For anyone thinking about using a conductive pen or conductive epoxy to unlock a Duron/Thunderbird, do yourself a....

[Jugernot]

favor and don't! Just do it by the pencil method. I just got done sitting under a bright light for 15 minutes trying to steady my hand while trying to apply the minutest amount of conductive epoxy to my L1 bridges with a pin head. IT ISN'T worth the hassle! As long as the epoxy I used doesn't move around (I'm hoping not) mine should be ok, but it was mighty close. The only reason you should need something more durable than graphite is if you move your cpu around alot, which most of us don't.

Just my 2¢!

Joe

btw: Anyone ever heard of these bridges being shorted out by an arc?

 

[Netopia]

I used a repair kit for rear window defoggers and a tiny pin also. Took a couple of minutes, but the conductivity is MUCH greater than pencil lead and it can be removed with fingernail polish remove... I removed some just to make sure. I did 4 cpus in about 15 mintues... it really wasn't bad.... just DO NOT drink coffee or caffeinated soda for a couple of hours before hand, a little bit of shaking hands makes it MUCH harder!

Joe

 

[DaddyG]

My votes with Netopia,

Loctite defogger repair, takes a little patience the first time but a much better solution IMHO.

 

[teknoid]

Another vote for the Loctite defroster repair method. I've done a Duron 600, T-Bird 750 and a T-Bird 950. The only thing I do different is I put a drop of the stuff on a piece of paper and use a single edge razor blade to apply it to the CPU. Makes for a much neater line. YEA YEA YEA.. I know... but my mother always told me "neatness counts"

 

[Healey]

I used a pencil and it works just fine. I suppose if I had some window defogger stuff sitting in my desk I mighta used that. But all's I had in there was this pencil.

 

[Jugernot]

Heh, knock on wood. The epoxy didn't work didn't work. After I went to bed it blobbed out and two of the bridges combined into one. After about 15 seconds of freaking out, I grabbed a razor blade and and a alcohol pad. I scraped most of the epoxy off with the razor, then wiped it down with the pad. Couldn't even tell I had touched it. The I went upstairs and got a mech pencil. It worked and I'm running 900MHz so far with the stock cooling on my Duron 600MHz (104F core temp).

btw: I just ran both the multimedia and cpu benchmark in Sandra and I am only getting Duron 700 scores. What do I need to change in the BIOS from default for better performance?

Thanks guys!

 

[Dyflam]

I soldered. A little scary but worked fine. Takes a steady hand and tiny soldering iron tip.

 

[Jugernot]

You have got some balls! I would never do that. Of course I've only used a soldering iron once or twice in the last few years, so that could have something to do with it.