Bios shows six cores

[ronskiranskis]

I have AMD athlon X2 240. I know that i can't unlock cores but when I put ACC on it shows that I have six cores
Like this: http://aijaa.com/UDsglu
If I put all cores on, nothing hapens. Is there something wrong in my BIOS?

(Sorry my bad english!)

 

[trents]

When I go to that link it says the image has been removed.

There's a much easier way to do that through a built in forum tool. It's a much better way for us to view images as well because it attaches them directly to your post.

Click on Go Advanced at the bottom of any new post window. When the advanced post window appears, click on the little paperclip icon at the top. That will load a tool for browsing and uploading your images. Concerning the images themselves, if they come from your desktop, please use Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories to first crop and save the image before you upload it.

 

[ronskiranskis]

Okay. Here is that picture:

 

[trents]

Looks like to me you have three active cores, #2, #3 and #4. Cores "0" and "1" aren't even showing and cores "5" and "6" are Off.

It may be a false assumption to assume your CPU has no cores to unlock. We have seen over and over that AMD plays fast and loose with their CPU product line name branding and that many of their CPU product lines start life in the factory as the same item but then have certain features such as cache and cores disabled or locked and then sold as something else. This is usually done because some component may prove defective (or at least out of spec) when testing is administered or it may be done for marketing reasons.

What you need to do to confirm exactly how many cores are actually active is to go into Windows and install one of those desktop gadgets that shows a graph of core activity or install the free program HWMonitor which will display the number of active cores.

 

[ronskiranskis]

That HWmonitor shows that I have two cores, core#0 and core#1.
And I can put cores 5 and 6 on too.

 

[Bobnova]

The BIOS may just be programmed to give you all the options in case your CPU has the extras.
It'd beat Gigabyte's usual method where you have to unlock all of them and then re-lock any you don't want unlocked. That doesn't work if you have a genuine defective.

 

[trents]

I'm guessing that the Active CPU Cores doesn't really do anything anyway, regardless of which cores you switch "On" or "Off" unless you take ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) off of "Auto". ACC is the main switch that has to be turned on before cores can actually be unlocked, if there are any to unlock and if they are viable. ACC on Auto is probably the same as disabled by default.

 

[BeepBeep2]

I'm guessing that the Active CPU Cores doesn't really do anything anyway, regardless of which cores you switch "On" or "Off" unless you take ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) off of "Auto". ACC is the main switch that has to be turned on before cores can actually be unlocked, if there are any to unlock and if they are viable. ACC on Auto is probably the same as disabled by default.

ACC does not even exist on 890 series and 990 series boards, in fact I don't believe it is used at all to unlock cores anymore, except was discovered as a fluke that "awoken" sleeping (disabled) cores.

Core Unlocking or "Unleashing Mode" as seen on this motherboard is listed totally separate from ACC which was finicky to fool around with if cores did not unlock on Auto. (Sometimes messing with skews would unlock cores) ...and I believe this is a totally different function. I know that on 900 series boards, AMD was said to have removed unlocking capabilities completely and it was left up to manufacturers to circumvent/re-code.

The list of cores lets you choose which ones you want. For example:
If I am running a 960T, 5 and 6 will show up there too, I can switch ON to unlock or there is also an AUTO mode.
If I want to run 1 core on my 960T too, for example, I would just turn all cores OFF. (Core #0, or 1st core can not be disabled).

For most people disabling cores is not desired but someone who is persuing CPU Frequency record attempts will test max frequency on all cores and disable all but the one/two necessary.

 

[ronskiranskis]

Do you think that if I put core unlocker on, on motherboard, I can unlock those cores?

 

[trents]

No, not on that chip. I don't think I've heard of any AII X2s that unlock.

 

[ronskiranskis]

Well maybe I just buy new proceccor.
My athlon can't unlock opteron so it pretty much sucks playing.

 

[BeepBeep2]

No, not on that chip. I don't think I've heard of any AII X2s that unlock.

http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2010/2010081201_Athlon_II_X2_220_unlocks_into_Phenom_II_920.html

Gotta check the stepping code on the IHS, "CACAC AC" in the case of that one means there is a Deneb die under the hood.

Stepping codes can be checked at CPU World.

 

[ronskiranskis]

Is that stepping code top of my CPU and I can just remove the fan and read what it is?

 

[BeepBeep2]

Yes, but you would have to re-apply thermal paste if you decide to remount the heatsink.

 

[ronskiranskis]

Do cpuZ show the right stepping code?

 

[BeepBeep2]

It may not tell exactly what you have if you have an Athlon II CPU, in CPU-Z it will read "Propus" no matter what...if a Phenom II X4 (Deneb) die is inside.
Way to tell for those is to look at the CPU IHS.

CPU-Z will tell if it is a C2 or C3 stepping though, C3 brought significant improvement across all 45nm Sempron - Phenom II X4 CPUs