An Easy and Clean Way to Unlock a T-Bird or Duron CPU

I believe this should be the easiest way to unlock a CPU – it seems to have worked great for me. I realize that this isn’t much different than many of the other ways to unlock A CPU, but it inspired far less cussing as I did it. It also produces a very clean result. If you spent a little extra time and used gold conductive paint, you could make it look like a factory unlocked CPU.

I tried using a mechanical pencil, but there must have been plastic in the lead, so I tried using a regular pencil, but I don’t think I got enough graphite on it, so then I tried Scotch Taping speaker wire to the bridges, but I couldn’t get that to hold well. Then I put a big glob of defogger repair paint on the L1 bridges and scratched in-between the bridges with an Exacto; but I must not have done a good enough job, because I fried my RAM on my next attempt to boot.

Then I tried to drop defogger on with a jeweler’s screwdriver, and I couldn’t stay steady enough. I was already paranoid because I fried my RAM, so I came up with this little idea.

A couple of notes first:

I’m not responsible if you fry your hardware. These modifications are making equipment perform in ways the manufacturer never intended it, and serious damage to your CPU, mainboard, or RAM could result. I am in no way responsible for damage.

This is not a permanent modification. If you mess up, or just want to restore your processor to return or sell, use some nail polish remover to wipe off the defogger repair goo.

These images are crude, I made them with MS Paint. They get the job done. My digital camera wouldn’t really zoom in on it for any detail, and I don’t have one of those microscopes you hook up to a computer.

All you need is a rear window defogger repair kit (auto parts store), a bottle of nail polish remover, Scotch Tape, a jeweler’s screwdriver (a nice small flat headed one), and a new CPU in case you screw up.

First, wipe off the L1 Bridge (the 4 dots next to L1) with some nail polish remover. Some have suggested using a fine grit sandpaper to rough them up for better conductivity.

Take some Scotch Tape and use it to shield the other bridges. Try to keep the edge fairly close to the “dots”. You want to get enough defogger paint on the bridge to make a good connection, but you want a nice gap between the bridges or you’ll destroy your new RAM like I did.

Now dab some defogger juice on the tape with the tip of the jeweler’s screwdriver. You can be fairly sloppy, just don’t get near the L3 dots.

Let it dry a bit. If you don’t let it dry, it will smear when you pull the tape off. If you let it dry too much, the glob will solidify and when you pull the tape off, the glob will remain in one piece and you’ll have to manually peel off the “ears” that the tape left behind.

Now let it dry some more. You want it real solid so when you pull the tape off the next bridge, it won’t pull up any of the defogger paint. Put some more tape down. A small white bubble will form near the connection you already made, because the defogger has dried in a hump shape. With your finger nail, work any bubbles out of the tape so the defogger paint can’t flow under the edge.