What Does Unlocking Mean?

[gkeuler8]

<Insert Pause for people laughing at me..... Ok now can someone tell me what unlocking means?

[rugbyroy]

unlocking refers to the multiplier setting. My old xp 1800 pal was set at 12.5. If I unlocked it I would have all the multiplier settings of my mobo (i.e. 13x, 11x etc..)

[Cheesy Peas]

Originally posted by rugbyroy
unlocking refers to the multiplier setting. My old xp 1800 pal was set at 12.5. If I unlocked it I would have all the multiplier settings of my mobo (i.e. 13x, 11x etc..)

what was your 1800 doing locked at 12.5? im 99.99999% sure it was 11.5 lol.
:P

To unlock means to modify the cpu in order to select a different mulitplyer that the default one.

[DaddyB]

Yeah it would be 11.5 and if it was unlocked you would only get the multipliers from 5x to 12.5x, you would not get 13x. In order to get the multipliers above 12.5x (assuming the CPU uses the lower multipliers by default, which in the case of an xp1800 it would) you have to modify a second set of bridges, if your CPU uses 13x or above you would have to modify the second set to give you 12.5x and below. For pallys it was the L10 bridges and for Tbreds (and bartons?) it is the 5th L3 bridge.

Some chipsets will give you access to all of the multipliers (from 5x and up) once your chip is unlocked, without having to modify the second set of bridges.

[X2sandman]

http://www.theforumisdown.com/uploadfiles/0103/unlocking amd.JPG

Connecting the L1 bridges on a pally chip such as what i did in paint with the red lines unlocks all multipliers

[John C.]

Originally posted by gkeuler8
<Insert Pause for people laughing at me..... Ok now can someone tell me what unlocking means?

Best way to answer that question is to define what "locked" means.

A locked Multiplier is one which the mobo/bios or jumpers "cannot" change/reset from its default setting "because the L1 bridges connecting the mobo signal resetting circuits to the default Multiplier signal cicuits are OPEN"...ie, no connection is possible.

So "unlocking" simply means "closing the (default) open l1 bridges on some Duro/Tbirds, and all Palominos...ALL Tbreds and Bartons to date have their L1s closed..they are unlocked, ready for resetting of default Multiplier by mobo/bios or jumper circuits.

Problem is that many people also call the act of resetting the default Multiplier "unlocking"...this is a different operation and so only "confuses" the issue.

Then there is the problem that some mobos are only capable of resetting the default Multiplier in the 5X thru 12.5X range...OR...the 13X and up range...but not BOTH. This problem usually requires opening or closing some Multiplier bridge/s on the CPU...even if the L1 are closed...but this should also not be called "unlocking" as it will cause confusion with "unlocking/closing L1s"...we call these Multiplier bridge mods to get access to the lower or higher ranges 'workarounds" to distinguish them from "unlocking L1s", because the MOBO/BIOS is the problem, not the CPU, L1 or Multiplier bridges. Otherwise you'd have 3 definitions of "unlocking".
John C.

[DaddyB]

Well John C just said it but joining the L1s on a pally will only unlock 12.5 and lower or 13x and up, not both. On an Nforce2 chipset, such as X2sandman's booard, the motherboard is capable of using all multipliers even though they wouldn't be available on another board.

[Robbiesan]

on the A7N8X with a 2600+ I can access all multipliers but only up to 12.5 works.. if I go 13 or higher the system will be unstable, may not POST, or will boot but read like 950MHz or lower.. with that I'm gonna try unlocking the 13+ mults and see how it goes..