Since our first THG video Hot Spot: How Modern Processors Cope With Heat Emergencies was very popular with both end users and manufacturers in the IT industry, we decided to create another movie about a current topic.

Our efforts helped to draw AMD's attention back to the CPU burn-out issue and to encourage motherboard manufacturers to furnish their boards with hardware-based heat protection systems . In the end, AMD responded to the pressure by showing its own Internet video in which an Athlon with a Palomino core, installed on a modified motherboard, doesn't start smoking if the fan fails.

This was followed up by a series of meetings and telephone conferences between THG and AMD. While the first THG video was intended to expose the overload problems inherent in the AMD Athlon XP/MP in a very controversial fashion, the second video offers a brief guide to unlocking any Athlon XP/MP in order to overclock it. We hope it will encourage AMD fans who are still afraid to do the complicated work involved in overclocking these CPUs. This new video demonstrates clearly how it should be done.

Careful! Masking The Pins And The Laser Locks

When unlocking the multiplier, you have to mask off the L1 contacts and the depressions between the bridges. Although there were numerous theories on unlocking the multiplier that we and many other online publications had known about, we were the first to present a detailed guide and a benchmark test. Special thanks go to Uwe Scheffel again, who evaluated several theories for practical feasibility.

For those of you who haven't read up on this topic, you should read through our article Plastic Surgery: Releasing The Athlon XP To Hit 2000+ in addition to watching the new THG video. It provides comprehensive information on overclocking the Athlon XP/MP by unlocking the multiplier.