WARNING!!! ON UNLOCKING THE XP CPU's

[Falseprophet]

The protective coating on the surface that protects the grounding plate on the surface is VERY, VERRRY THIN!!! When attempting to unlock it, take every percaution not to scratch the surface. Under no circumstances attempt to scratch cross briged traces appart to save time. that was my mistake. I exposed it verry close to the pin. It looks like it is touching, but under a microscope it is not. If I am ever able to unlock it. It will be a combination of many hours of carefull work and an act of GOD or something like sheer luck!!!! I might have more options once my conductive pen arrives. I might try it again tomorrow if I feel lucky. In short if you get a bad trace wipe it all off with a que tip and acetone and start over from the beginning. Oh ya don't forget to seal those LASER LOCKS that AMD was so generous to BLESS US WITH. Use superglue for them. Don't forget to mask things off with clear scotch tape. Toms hardware has a video that you can download that walks you through it. PS anyone have any ideas to help me fix this problem? And seal the scratch so I don't bridge to the sratches ground. I was thinking of green nail polish or staying away from that side of the pin. ???

 

[krag]

Dude, I know where you are coming from. I scraped the brown coating off of my Xp2000 with the tip of a straight pin while I was trying to get the super glue off of an L1 point. I scraped it real close the the bridge connector, it was real small but it shined with a gold sheen. It was then I knew that if I got some defogger trace material on it, it would short out my attempts at unlocking my XP. And guess what? I stinken did it again!!! Only on the other end of the pin line up. But I was able to successfuly unlock it. I used clear packing tape which is considerably stiffer than scotch tape and I was able to mask off the shiney gouges. I made some ultra thin L1 bridge traces and it took me 4 tries before I got it. But THANK GOD it worked. I would of never thought that the surface layer of the XP was so thin. krag

 

[Falseprophet]

I have decided not to mess with it. Not worth the risk. and besides it is faster than any of my friends computers. I am happy with it. and I can't afford to get a new one if I screw it up.