I have heard about AMD's processors being multiplier locked. Can I change this?

How can I overclock my AMD processor with the multiplier?
Andyc v1.0

Remember the days when overclocking was as simple as:
1. Enter BIOS
2. Increase FSB by a few mhz or multiplier by 1x
3. Restart PC and repeat last 2 steps until your PC is stable

Processors these days are all "Multiplier locked" meaning that you can only really mess about with the FSB to gain a good overclock. Thinking of switching to P4 because AMD's processors are multiplier locked (even though P4's also use "Multiplier locking")? well think again. There is a way to bypass the "hardwired multiplier setting" (the thing that basically tells the processor how many times faster to clock at in correlation to the Front Side Bus (FSB) clock) to allow you to overclock your AMD chip via the multiplier.

Multiplier locking has been in processors since the days of Pentium 3 (before that they were "limited") as a feature to stop shops selling remarked processors and selling them for the price that you would pay for its bigger brother. As of yet nobody has yet found a way to unlock the P3/P4 so :P to all you Intel addicts out there.

This will all be a waste of time if you find out that your motherboard does not feature multiplier settings, so ensure that it does by entering your bios (you will have to press the Del or f1 key upon boot up of your system) and looking under Frequency / Voltage control. If you see Multiplier then you might as well read on.

Now shut down your computer and take a look at your processor and you will see lots of little copper coloured dots over it labeled L1, L2 L3 and you get the rest. If you look even closer you should see little black lines cut in between the "dots". By messing with these you can fool your motherboard into thinking that the processor is multiplier unlocked and consequently use the multipliers to clock the processor the motherboard has in its 462 pin socket to run faster than it is rated for.

How do you change these?

Well different AMD processors have different ways of tinkering with the settings to produce different results. If you own a original Socket A Athlon (thunderbird) then think yourself lucky as all you have to do is draw a pencil mark between the top and bottom contacts of the L1 section and you're done. There will be 5 contacts to connect altogether in the processor and by performing this you will have unlocked the multiplier setting completely.

If you are a bit more up to date and you own a XP processor then things are a little harder. In particular, the more sensitive voltage settings combined with a conductive copper packaging makes the pencil trick useless, but fear not because help is at hand. In the Xp's you need to produce a contact between the bottom connector of the L3 column (make sure that the arrow is pointing to the bottom left). Since the pencil trick is useless in this operation you will need to use something else such as conductive grease (I recommend CircuitWorks Silver Conductive Grease). Apply a small strip (making sure only the bottom 2 contacts are touched with the paste) and allow a few minuets to dry.

A few precautions / Tips:
1. It is easier to do this if you remove the rubber pads from the CPU (processor).
2. Be VERY careful when placing the CPU down on a surface as the pins can bend easily. Best bet for this is to use a soft surface (preferably a piece of foam).
3. DO NOT try and do this with your CPU in its socket.

Nobody here (including me) takes any responsibility for damage / loss of data which may be a result of this - This is highly unlikely but remember that you're on your own.

Once this is done slap your processor in, put your fan on (attach fan connector) etc. etc. and have endless hours of fun with your new and improved unlocked AMD processor.

Andyc ;) #sl-uk on quakenet

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