View Single Post
  #3  
Old February 8th 11, 06:07 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.overclocking.amd
Bill Hillman
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4
Default Asus M2NVP-VM Unlock Phenom II X2

On Feb 7, 5:12*pm, Paul wrote:
Bill Hillman wrote:
First let me say it's been a very very long time since I've walked
these grounds. *Hoping there are still some experts floating around
that can answer my questions....


I've ordered a Phenom II X2 555 to put into an Asus M2NVP-VM (5005
BIOS). *I've done some reading about how to unlock the this CPU to an
X3/X4 but not sure this BIOS is going to have the options to do so.
Will have to wait and see but wanted to get some ideas before hand...


1 - Has anyone used this mobo to unlock an X2 to an X3/X4?


2 - Does anyone know if it is possible to use a pin-mod to unlock the
cores? (like years ago when you could select different voltages on
celerons by jumpering pins on the CPU)


3 - Anyone know where to find a pinout of the AM3 CPUs yet? *Looks
like AMD is not releasing this info to the general public from what
I've read.


Thanks for any help you can toss out!
Bill Hillman


The information available on the mechanism, is pretty sketchy.
The memo here, indicates a set of GPIO pins on the Southbridge,
are used to tune something on the processor. This makes it sound
like the scheme is more complicated than some static signal levels
(such as you'd get with a pin mod). Nvidia claimed to be adding
the function to a couple of their chipsets, in the form of a
JTAG serial bus. Which would account for four of seven pins. So
perhaps four of the signals, are programmed in BIOS code, to
emulate JTAG protocol (serial clock and data) ?

http://ixbtlabs.com/news.html?10/63/37

In terms of the BIOS release notes for your M2NPV-VM motherboard
go, there is a two year gap, between 1401 release and 5005 release.
The 5005 release covers AM3 processors, so you might need that installed,
before you try your new processor. But once that is done, I suspect
your motherboard is of a generation before that tuning interface
was in usage. It's probably not even hooked up. You're looking for
a motherboard with SB710/SB750/MCP72/MCP78 as a Southbridge, or
looking for one of the newer motherboards that claim to feature
a "core unlocker" switch or BIOS module.

* * Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


Paul, Thanks for the info.

Yeah, I'm beginning to see now that this board is just not going to
have what it takes to get the job done. I bought the CPU as a future
upgrade path so when I did replace this mobo I'd get one that could
unlock the additional cores and possibly have a cheap X4. Even at an
X2 this will probably meet my needs since I almost never do any gaming
anymore. I was just hoping there was an easy way to jump to 4 cores
now just to try it out. I'm still happy that AMD was able to allow
the use of older boards running an AM3 CPU.

I've updated the BIOS to 5005 and it's running fine with the old
Athlon 64 3200+. UPS shows my package was delivered today, so might
get a chance to drop in the new big block and test drive it later
today.

Thanks again!
Bill