Unlocking a Palomino 2100+ (I'm confused)

I've read enough on this board on unlocking this chip that I don't know what I should do. Here's the facts. On my second system, I have a 2100+ Palomino (yes, it really is a Palomino). I have a Soyo K7V Dragon+ motherboard that can change multipliers in the BIOS. I have the strange desire to make it run faster. Maybe I do this by increasing the multiplier or maybe I do it by decreasing the multiplier and increasing the FSB. Either way I need an unlocked chip.

I know about having to connect all the open L1 bridges on a Palomino. But I've seen the warnings on sites that sell unlocking kits that doing this on a 2100+ may not work - presumably because the 2100+ is somehow different than other Palominos. And I've read references to needing to use a "wire trick" on the 2100+ in addition to the L1 bridges (there's a thread on that here somewhere) but then again that thread references a Tbred B, not a Palomino. Then I've read that I need to join the 5th L3 bridge to get access to multipliers 12.5X and below.

So can someone provide my with the definitive word on what I need to do to unlock my chip, ideally so that I'd have access to all the available mulitpliers in the BIOS? Many thanks for your help.

I have a 2100+ also with a Asus A7v333 mobo and also had nothing but problems My solution was a 2500+ Amd (Baton core) I'm happy now

I had a Xp2000+ Palomino myself. I never bothered with trying to unlock it, since it had no headroom for OCing anyway (stock 1666, it ran semi-stable at 1800 with FSB clocking).

I wouldn't bother spending much time on it, to be honest.

Take a look at this. http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20011112/
That 2000 will run if you unlock it.

i got a **** 2100+ poly i can only get it up too, 142*13 which is its stock multi, lol it had to be volted to 1.85 LOL. if you got a **** poly, ****ing throw it out and buy a 1700 tbred b, steping i am not to sure on anymore, i forgot it. im sure some of these dudes know what steping to use.

Sadly, my Soyo Dragon+ CAN'T use a T-Bred. The 2100+ Palomino is as fast as it can use. (This is true of all older Dragon+ motherboards - although there exists a soldering type mod to enable support for T-Breds - I don't want to go there ;-)

OK, obviously it is possible to unlock the 2100+. I know how to physically close a bridge on a Palomino. Before I take it out and close the L1 bridges, I want to know if this ALL the modifications I have to do to enable me to change multipliers - up and down. Tom's hardware guide refers to older Palomino's. From what I can gather, the 2100+ is DIFFERENT from the other Palomino's. That's presumably why Bigfoot Computers has a disclaimer with their unlocking kit: "Notice: This kit may not work with the XP2100+ cpu's due to changes in the L bridges" (www.bigfootcomputers.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Bigfoot&Product_Code=2316CGTC&Category_Code=0920

Spacemonkey, no it won't. using FSB overclocking the max I could get out of it was a 133mhz overclock, that's it. Unlocking the multiplier wouldn't do me any good, since it is the CPU limiting me (my FSB runs fine at 180 with my new 1700).

damn tats horrable, guess just get a new mobo too, ahh what the hay lo. hey ,new 1700? thats not a poly is it? that cpu should go to 200 fsb man

The xp2100 is a little different because it uses the 13x multiplier. if you connect the L1 bridges (it will be unlocked) you will be able to use the multipliers from 13x and up, if you want the multipliers from 12.5x and down you will have to alter another set of bridges but you can only have 13x and up or 12.5x and down so decide which one you want before you do it.

My suggestion for now is to overcloock by FSB and see what you can do, if you can hit high FSBs then maybe you will want the lower multipliers to hit an even higher FSB. If you can't get to some high FSBs and/or your board only has a 1/4 divisor (and/or you only have ddr266, not ddr333 or better) then you won't want to get the lower multipliers so just joining the L1s to have 13x and up would be better.

You could just unlock the chip by joining the L1s for now but you may want to alter the other bridges to get the lower multipliers at a later date.

To get the 12.5x and lower multipliers you will have to reverse the L10 bridges, that is if the first one is joined and the second is cut you will need to cut the first one and join the second one. You can cut the first one by using a 9V battery and 2 wires, it will blow the bridge (attach one wire to the + on the battery and one to the - then touch one wire to one end of the bridge and the other wire to the opposite end of the bridge). I forget which bridge is joined and which is cut in the L10 but you just have to do the opposite of what it is now (it could be | : or : | ).

You can of course change the bridges back by using the unlocking kit if you decide you want the higher multipliers, BTW you can just go to canadian tire and get a rear window defogger repair kit to unlock the chip that's what I did.

Edit: Your board has the via kt266A chipset which only has a 1/4 divisor so you probably won't be hitting FSBs in excess of 155MHz since you hard drive would be running too far out of spec, therefore to me it makes more sense to just join the L1s and use your default multiplier or higher.

Go for the 14x multiplier then see how high you can get the cpu speed by overclocking the FSB, if your chip tops out at say 14*145=2030 then try to lower the multiplier and get to that speed (ie. 13.5*150 or 13*156). Note that running your FSB at higher then 150MHz (even running it at 140 is a risk but that is what overclocking is about) may damage your hard drive because it will be running out of spec.

hey ,new 1700? thats not a poly is it? that cpu should go to 200 fsb man

Click to expand...

What do you mean a poly?

And yeah, I know what the CPU should do. However I have an older A7V333 rev 1.01 board that does not seem to like my CPU being clocked much past 2.15ghz, regardless of the multiplier or FSB setting. But the extra few hundred mhz I could get out of it are not enough to justify buying a new motherboard.

I think he means pally, as in palamino. The Tbred B 1700s overclock a lot better then the pallys did.

yea paly sorry lol

have two 2100xps and have haad no problems , 1 greenie and 1 brownie they both oced fine.........

With a Pally you connect all the L1 bridges...Thanks OC Detective.

Thanks very much DaddyB for the detailed information. It all makes sense now. My current FSB overclocks are not good (I appear to limited to 138FSB now although the damn thing ran fine for months at 144 with the same hardware). I'll do just the L1 bridge connects and forget about lower multiples.

Oh, and I picked up the Canadian Tire rear window defogger slash AMD chip unlocking kit quite some time ago but never got around to getting the really good magnifier glass thingie I'll need to do this operation.

I had the same problem with my 2100 Pali on the Soyo Plat Ultra 333 with PC2100. I was at 144 X 13 for a while and now I am at 142 an getting errors in Prime95. I have an unlocked 1800 pali that I am going to switch the Multis to the high range to see how fast I can go with the lower FSB since the PC2100 won't go that high. I also have a Tbred 1700 That I got from NewEgg for $42 that I think is an A but I am going to get an NForce2 board for that to see what it can do.