Unlock PIII

steimm

Senior member
Feb 26, 2001
310
1
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I know that it has been several posts here about this but I still wonder:

Is it TOTALLY impossible to unlock a Intel PIII? Has anyone tried? With wires, special connections, welding or whatsoever?

/steimm
 

DClark

Senior member
Apr 16, 2001
430
0
0
It is essentially impossible (It's most likely technically possible, but the cost of doing it would greatly outweigh the benefit).
The locking of the core is a good thing in my opinion; it prevents unscrupulous retailers from advertising a computer as having one spec, when in reality it may be a slower processor altered to attain a higher speed (and gain a bigger profit margin for the retailer).

The good thing about P3 is that they do overclock very well using the fsb.
 

steimm

Senior member
Feb 26, 2001
310
1
0
I agree totally with you, but I'd like to know if there is anyone that has tried with any special methods with success or without success.

I'm not looking for someone to solve a problem for me, just to know if there is a technique to unlock a PIII.

/steimm
 

bacillus

Lifer
Jan 6, 2001
14,517
0
71


<< I'm not looking for someone to solve a problem for me, just to know if there is a technique to unlock a PIII. >>


AFAIK you'll have to essentially destroy part of the core to unlock the cpu!
 

steimm

Senior member
Feb 26, 2001
310
1
0
So it would not be possible do it by connecting some pins in some special way (resistor etc)?
 

Wingznut

Elite Member
Dec 28, 1999
16,968
2
0


<< So it would not be possible do it by connecting some pins in some special way (resistor etc)? >>


Not on a boat, Not with a goat.
Not on a train, Not in the rain.

It would not, would not be possible, Sam I am.



The method for locking the cpu is on the actual die. Not on the outside of the packaging, like AMD (sometimes) does.
 

shathal

Golden Member
May 4, 2001
1,080
0
0

Yup - Wingz stated it in one. There's no WAY that you can really do it (short of fiddling with the core & who can do that, eh?) :).

There's one "sideline" to this, and that's engineering samples. Most "normal mortals" will never see one, less likely even to be able to get ahold of one.

However, even these are multiplier LIMITED, i.e.: if you have a 10 x 100 FSB CPU, you can only go DOWN from 10x, never above.

As such, you - literally - can never raise the multiplier above its set with the recent-ish CPU's from Intel.

However, "remarking" does still occur, but that's on the FSB side. Take a 100 MHz FSB CPU & pump it up to 133 & sell it as a 133 FSB deal.
Note, remarking is done on "grand scales" - several 1000's CPU's - so Intel has very good reason to lock the multiplier (which at least limited this somewhat).

I.e.: 6 x 100 = 600 ==> 6 x 133 = 800.

Would be interesting to see if they ever intend to lock the FSB completely as well ... who knows?

Anyway - that's my 2 pence on the matter.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
81
just buy an athlon...a 1400 chip will only run you $100 these days. and did i mention they are easily unlocked?