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Thread: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

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    AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Hi guys,

    So I have been using an AMD Athlon X3 460 for a while now in my Media Server, and Now that it has a proper case I decided I'd start fiddling around with the CPU as I know it unlocks to an X4 using the board I have, I have tried it several times and can usually get into windows fine but as soon as something fairly CPU intensive happens the screen goes a sort of green colour with wierd squiggles like this;

    http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...AQpmbckU9BZ5kX

    I use my media server to do conversion as well which works for a few seconds and then this screen?

    What should I Do? is the chip broken or something?

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Haven't seen this, in my limited experience if the core is defective it should either blue screen or reboot.

    The difference in power bewteen between locked and unlocked? Stock heatsink? onboard graphics?

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    Bagnaj97
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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Quote Originally Posted by RobBerry23 View Post
    start fiddling around with the CPU as I know it unlocks to an X4 using the board I have
    You know it unlocks to an X4 because you've done it before and it was stable, or because others have done it on that board? Unlocks are never guaranteed.

    Athlon X3s were originally created to make use of X4s with a faulty core - it was only when yields rose that "good" X4s had a core disabled to produce X3s. You have a chance to get lucky, or you get what you paid for - if it's unstable with the 4th core unlocked then the chip isn't broken, you just didn't get lucky.

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Quote Originally Posted by Bagnaj97 View Post
    You know it unlocks to an X4 because you've done it before and it was stable, or because others have done it on that board? Unlocks are never guaranteed.

    Athlon X3s were originally created to make use of X4s with a faulty core - it was only when yields rose that "good" X4s had a core disabled to produce X3s. You have a chance to get lucky, or you get what you paid for - if it's unstable with the 4th core unlocked then the chip isn't broken, you just didn't get lucky.
    I have done it before on the stock cooler when I originally got it and it was fine, its fine now as well, its just when I push it by starting video conversion or opening a game that it does this, otherwise its smooth sailing.

    I thought it would be something like that, It overclocks really well, I'll have to have a look at it again, Is there anything I can do to make it more stable? change voltages possibly?

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Quote Originally Posted by Domestic_Ginger View Post
    Haven't seen this, in my limited experience if the core is defective it should either blue screen or reboot.

    The difference in power bewteen between locked and unlocked? Stock heatsink? onboard graphics?
    Im not sure how I can measure the difference in power between it being unlocked and locked? I don't have any tools to measure that.
    Its got an aftermarket Arcitc cooler on it that does a fantastic job, never goes much higher than 65 on full load.
    I have been using a 5570 with it (the low profile version) but it makes no difference whether that is in it or not :/

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    It's definitely a dodgy unlocked core - just because it used to unlock doesn't mean it will continue to unlock - potentially the core was disabled because of an intermittent fault and you just have seen it before, or even because it had an imminent fault: i.e. it wasn't faulty at manufacture but it was flawed and AMD knew the core would give up eventually. Same thing happened to my Sempron 140 - unlocked fine initially, but over time the unlock got steadily less stable.

    I assume you don't have this issue when the chip is locked to an X3?

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    Bagnaj97
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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    AMD CPUs like volts and dislike heat. 65 degrees is approaching the limits of what I'd be happy running at tbh, so with your current hardware I'd not try pushing it. A better cooler alone may be enough, and if it's not then it should let you up the volts. Of course it's still not guaranteed to work...

    My Athlon X3 overclocks pretty nicely, I run it at 4.0GHz 24/7, but no matter what I try the 4th core wont unlock. Lowering the clocks, more volts, less volts, loosening memory timings, I've tried the lot. It wont even POST with the 4th core unlocked.

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Agree; 65 is not so good.

    Intermittent fault or not if the core won't hack wprime or IBT then its a non starter. My opinion is that the chips were binned to price points as much as quality. Some batch numbers have been shown to be highly unlockable to the point some show off bought a whole box of 550s all of which unlocked fine.

    I think I really don't want to have my bubble of ignorance busted if mine proves to be one day defective.

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    What motherboard are you running?
    Most uATX motherboards are limited to 95W, and if you unlock an X3 into a Phenom II X4 then that is a 125W chip you converted it into. If before you had success with the chip on a full sized ATX motherboard, then most of them are rated at 125W (some 140W) and that may be the difference.

    If you have the ability to select the cores you unlock, then you can try turning off core 4 to get a Phenom II X3 unlock. That only gets you the 6MB L3 cache, but in many workloads you can really feel the difference and that shouldn't push the power draw up much.

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    65 degrees not good?, Serious? The limits of these chips hit the 100's, Nothing wrong with running it at 65c.

    DanceswithUnix I am using an Asus M4N68T-M V2, This is the only board its ever been on. I can select which cores to turn off.

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    Bagnaj97
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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Quote Originally Posted by RobBerry23 View Post
    65 degrees not good?, Serious? The limits of these chips hit the 100's, Nothing wrong with running it at 65c.
    AMD state the max operating temp of an X3 460 as 75 degrees, as can be seen here. However an X4 of the same architecture has a specified max temp of 71 degrees - and this is what you should be looking at if you're unlocking to an X4. Higher temperatures increase the possibility of electromigration - whilst your CPU will probably run fine for now you'll almost certainly be shortening the lifespan. Temperature also has an effect on resistance within the CPU, above the manufacturer's max temperature you are more likely to experience errors partly due to this - you're operating outside the designed parameters.

    Cpus are also sensitive to temperatures when overclocking. You may well find that an unstable overclock (or core) becomes stable at lower temperatures, even without changing any other parameters. This is partly the reason why "pro" overclocking attempts are done using dry ice or even liquid nitrogen. I'm sure with enough radiators they could probably keep temps reasonable with watercooling, but they can push harder with lower temps.

    Your motherboard also has a fairly weak 4 phase VRM, it may be struggling with the power requirements of the extra core (although X4s and X6s are on the supported CPU list). A slight vcore bump may stabilise your unlock, but I wouldn't try without better cooling.
    Last edited by Bagnaj97; 28-06-2012 at 01:56 PM.

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Wow I did not know that, I assumed like my SB chip that they max out around the 100 mark, My mistake,

    Before I took this chip from an old build it was running the Stock AMD Cooler with very a case with only 1 fan so Im guessing that its temps have been higher before for alot longer,

    I've switched out the cooler I had on it for a scythe shuriken low profile cooler and speedfan is telling me the "core" temp is 35C which I think is fair seeing as its in a slim profile case with no fans bar the GPU/PSU

    Just to give you an idea I have included a picture:


    This has changed slightly as there is a low profile 5570 in there, and the PSU was swapped out for a decent quality 300W.


    I have underclocked the CPU to 2.8 instead of 3.4GHZ, might try unlocking with this lower clock but the same Vcore and see if that works.

    Its very difficult to improve cooling in a case that will only support 1x80mm fan in the top and I really don't want to be spending money on this as its really just something on the side that I don't have the money to be spending on as I just bought a new bike,

    Ah well, hopefully it will unlock, Who knows.

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    Bagnaj97
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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Quote Originally Posted by RobBerry23 View Post
    Its very difficult to improve cooling in a case that will only support 1x80mm fan in the top and I really don't want to be spending money on this
    A cheap drill doesn't cost much and is useful for other things so costs can be justified!

    but as you say this is just something on the side then I wouldn't worry too much.

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    35C sounds OK to me, as long as the CPU fan isn't going like the clappers to keep it at that temperature.

    Good luck with the unlock.

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    Re: AMD Athlon II X3 460 stability issues

    Yeah, It depends if its been on 24/7 or not. The CPU fan even at 100% is barely audible, Arctic do a great job.

    The unlock has worked, but will just crash the PC if I push all 4 cores to 100% through video encoding e.t.c
    So just leaving it running with no encoding works fine, For the time being im just going to make it an X3 and leave it at that

    Thanks for the tips/help anyway

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