Athlon II X3 435 Unlock Issues

BigJoshMan

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Feb 18, 2011
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I'm a newb and I tried searching and could not find this scenario. Anyway I have an Athlon II X3 435 that I have been trying to unlock. My board is an Asus M4A78LT-M with 0802 Bios. Windows 7 64 bit.

I enabled ACC and unleashing mode, save and exit, says 4 cores are unlocked then freezes on windows boot. Also disable cool n quiet. I upped the voltage and still to no avail. So then I go back into the bios and look at the settings and it shows the L3 cache, so i'm like sweet might as well have a Phenom II X3. But it still freezes at windows boot, it gets further than with 4 cores enabled, it actually gets to where the swirling stops at boot screen and hangs there. I also tried disabling 3rd core enabling 4th core and any combination possible to leave 3 core enabled and still no boot. So i tried it with 2 cores enabled and then windows boots fine, CPU-Z shows Phenom II X4 B35 with L3 cache, but only 2 cores of course. It also works with only 1 core and L3 cache. Is there something I'm forgetting to do; or am I stuck with a choice between Phenom II X2 and Athlon II X3?
 
Solution
Sounds like you need to turn off the unleashed and core unlocker. Most of these chips don't actually unlock, or when they unlock they are unstable. Also the names reported in CPU-z is not accurate after and unlock. Neither are your core temps or other readings.

I know they always advertise these boards to unlock just about anything, but the truth of the matter is AMD does not market their CPUs as actually being unlockable. Most of the x2 or x3s have defective cores in which AMD turned off and sold them as a lesser model. If all the cores were stable and the cache was stable, they would just sell them as 4 core phenoms.

Occasionally they will disable a working core because they need to keep a product line filled, but they don't do it...

Herr_Koos

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Jul 14, 2009
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If the 4th core is unstable, you are out of luck. Also, I would not bet on the L3 cache being there; only the very early X3's were made with the L3 on board. Does CPU call you CPU Heka or Rana before unlocking?
 

BigJoshMan

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Feb 18, 2011
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Rana, it has the C-3 stepping. With 2 cores enable cpu-z shows it as a phenom denab.

I just don't get how when its unleashed it still wont boot when I manually turn on only 3 cores.
 

1965ohio

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Jan 12, 2011
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Sounds like you need to turn off the unleashed and core unlocker. Most of these chips don't actually unlock, or when they unlock they are unstable. Also the names reported in CPU-z is not accurate after and unlock. Neither are your core temps or other readings.

I know they always advertise these boards to unlock just about anything, but the truth of the matter is AMD does not market their CPUs as actually being unlockable. Most of the x2 or x3s have defective cores in which AMD turned off and sold them as a lesser model. If all the cores were stable and the cache was stable, they would just sell them as 4 core phenoms.

Occasionally they will disable a working core because they need to keep a product line filled, but they don't do it on purpose very often because they can make double the money to sell it as a Phenom II x4 to start with.

Just like Intel will sometimes disable a Core 2 to be a Pentium or Celeron, but not on purpose. They actually have lesser core designs to keep the Pentium and Celeron demand filled, and when they do have defective high end chips, they can disable something and repackage it as Celeron. I'd say 3 quarters of Celerons are in fact designed that way and are not all defective Core 2 chips.

But with AMD, their manufacturing yields are in fact not as high as Intel, so in their attempt to create really great 4 core Phenoms they fail a lot and repackage them accordingly. If the cache doesn't work or has defects, then it becomes an Athlon x4. If one of the cores fails, but the cache is still good, it can be a Phenom x3 or x2. If the cache is bad and a core is bad, then you have an Athlon x3.

But most Athlon x2s are designed that way to be a x2 from the start and are not defective high end chips. Their defective yields become Sempron. That is why some people ask if their Athlon x2 can be unlocked when in fact it was made as a dual core with nothing disabled. Just like a x4 cannot be unlocked to become 5 or 6... it was designed to be a 4 core from the start.

Sorry for the long rant, but to make a long story short... 75% cannot be unlocked to anything or cannot be unlocked and stable. That is marketing by the board makers, not AMD.

:pt1cable:
 
Solution