Phenom 2 550 powers down with unlock

[sirphallsalot]

Hello,
Im having a bit of trouble with the AMD Phenom II x2 550. I am able to unlock all 4 core(which is what I was trying to do) but under heavy loads it will power off the computer after a short amount of time. Just wondering if there is a fix to this in the bios or something, or does it simply mean the two dormant cores are defective?

 

[simon12]

If you have unlocked the new cores but done nothing else try increasing the voltage

 

[sirphallsalot]

What would be a good recommended voltage increase? I have tried increasing and decreasing it but I may have not been trying the right increments.

Let be a little more specific with my situation. I have the Phenom II 550 in which I have just unlocked the dormant 2 cores. My pc will boot up successfully and run most programs such as the web browser I am writing to you on. The only situations in which it would shut down is either under prime95, or when I tried to run a video game(which is when I first found the problem).

Any other suggestions on how to stabilize the cores would be much appreciated as well.

Phenom II X2 550 3.1GHz, stock heatsink/fan
Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H
4gigs DDR2
Raidmax 530W PSU
Nvidia GeForce 9600 512mb

 

[simon12]

Sorry I am not an expert I have just read that sometimes the unlocked cores need a higher voltage to be stable. I unlocked the extra cores on my 550 and didn't need the voltage though I have now gone up to 1.3875 to over clock to 3.55GHz (the temperatures went up 10C to get to 3.6 and even though not that high I settled for 3.55). If I where you I would try increasing the voltage to 1.5 (I read in Toms overclock that this CPU is OK at this) and see if it fixes the problem. If it does try to drop it back in increments until its unstable again so you can run it as low as poss. If it does not work I would go back to dual core unless someone else can suggest something. Hope this helps.