GA-880GA-UD3H - unlock cores on Phenom II 555 BE

[j5]

well now, what a disappointing turn of events.
There is at least 1 user report on Newegg that the UD2H unlocked his 555BE with the same lot number as mine, no idea how he did it.

[plastick]

Hi... I have Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H BIOS F5 and Phenom II555BE C3 revision. How activate 2, 3 core? Cope it ? Thank... 

[absic]

At the moment it seems you can't unlock the cores properly.
This thread is on-going so it would be a good idea to check back regularly as more information regarding this problem comes to light.

[b_force]

proxy, maybe you can refer to my conversation with the tech. staff?

[proxy]

I seem to have someone that either refuses to answer questions (even when put into direct numbered format) or is a bit slow on the uptake.  You might have better luck than me if you reference my Gigabyte 'QA' session.

"Question - 989976" if that means anything.

[j5]

Since the core unlocking is supposedly on a discrete chip, could this be the difference between rev 2.0 and rev 2.1 motherboards?

[b_force]

I don't know.
It seems that rec 2.1 only fixed some RAM issues.

I've another strange problem
Sometimes my CPU is very hot (out of nothing).
The CPU cooler is also very hot, so it isn't a temp probe failure.
The unlock option is disabled.

A few minutes ago my PC completely freezes

[Dark Mantis]

Wasn't it on this board that they removed the chip for unlocking and said it could be done by software instead?

[jkwutvk]

I don't know what this will add to the topic if anyhthing but I've been following this thread for a while since I ordered my 880GA UD3H and Phenom II 555 BE so I thought I'd put it in here for info just in case.

I got Rev 2.1 MB, when I initially tried to unlock I changed the CPU Unlock option in Bios and only 2 cores were showing iin CPU Core Control. I F10 saved and tried a boot,  it posted but hung at the Windows 7 startup screen.

Went back in Bios, at that point all 4 cores were showing under Core Control so I tried to boot again. Same results, hung at Windows Startup.

Then I moved CPU unlock back to default and everything booted. I figured I had an unlockable chip but I tried again. I realized from the first go round that I had to at least activate CPU Core Control and try to to boot to be able to go back in BIOS and see all 4 cores under Core Control otherwise it just showed 2.

So I enabled Unlock again, booted to no avail once again, went back in BIOS, disabled the last two cores manually and it booted, although with 2 cores as I expected. Then I begain workiing with the last 2 cores, one at a time and wound up with a tri core processor. I had to keep the last core disabled in Core Control. Seems the 4th core is bad on my CPU but I am able to unlock the first 3 cores using the manual Core Contol option.

Oh I did update to F6 before trying any of this, it shipped with F4.

[proxy]

That's good to know jkwutvk, but it doesn't help.  Used the rev2.0 myself and the issue here isn't finding unstable cores, it's not finding any additional cores at all.  I've used F4 to F6.  Enable the core unlock, only 2 cores shown.  Reboot, 2 cores show.  Core 0 and Core 1.  Setting to manual and disabling a core and rebooting results in a single core processor.

I'd like the results you had myself.  Also didn't you know?  According to Gigabyte support the 555 BE isn't a supported processor!  You shouldn't be able to use it!  

[jkwutvk]

Yeah, I read previously here it wasn't a supported processor "AFTER" I placed the order due to everywhere else saying it was. Gotta love tech support....or not, sheesh.

[plastick]

That's good to know jkwutvk, but it doesn't help.  Used the rev2.0 myself and the issue here isn't finding unstable cores, it's not finding any additional cores at all.  I've used F4 to F6.  Enable the core unlock, only 2 cores shown.  Reboot, 2 cores show.  Core 0 and Core 1.  Setting to manual and disabling a core and rebooting results in a single core processor.

I'd like the results you had myself.  Also didn't you know?  According to Gigabyte support the 555 BE isn't a supported processor!  You shouldn't be able to use it!  

Not support? Bad joke... What next?

[Shenpen]

Hi guys. My old office machine was getting very unstable and desperate for improvement i bought a GA-880GA-UD3H and a Phenom II X2 555 BE. I had read about core unlocking but didn't really check what mobo to aim for.

After diging around just a bit in bios control i found the unlock feature and changed the settings. After that the post showed X4 and i get four graphs in the resources tab in task manager.

My old unstable XP installation would not boot (used to a E6600 system) but a newer win7 was not so picky.
So while it didn't solve the main problem I now have a cheap upgrade with lots of power.

I will post some CPU-Z scrennies when I get my new cabinet, hd and psu early next week.

If anyone know how to deal with a quite unstable XP installation, please let me know. I have a CRM system installed there that i need to maintain for now.

[proxy]

Shenpen, I'm not sure you're on the right thread for this, and I'd suggest starting a new one if you can't find anything else online.  This is about not being able to unlock cores, not unstable cores.

Just an FYI, but two things come immediately to the fore here.

1. If you're using a new motherboard and processor with an old installation on a hard drive, you first need to run a Windows repair installation, otherwise Windows will not have the correct drivers to run correctly with the new system.  Even after a Windows repair installation your install might not work 100%.

2. If you've unlocked the extra cores, then there's no guarantee of stability.  One or both of the extra cores could be defective.

Try disabling the core unlock then doing a Windows repair installation.  If it's stable after that then try enabling each of the extra cores individually, booting into Windows and testing with Prime 95 for at least 24 hours, I like to go 72 hours myself.  There are quite a few threads and guides on core unlocking and stability testing and I'd advise doing a quick search on Google.  Best of luck.

[Shenpen]

Well - the XP issues are just a side dish. I mostly just wanted to post the facts about seemingly unproblematic unlocking of the two extra cores. I will certainly google repair instalation and see what i can learn. I will try first to make it stable with the old hardware and then see if migration is an option. Opening a new thread might be a good idea also. 

But to know what kind of beast this X4 thing really is I will have to make a fresh install of windows - hence the new hd - and that will take a few days to get ready for.

As I do need my unstable XP for now, I didnt have much time to put the system under stress and not the right tools available in win7 to really poke the CPU. That said, there were no signs that any cores were defunct in any way.
Also I have seen in this thread that i might be a good idea to raise the voltage as there are now two more mouths to feed.