Failed unlocking of phenom II 720... what went wrong?

Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P

basically, i tried ACC auto, 4th core not showing up...

tried all cores, still not there...

tried -12 and 12%, won't boot, had to clear CMOS (pain in the ass as you had to take GPU out to take off plastic cap off CMOS)

dang it... might as well buy a real quad... Any potential good future quads on AM3?

main use is for gaming...

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Well, I dunno, maybe the 4th core was switched of for a reason? No guarantees, remember.

There are plenty of AM3 quads available. 945, 955, 965, with the 975 apparently on the way. 3.6GHZ, yummy!

But frankly, for 95% of games the 720 with 3 cores will do just fine.

Reply to Herr_Koos

Yeah dont buy the 720 and expect to automatically get a quad out of it, its really not guaranteed and many people cant do it. I was able to unlock mine though

Reply to bige420

ChronoBodi wrote :

Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P

basically, i tried ACC auto, 4th core not showing up...

tried all cores, still not there...

tried -12 and 12%, won't boot, had to clear CMOS (pain in the ass as you had to take GPU out to take off plastic cap off CMOS)

dang it... might as well buy a real quad... Any potential good future quads on AM3?

main use is for gaming...

well I guess that if could not unlock the disabled core, then it is defunct.

Reply to Daggs

Nothing went wrong. The CPU is functioning precisely as advertised.

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Reply to mi1ez

the 975? when's that coming out? Yes, i know it's not really needed so much for most games, but i'm just wondering... and the specs of that processor?

Reply to ChronoBodi

mi1ez wrote :

Nothing went wrong. The CPU is functioning precisely as advertised.

^^^What he said

Reply to jamesgoddard

The 975 will be the same as the 965, a waste of money when all you have to do is get a 955 and raise the multiplier.....

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------------------------------ 550 @ 4.0 Ghz 1.425v
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Reply to OvrClkr

ChronoBodi wrote :

Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P

basically, i tried ACC auto, 4th core not showing up...

tried all cores, still not there...

tried -12 and 12%, won't boot, had to clear CMOS (pain in the ass as you had to take GPU out to take off plastic cap off CMOS)

dang it... might as well buy a real quad... Any potential good future quads on AM3?

main use is for gaming...

For Gigabyte did you see an option in the bios called:

"EC Firmware for Advanced Clock Calibration"

It can be set to the following: (Wording as shown in the bios... bad grammar and all.)

Normal = Used AMD normal EC Firmware for Advanced Clock Calibration
Hybrid = Used AMD particular EC Firmware for Advanced Clock Calibration

From what I understand you set it to Hybrid to unlock cores/caches AND ALSO turn on the ACC. (May or may not need ACC. But think of "Hybrid" == "Unlocking mode".)

Message quoted 2 times
Message edited by keithlm on 10-13-2009 at 10:28:12 PM

Reply to keithlm

OvrClkr wrote :

The 975 will be the same as the 965, a waste of money when all you have to do is get a 955 and raise the multiplier.....

+1. Besides, the 965 and I'm sure the 975 are/will be 140Watt TDP.

------------------------------ jennyh wrote: AMD break-even Q4 2009. *Gauranteed* - And she's probably right!

Reply to fazers_on_stun

keithlm wrote :

For Gigabyte did you see an option in the bios called:

"EC Firmware for Advanced Clock Calibration"

It can be set to the following: (Wording as shown in the bios... bad grammar and all.)

Normal = Used AMD normal EC Firmware for Advanced Clock Calibration
Hybrid = Used AMD particular EC Firmware for Advanced Clock Calibration

From what I understand you set it to Hybrid to unlock cores/caches AND ALSO turn on the ACC. (May or may not need ACC. But think of "Hybrid" == "Unlocking mode".)

This is what I did for my 720 and it unlocked it. Try and set it to 'hybrid' and 'auto' for ACC.

Course, I bought mine back in March. I read somewhere that the newer 720's don't unlock very well.

I have a GA-MA790GP-UD4H by the way.

Reply to dlux

I unlocked mine over the weekend with a Gigabyte board, just as Dlux said. Hybrid + ACC (either AUTO or ALL CORES, both work), and I just bought my CPU on Oct 2nd from New Egg.

Reply to Reincus

Yeah I ordered mine on September 29th and I was able to unlock it fine.

Reply to bige420

keithlm wrote :

For Gigabyte did you see an option in the bios called:

"EC Firmware for Advanced Clock Calibration"

It can be set to the following: (Wording as shown in the bios... bad grammar and all.)

Normal = Used AMD normal EC Firmware for Advanced Clock Calibration
Hybrid = Used AMD particular EC Firmware for Advanced Clock Calibration

From what I understand you set it to Hybrid to unlock cores/caches AND ALSO turn on the ACC. (May or may not need ACC. But think of "Hybrid" == "Unlocking mode".)

mine was one of the first 720s, way back in March... along with the UD5P mobo... and maybe i'll try again, now that you mention this "Hybrid" thing... Or is it a BIOS thing? do i need to flash it to a new BIOS to get that option, is that why?

where do you exactly find the "Hybrid" option? I know Ctrl+F1 gets you ACC, but where the hell is the hybrid?

Reply to ChronoBodi

ahhhhh ***... my bios was outdated... i have to get the F3K bios... but frankly, i never flashed any BIOS before... ah crap.

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Reply to ChronoBodi

ChronoBodi wrote :

ahhhhh ***... my bios was outdated... i have to get the F3K bios... but frankly, i never flashed any BIOS before... ah crap.

Its simple. Go to the mobo makers website, find the newest one and download it. Unzip it to a thumb drive, plug it in, load the BIOS and then look for a BIOS update setting.

Most newer mobos come with that option which I love since floppy = crap. But if not, they should have a Windows based flashing tool that you can use at your own risk. I don't trust Windows based flashers. Never know what can go wrong....

Also, remember that even if you get the latest BIOS and flash succesfully don't bank on it being able to unlock. And if it does, its not guranteed stable since you might have gotten one with a actual bad core which you wont want running as it could corrup system files and destroy your OS install.

Message edited by jimmysmitty on 10-14-2009 at 10:12:53 AM

Reply to jimmysmitty

Gigabyte has a utility called @bios which makes it possible to update your bios through a program that you can download from their website. Its very easy, i've done it before and has no problems. Either look how to do it in your motherboard manual or look on the gigabyte website.

http://www.gigabyte.us/FileList/Ne [...] a_bios.htm

Reply to bige420

Yep, same as Asrock, a utility that you download directly from the website and you launch from Windows... very easy =) .... as far as being risky, I have never had a bad flash and hopefully will never have one.... Dual bios is a + also.....

------------------------------ 550 @ 4.0 Ghz 1.425v
BFG GTX 260 (216)
4GB G.Skill @ 960MHz
Thermaltake TP 850w
Reply to OvrClkr

alright, cool... i'll try that then

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Reply to ChronoBodi

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