DOH: Pally re-unlock need help plz

[MastarPete]

back in Feb. I unlocked my 1800+ for the first time. to fill the pits I used nail polish then a conductive pen and covered everything with some clear nail polish, it worked fine on my A7V333.

just over a month ago I got an A7N8X-E Deluxe with the thought of eventually getting a mobile, after getting a water setup and seeing how far I could push this pally. also because I'm not ready for A64 just yet

anyways..
about two weeks ago I tried to see if another burn in session (5x100 @1.8vcore) would help me get a slightly higher OC. but when I was done I had trouble going back to the same settings. I thought that maybe the unlock I did back in feb went bad, since I could only select 11x and 11.5x multipliers.
and isn't this board supposed to automatically unlock unlockable cpus?

so I finally decided to re-do it.
I cleaned the stuff off using non-acetone nail polish remover (all I could find in my house), but it seems as if some of the silver flakes got into the exposed pits and may have grounded the L1, L3 and L4 bridges? at least as far as I can tell based on the diode test on my multimeter and testing various points.

since I don't know the internals of the chip I don't know what I should be measuring/getting here.
could someone please point out the correct places to measure.

also is there something I could use to get rid of the silver without hurting the chip?
in the meantime I'll have to get some acetone based carbuerator cleaner.

if anything I can just try a socket mod to set the multi, but as I'm sure you all know it's not as nice as a fully unlocked cpu.

 

[MastarPete]

*bumpdate*

I tried the socket mod for an 8x multi, but it did not work. amazingly enough the cpu still runs fine at stock multi etc.
I don't have a magnifying glass strong enough for me to get a good enough look in the pits to see what's wrong, so I'm going to leave it as it is until the mobile 2600 I ordered arrives. then I'll feel a bit more comfortable messing with this pally.

anyone know someone who is a Jewler in the chigaoland area?

 

[Docta_Z]

back in Feb. I unlocked my 1800+ for the first time. to fill the pits I used nail polish then a conductive pen and covered everything with some clear nail polish, it worked fine on my A7V333.

just over a month ago I got an A7N8X-E Deluxe with the thought of eventually getting a mobile, after getting a water setup and seeing how far I could push this pally. also because I'm not ready for A64 just yet

anyways..
about two weeks ago I tried to see if another burn in session (5x100 @1.8vcore) would help me get a slightly higher OC. but when I was done I had trouble going back to the same settings. I thought that maybe the unlock I did back in feb went bad, since I could only select 11x and 11.5x multipliers.
and isn't this board supposed to automatically unlock unlockable cpus?

so I finally decided to re-do it.
I cleaned the stuff off using non-acetone nail polish remover (all I could find in my house), but it seems as if some of the silver flakes got into the exposed pits and may have grounded the L1, L3 and L4 bridges? at least as far as I can tell based on the diode test on my multimeter and testing various points.

since I don't know the internals of the chip I don't know what I should be measuring/getting here.
could someone please point out the correct places to measure.

also is there something I could use to get rid of the silver without hurting the chip?
in the meantime I'll have to get some acetone based carbuerator cleaner.

if anything I can just try a socket mod to set the multi, but as I'm sure you all know it's not as nice as a fully unlocked cpu.

Removing the silver: rubbing alcohol and Q-tips will remove most of it. A chip can be soaked completely in rubbing alochol upside down and this should remove ANY silver particles after a bit of a bath. Unlike water it wouldn't create any problems. Just don't slap it into your cpu "wet".

As for "auto-unlocking" with that mobo. I'm fairly certain it does not do this.

 

[MastarPete]

hmm thanks.. for the bath idea, I may just give that a try tonight. well worth the downtime
actually I already gave it a shower under tap water the other day.

any estimates on bathing time.
unfortunately cpus don't wrinkle when they're done.

 

[MastarPete]

well it's been soaking now for about an hour, but as far as I can tell it doesn't look like it's working. maybe I need some stronger RA? I think the stuff I have is like 78% alchohol.

when I poured the RA into the container I poured it over the bridges. and submerged it upsidedown. I also kinda swished it around, I even pulled a small handcrank pump out of my closet to get the RA moving to dis-lodge the stuff in the laser pits.
I even tried using an electric toothbrush with an old brush head.

I really wish I had a stronger magnifier. or a friend who is a jewler.
I'd post a pic, but not even my digital camera can focus close enough to be usefull.
I'll try letting it soak some more, but I doubt it will help.

then I may try some more scraping in the pits, or just fill them with polish, paint the bridges and see if it works.
if it doesn't work I think I'll just stop and wait a few days for the mobile to come.

thanks again.

 

[Seabee]

Have you tried using a modelers knife? Many a times I have gotten "bits" of stuff in my 2400+ laser cuts, and this worked really well for me. It is still up and running with no problems.

Also, as a side suggestion, go to highspeedPC and order some of their Athlon XP unlocking kit. It will cost about $12, but it works great. Comes with good RA, pit filler, and conductive grease, I have never had to "redo" a job with this stuff.

 

[MastarPete]

after not touching the tub for a while, I noticed very small bits of silver in the bottom of the tub. so the bath obviously got some of the silver out. maybe a longer bath with stronger RA will help.
I tried unlocking it again, but I think the clear nail polish I used to cover it when I was done, made the silver run, and possibly connected all the bridges together with very fine lines. *doh*
when I put the cpu back in and it would not post. so I cleaned everything off, and it's running right now (typing this).
I'll have to give it another try tomorrow.

Have you tried using a modelers knife? Many a times I have gotten "bits" of stuff in my 2400+ laser cuts, and this worked really well for me. It is still up and running with no problems.

Also, as a side suggestion, go to highspeedPC and order some of their Athlon XP unlocking kit. It will cost about $12, but it works great. Comes with good RA, pit filler, and conductive grease, I have never had to "redo" a job with this stuff.

yeah I have an X-Acto knife set if that's what you mean.. tried scraping stuff out already using the smallest tipped blade I have.. but without a larger high power magnifier it's hard to see, the strongest magnifier I have is on my swiss army knife.

I'm confident in the method I'm using, and I think it'd still be working if I hadn't tried another burn-in... probably the increased voltage made one of the silver bridges fail.
if I try anything different I may add some small pieces of speaker wire and use the conductive pen as glue/solder.
I'll keep that unlock kit in mind though.

I think I'll give it one more try, if it works, I'll be happy, if not I'll have to see about getting a good magnifying glass or something.
and seeing as my mobile should be here on monday I'm not too worried about getting this pally unlocked again, at least not until I can make another system with my old mobo.

thanks for the ideas