So You just got that off-the-foundry fresh Athlon XP, but you want more performance... Overclocking will do the trick, but it just won't allow you to hit the FSB speeds you want to. This is where Unlocking comes into play. By unlocking the cpu, you can gain access to it’s multipliers; the devices which multiply the FSB speed to get the core clock. Currently, there are many ways of doing this, but we’ll just concentrate on three for now: the L1 Bridge Trick (or pencil trick back in the day), going under the bridge, and finally the Socket Trick.
The L1 Bridge trick will work with All Athlon XPs, but is the most difficult to do. After all, who wants to cross tiny bridges with conductive goo....
For those of you who want to try it out, guides can be found in the following places:
The Pencil Trick for Thunderbirds (T-birds) and Durons only.
http://www.motherboards.org/articlesd/h ... /41_1.html
The Conductive Fluid Trick for Palominos and locked Thoroughbreds.
http://www.vr-zone.com/guides/AMD/AthlonXPUnlock/ for the complete Do It Yourselfer and
http://www.highspeedpc.com/XPUnlockingK ... ctions.htm if you want to pick up an unlocking kit already set up.
Going Under The Bridge is rather simple - All that has to be done is to join two pins together with a wire. It is essentially the same thing as the socket trick.
*NOTICE* Going under the bridge, as well as the socket trick ONLY work with Thoroughbreds (or T-Breds) and Bartons.
(Chip Models : 1700+ (Some) 1800+ (Some) 2200+, 2400+, 2500+, 2600+, 2700+, 2800+, and 3000+)
To identify if your chip is a T-bred, look for a long rectangular core - Palominos have square cores. Another way to identify what cpu you have is to look at the numbers and letters on the top of the cpu. If it says AXxxxx (where xxxx is the speed number like 1700), then it is a Palomino. If it says AXDAxxxx, then it is either a Thoroughbred or a Barton.
To Go under the bridge, short the same two pins as in the Socket Trick, except tie the pins that need to be shorted using a length of conductive wire. (See Socket Trick For Length)
The Socket Trick
This is like going under the bridge - but you will more than likely have to remove your motherboard to get to it. The image of the correct pins to short is here
http://www.lostcircuits.com/cpu/amd_unlock/pins2.jpg .
Do note that these pins are shown on a socket in the standard North - South Orientation. Make sure you see where the angled notches are located at the top of the socket so that you short the correct pins.
Finally - The latter two tricks will only unlock lower multipliers, allowing you to drop the multiplier and push up the FSB. Thus making it possible to get a 200 MHz FSB on an A7N8x and running DDR400 at full speed as an example.
Post Your Success Stories and Issues Here.
Tulatin
Thanks to Tolemac for additions, editing and posting this.