PII 555 X2 unlocking question/issue

[spdfreak]

My 555 unlocks all 4 cores and boots into windows without a problem. It will do typical windows tasks all day without problems but as soon as I try P95 or video encoding with something like handbrake, it will shut the system down in about a minute. No errors, blue screen, etc, just a hard shutdown. So, my question is whether this is likely due to heat since it is using the stock HSF or is it just unstable? I already tried using a higher rated PS since I thought the 460W might not be enough, but it did the same thing with an Antec 500W. I could conceivably put a better HSF on it but I really don't want to waste the money if it is not likely to help.

 

[hondaf17]

Hi,

See my sig below - I have the same chip. I had a similar experience. I could unlock all 4 cores and successfully boot into windows. I could do some tasks but it would not be stable - I'd get weird video artifacts and just strange operation. After a lot of testing I ultimately went back into the BIOS and tried with 3 cores. Success. Turned our core 3 was defective. I disabled core 3, then booted with 3 cores (1,2,4), and it's been rock-solid stable for 6 months, even OC to 3.6ghz.

So, my suggestion would be to go into your BIOS and try disabling each of the extra cores one by one to see if you can't get stable on 3 cores.

Good luck - let me know how it goes.