus M5A78L-M LX V2
ACC: Auto
Unleashing: Enabled
Cores (Manual): 0, 2, 3
Vcore: 1.35 (have also tried boosting up to 1.5)

When I enable Core 1 it doesn't even POST so I think it's a defective core. On this above configuration I get a "processor level up" icon in the BIOS splash page (http/img189.imageshack.us/img189/1192/img20130418085605.jpg) but after booting into Windows it still shows two cores. I have also tried giving more voltage up to 1.5 and forcing a recount of core using EasyBCD but to no avail.

Is there something else I should try or accept that I'm probably one of the unlucky ones to actually get a Phenom II with 2 defective cores?

 

[kitsunestarwind]

It is possible your unlucky, I have 2 of those CPU's one will unlock to 4 cores fine without a problem, the other one to 3 cores, the last ones 4th core will work, but even with more voltage is will throw rare and random calculation errors

 

[ingtar33]

looks like you got unlucky.

 

[kitsunestarwind]

If you can't unlock more cores, then just overclocking it to get more grunt out of it

 

[emphasyty]

I guessed as much, I tend to be very "lucky" with hardware 🙁
Just wanted to make sure I've tried everything that's possible. Yes it does overclock easily to a stable 3.8GHz (200 x 19) averaging about 1.35Vcore and 57 degrees C, this with a stock heatsink, fan etc