Cant unlock my XP1900 :(

[richklein]

Well,
I got my radio shack silicone thermal grease. I stopped by the auto parts store & got my "permatex" rear window defogger repair kit # 15067 (seems a bit liquidy) & went to work covering the L1's.

I tried twice & it was a no go either time. I did use acotone to clean it up & the paint is gone. I went through the proceedures here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~walaka7/

& here:

http://www.vr-zone.com/guides/AMD/AthlonXPUnlock/

it seems pretty staight forward but I still cant get it unlocked :(

I used the silicone goop & covered the gaps. Then I started painting away with the defogger. It didnt happen though. I put the processor back into the machine & I am still stuck at 1900. Yes I changed the multiplyer but it was a no go.

What should be my next steps or just keep plugging away?

Thanks,
Rich

[richklein]

Well I tried a bunch more times. It still has not worked. I have the circuit Works silver grease in the mail but this defogger stuff didnt work out for me.

Right now I have the pits filled with silicone & the L1's are connected with the defogger. There are spaces between them.

The last few times I got stuck at 1400mhz & 1500 mhz.

Now I am back to 1600 mhz & i cant move the multiplyers.

What do you make of that?

Is it safe to leave as is?

Thanks,
Rich

[lasa168]

Use acetone and clean up the whole mess. Use clear nail polish to fillin the gaps. use tape to cover the pins. appliy nail polish to the other pins close to the L-1 to be on the safe side. Use conductive ink (Cirtuit writer) avalible at Fries to paint the bridges. MOST IMPORTANT THING. Use a razor to guide you as you paint the bride. use a pin dipped in the ink to write with. The razor as a guide will allow you to paint a thin line. Did mine in lesss than 10 minutes. I have don 2 other ones. did not use the razor and had a difficult time.

[richklein]

Well I think I may have come to a conclusion. I used the silicone "smear" technique. Basically covering the pits with silicone (& the L1 bridges). I think what I did was that I covered the gaps, then I must have not cleaned the L1's well enough (they were a tad white).

I just used some acatone to clean the CPU before the defogger dried fully.

My latest guess is that the L1's were covered in silicone goop & when I tried to connect the bridges with the defogger, the connection didnt work cause the silicone was "protecting" the L1's.

Does that sound like a possiblity?

[richklein]

I have the gaps taped up. I think I have clear nailpolish. Since my GF is sleeping I figure I will wait for her to get up to confirm that it is what it looks like.

If I use clear nailpolish, I assume that I can remove it later if need be? I guess the only downside is if I use acetone to remove the defogger I will defeat the whole project :)

[Hoot]

You know, I'm not lacking in mechanical aptitude, nor deftness, but I had a devil of a time doing the bridges on my XP1800 with conductive defogger. I spent an entire evening applying and removing the stuff, because I was not happy with how it looked. I tried Capton masks, different pointed applicators, etc. and this was under a 7-30x zoom microscope. Finally, I gave up and soldered the 5 bridges with micro-wire and a micro-tip soldering pen. It took all of 5 minutes. When I got my XP1600, I skipped the paint process entirely and went straight to soldering. Again, about 5 minutes to complete.
If you have access to a decent scope and micro-tip soldering station, it is definitely the way to go. I'm at work right now, so I can't show you an example of the actual CPU work, but here's a picture of the scale of the materials. The CPU bridge pads are the size of the "O" on the dime where you read "IN GOD WE TRUST".

Hoot

[richklein]

Wow! That looks pretty darn impressive. My problem is that I am not as steady as I would like to be.

I kinda forced my GF to do the painting. now that I know to tape off the L1 bridges before painting over the silicone compound, I will try again (or she will tonight).

I actually am almost out of defogger (thats how many times I tried).

The problem is that one screwup & the acetone comes out, rubs away the paint & I think it also rubs away the silicone compound.

If I used clear nail polish, mess up & brign out the acetone, I assume I would have to reapply the nail polish again. I am finding that the silicone is quicker to work with. For reapplying purposes.

[richklein]

Well, I have tried about 30 times. The best I seem to be able to do is get stuck at XP1600 speeds. I figure I am doing "something" since I can change the multiplier but I can only seem to lower it (lol).

This is becoming quite a hobby (the unlocking). I have been at it for 2 days & on my second defoger kit.

Granted, I really dont have the most stable hand. I did try with a desk mounted magnifying glass with light. It didnt seem to help. All I could see is my hands shaking :)

I tried the toms hardware taping method. I think the problem I am running into is that instead of super glue I am using silicone to seal the grooves. When I try to push the tape down to make it air tight, it wont work (silicone must leave a gap).

I end up with connected L1s (just not the right ones).

Any other ideas? I think I am too clumsy to soder something that small.

Maybe a shop I can send my processor to in order to get unlocked?

I will try anything at this point.

Thanks,
Rich

[nick_woods]

I also had a lot of problems unlocking mine and ended up scratching it.

I did do it eventually though, and posted my story here http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58455

its a bit of a long read but you may find it helpful.

The most important things are to keep the pits filled with glue, keep the pins clean and use a small amount of paint (i used a 5O paintbrush).

I did a friends XP using just a cocktail stick to apply the glue between the tape and then used the 5O brush freehand and it worked on the second attempt.

dont give up - you can do it but you've obviously found its not as easy as it looks !

regards

Nick

[xgman]

My suggestion would be to go for the 1600MP. Only around $40-$50 over XP and comes unlocked! Is your time worth that? If you take into consideration the cost of 2 bottles of the defogger, etc., it starts to make sense. Clean up your CPU, RMA it and get the MP and overclock right out of the box! Well worth it!

[Emericana]

i unlocked my XP 1900+. goto www.highspeedpc.com and buy their kit. only $10 and it works. after you get the hang of it, you can unlock any cpu (it took me aorund 30 mins and a bunch of trys to get it right but the first time i actually tried to boot up my system with it done, it was unlocked). i now unlocked my friends 1600+ on my first try with the kit and took me around a minute and a half.