720BE unlocked cold boot issue

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Wolfsbane2k

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
228
hi.
Recently got a phenom 2 720 x3 that unlocks easily to a prime stable quad on a f3 bios on a gigabyte 790gp ds4h mobo.
however, once unlocked the system will not post after a windows shutdown without removing power at the wall.

Is anyone else having this problem with unlocked chips?

Any ideas on what i can do to stop this?
 
Does it still work after you remove power, or will it continuously fail to POST? I've heard resetting the CMOS should revert it back to an X3. If you can get into the BIOS, you should be able to manually change it there too. I haven't built my system yet, but I have a PII X3 720 that I wanted to try this on. It's a from the 0904DPCW batch, so I have high hopes for it.

I'm trying to pick a good Micro ATX motherboard for it and keep alternating between the Biostar TA790GX XE and the DFI LP JR 790GX-M2RS. The Biostar seems pretty solid, but I'm tempted by the CrossFire option of the DFI. I've never done dual video cards before and I like the option. I just don't know if I like it enough to shell out $55 more for the board if I might not use it. ;)
 
MechaBouncer said:
Does it still work after you remove power, or will it continuously fail to POST? I've heard resetting the CMOS should revert it back to an X3. If you can get into the BIOS, you should be able to manually change it there too. I haven't built my system yet, but I have a PII X3 720 that I wanted to try this on. It's a from the 0904DPCW batch, so I have high hopes for it.
Click to expand...

Yeap, once i've removed power ( or after 3 hours ) the system quite happily boots as a X4 without any problems at all - or reseting the CMOS works as well.

As it currently stands due to the issue i'm having with unlocking the 4th core, i'd go to a nvidia mobo with add in GFX card as i did in the S939 days.

My chip is a 0904CPMW, which doesn't appear to have that much luck.
 
Similar issue on all 3 of my 720BE builds. All on 790GP-UD4H boards.
Shut down/restart works fine with no issues, but if I ever have to turn off using power button before windows loads, for example, forgot to make a BIOS change, or need to shut off because not seeing an array, it won't boot until I clear CMOS.

Thought it was just a BIOS issue, but maybe not. All 3 setups do the same thing.
All 3 have been Prime 95 stable on 4th core for a few hours, 3.41 at 1.36 Vcore. So I know the chips are fine.

Would be interested to know if anyone else is having this? Hopefully we can find a resolution.
Glad to see i'm not alone.
 
I have a similar problem. Every time I start PC, it begins to boot up normally. Hard drive and fans begin revving up and then it pauses for a second then continues revving up. This only happens with 4th core enabled. It works fine aside from that though.
 
uss enterprise said:
Similar issue on all 3 of my 720BE builds. All on 790GP-UD4H boards.
Shut down/restart works fine with no issues, but if I ever have to turn off using power button before windows loads, for example, forgot to make a BIOS change, or need to shut off because not seeing an array, it won't boot until I clear CMOS.
Click to expand...

Ditto with my symptons, which is damn annoying considering it's prime 95 stable at 3.3 GHz as a quad core with +0.1v in Windows 7 - when it gets there.

Have spoken to Gigabyte about it, and they've given me a new Bios (4a) which re-locks the 4th core :/

I've been playing around with it for a while, including increasing nb voltage, but not getting anywhere - the system just keeps repeatidly revving the fans, as per Diplomacy's post, but won't get out of it. Occasionally it just craps out totally and stops doing anything ( sudden BIOS crash, no response to power button) until the power is pulled.

Full specs:
1) AMD 720BE x3
2) Gigabyte MA790GP DS4H
3) 2x 2GB OCZ Reaper 1066MHz DDR2 (2.1V)
4) PSU - 535W Enermax EG565AX powersupply
5) ATI 4830 GFX
 
Hmmmmm......I am doing everything through the BIOS. Have not even installed the AMD utility.
I'll have to give it a shot. Good input, thanks.
 
MechaBouncer said:
I'm trying to pick a good Micro ATX motherboard for it and keep alternating between the Biostar TA790GX XE and the DFI LP JR 790GX-M2RS. The Biostar seems pretty solid, but I'm tempted by the CrossFire option of the DFI. I've never done dual video cards before and I like the option. I just don't know if I like it enough to shell out $55 more for the board if I might not use it. ;)
Click to expand...

I'd go for the Biostar... Using the DFI, you will probably lose the only PCI slot to the videocard fan. This is the primary reason I didn't go with the DFI (besides the cost). I love the Biostar, and loved the past two T-Force based mobo's I've owned.
 
Wolfsbane2k said:
Yeap, once i've removed power ( or after 3 hours ) the system quite happily boots as a X4 without any problems at all - or reseting the CMOS works as well.

As it currently stands due to the issue i'm having with unlocking the 4th core, i'd go to a nvidia mobo with add in GFX card as i did in the S939 days.

My chip is a 0904CPMW, which doesn't appear to have that much luck.
Click to expand...


Do the Nvidia based chipsets have the ACC option? I was under the impression only the 790 based chipsets had this option. In fact, I thought Nvidia has slipped behind in the chipset race as of lately.

Either way, I wouldn't recommend an Nvidia chipset, not for the 720 anyways
 
Well with my Gigabyte UD5P I can boot pretty much out of any configuration I try. The only time I need to remove the power cord and wait about 30 seconds is when I try running 1600Mhz Ram at Cas 6 using 1.9V. It shutdown and only removing the cord or clearing CMOS makes it come back.
Other than that my 4 cores run just flawlessly.
 
Smoove910 said:
I'd go for the Biostar... Using the DFI, you will probably lose the only PCI slot to the videocard fan. This is the primary reason I didn't go with the DFI (besides the cost). I love the Biostar, and loved the past two T-Force based mobo's I've owned.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. I wasn't really planning on adding any additional PCI cards, though. Although it would give me the option for a wireless NIC and/or TV tuner if I went that way. I think I'm going to wait for information on AMD's GDC demo today concerning Havok physics on AMD/ATI GPUs. They mentioned they would be doing some kind of demo presumably showing Havok physics running over OpenCL on a GPU. If it seems like something that the onboard GPU could be adequate for, I'll probably just get the Biostar. Otherwise, I'll probably get the DFI. Even if I don't CrossFire my cards, I've always liked what Nvidia did with using your old card for physics and wished AMD/ATI would follow suit. I guess we'll find out today.


Smoove910 said:
Do the Nvidia based chipsets have the ACC option? I was under the impression only the 790 based chipsets had this option. In fact, I thought Nvidia has slipped behind in the chipset race as of lately.

Either way, I wouldn't recommend an Nvidia chipset, not for the 720 anyways
Click to expand...

I think you're right. Specifically, I think it's the SB750 that's responsible for it because of ACC. No Nvidia chipsets can do it as far as I've found. What's more, I have an AMD Radeon HD 4870 card, so I want an AMD chipset to go along with it anyway. Glad to see someone thinking the same thing I was. Thanks!
 
Well I finally got all my parts and built my rig. I decided to go for the DFI LanParty JR 790GX-M2RS for better future-proofing and better audio. I flashed the BIOS to a beta version to let me unlock the 4th core. Comes up as a quad core and has been Prime95 stable so far. My main concern, however, is that AMD OverDrive reports the CPU running around 65 degrees Celsius at full load. That's way hot! :eek: Idle temps are fairly high as well at just under 40 degrees. I'm thinking I may need to find a new CPU cooler, but am not sure what will fit into my case when I only have enough clearance for a cooler less than 76mm/3" tall. Or possibly a new fan, but I don't know if that will have enough of an impact. Either way, I'll have to do something if I want to do any overclocking.
 
I had the Qpack (1st series) and with a little modding was able to squeeze a Zalman 9500 in there. Worked great on my 3800X2, and since these X3's typically run so cool....

Also, the temps you see once the 4th core is enabled are incorrect. I noticed a huge delta between running the 4th core enabled vs. disabled. I prefer my temps 25c idle with my 3.6ghz 3-core proc.
 
So the processor isn't reading the right temps on all the cores? That seems rather odd.

EDIT:
Nevermind, I misread what you wrote. It makes sense to me that the temperature would jump so much because the Phenom II X4 920 is rated as a 125W chip, which is basically what the X3 720 becomes with the 4th core unlocked. As for installing a Zalman 9500, wouldn't that pretty much prevent you from removing the motherboard? I'd rather prefer not to lock the board in there. Otherwise, I could pick a much larger cooler.

I did pick up a Zalman 7500Cu from Microcenter, but I'm thinking about taking it back and getting either a Zalman 8700NT or a Cooler Master V4. The 7500 is heavier than the 8700 and I don't know if it'll fit well. Plus, I can't find whether it would even work for a 125W CPU. Why is it that the CPU companies use the Thermal Design Point standard, but CPU cooler companies don't list it? Isn't that what the standard is intended for? It's just so frustrating.
 
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Well I ended up taking the Zalman 7500 back and getting a Cooler Master V4. It dropped the temps down to about 60C with QnC and about 50C with the fan at full speed (both under full Prime95 load of all 4 cores). So it's an improvement. I may be able to get a little more out of it if I use some AS5 on it, but I'll save that testing for later.

Right now, I'm having a bit of a problem with my X3 720. It seems that I hit my first error on one of the cores in Prime95 and this was only at stock speeds. It took a while, but it's pretty indicative of which core was the disabled one. I'm trying to use AMD Overdrive to drop the multiplier down to see if it'll run any better at a lower clock speed, but for some reason it keeps getting reset to the default multiplier of 14. I've tried saving the settings, setting them as defaults, applying and hitting "OK", but nothing seems to keep it set. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it has something to do with me using a pre-RC version of Windows 7? Has anyone else encounted a problem like this?

If I can't find a solution, I may just revert it back to a triple core. I seem to be having trouble overclocking the other cores with AOD, but I thought it might have been because of the enabled 4th core. If I disable it again, I'm hoping I'll have more headroom for the others.
 
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