Risky Business in Oc'ing MA770T-UD3P rev. 1.0 with X6 1090T?

[Kenshiro]

Hi all,

I don’t know if I should have opened this topic here or in “Motherboards with AMD Processors”, but I finally decided to post it here as it is related to OC´ing.

When I acquired the above mentioned mobo last year I played around a bit with overclocking on a Phenom II X3 720 BE until I hit my limit and nothing worked.
No post, just black screen -> Solution:  I cleared CMOS with jumper method which sets the mobo back to its default values.
Last week I got the Phenom X6 1090T which can be used on the MA770T-UD3P after upgrading to F7 Bios, the current Bios on my mobo is now F10.

Only Rev 1.4 comes from factory with a Bios ready for the Hexacore, all other revisions need an upgrade in Bios first for being able to use the X6, that’s how I understand the download section “Bios” found here.


Let me get to the point.
Imagine that I start tinkering around with some OC on the 1090T and I hit the limit as explained above…the only solution is to clear CMOS.

Result:  The board is being reset to its default values, meaning that Bios is being downgraded to F1 I assume.
If this happens, I won’t be even able to start up my pc (after a clear CMOS) because the X6 is not being recognized (F1 Bios).

Am I right in thinking that this would happen, if and only if I have to clear CMOS on a rev 1.0 board?
So, unless you have a spare non-x6-cpu compatible with AM3 board that would allow me to upgrade Bios again to F7….your hands are tied and you are sitting idle with a "useless" X6?
Or would the Dual Bios feature save my day?

I would say then, that OC’ing this board with rev. 1.0  is quite a risky business with the 1090T on it…this is making me a bit reluctant about overclocking... On the other hand, a moderate overclock will probably be no issue.

Any thoughts or suggestions are highly appreciated,

Best regards,
Ken

[absic]

Hi there,

When you clear CMOS it will return to the defaults of the current BIOS.

You can make the back-up BIOS match the active version by pressing ALT + F12 keys during POST (you might have to do this a couple of times before it works depending on your keyboard) The MAIN BIOS will then be flashed to the Back-up BIOS Chip. This will help avoid any problems.

When you are at the BIOS Home screen, if you press the F9 key it will display the BIOS versions held by both BIOS Chips so you can see if they are the same.

[Kenshiro]

Thank you for the quick reply absic, very appreciated.

So my assumption was wrong, clearing cmos means returning to default values of the current Bios, and not downgrading the Bios to factory values.  So If I would have to clear it, when rebooting it would still be Bios F10 then, right?

Then all is clear I can start stressing this little one a bit

Again, thank you for your concise answer.

Cheers,
Ken

[Dark Mantis]

Correct.
You will just go back to the orignal settings for the BIOS you are using by clearing the CMOS as absic said.

[Kenshiro]

Thanx Dark Mantis for confirming.
Best regards,
Ken