Unlocking 4th core on AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE

Hi Everyone,

I'm posting my question to the overclocking forum thinking that the right people are probably here, even though my question is around unlocking a 4th core.

I recently picked up a AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE and thought I might experiment around with unlocking the 4th core - even though I know it's really a hit/miss chance if my processor is capable.

I have a Gigabyte motherboard (with latest firmware) and in setting ACC to "Hybrid" and the other selection (forgot the specification) I tried both "All cores" and "per core".

Each time the PC posts fine and I show the proc as "Phenom II x4 20" in BIOS - which is what I expect. However, whenever it boots into Windows 7 (32 bit still), it blue screens.

Now I understand this might be my "sign" that my 4th core cannot be enabled - but getting up to this point, has anyone tried any tricks (with the core % values or voltage) that might be a recommended option?

I did some Google searching and I couldn't necessarily find any recommendations on if a % change per core could make a difference -and I didn't want to poke around and potentially break the processor in the process.

I know it's also a stretch - but should I even make the processor changes and boot into a clean, newly installed version of the OS to see if that makes a difference? I wouldn't think so, but I'm open to ideas.

BTW, once I put the ACC setting back to "auto" the PC boots into the OS fine - so it's definitely some BIOS setting or the unlock itself causing this problem.

Any tips, suggestions, etc, are greatly appreciated. I fully know this isn't a guarantee I'll get the 4th core to work, but it's definitely fun to try......

Thanks,
k

BTW -I also upgraded the fan/heatsink combo (no longer using stock), just in case the 4th core or extra voltage will cause more heat.

Faulty fourth core

Umm ACC stands for advanced core control and what that is, is a feature added in with the phenom 2 series which allows the motherboard to adjust voltages core dependant instead of being manual which used to be the case when overclocking and having a core fail. the feature you are looking for is UCC which is hit and miss but i have succesfully unlocked a phenom 2 x4 960 to a hexacore on a ASRock 870 extreme 3 mobo