XP unlocking attempt failed

[mealeyma]

Hey fellas-

What can I say? I spent over 6 hours tonight trying to unlock my XP, but I failed. I had all of the supplies I needed, including hardcopy of exactly what to do. I got the superglue to fill the laser pits, and I shaved off the rest ok I think. At this point I'm pretty optimistic, and looking through the magnifying glass I line up the shipping tape to make my first bridge. I used thin strokes, letting it dry inbetween. After waiting about 5 minutes, I proceed to pull the tape off very slowly, only to find that I rip the paint right off of the bridge I made. 2nd attempt left the bridge, but it had also gotten underneath the tape and leaked over some of the other level 1 spots. I clean it off with alcohol and start over.

The long and the short of it is that this kind of thing happened all night. I always pressed the tape down very well with a toothpick at all edges (perhaps too hard) and invariably something went amiss. At one point I had three of the bridges made, but while making the 4th the paint on bridge one peeled away! hehe I guess it just wasn't my night. BTW, when applying the paint I probably made 5 thin layers, allowing it to dry before each one.

Still, there is a sunny side to all of this. After cleaning everything off several times, I decide to just give up. At this point I am praying that the chip will still boot up normal. I wash the hs/chip with alcohol, lap w/AC3 again, and line everything up. I put my rig back together in record time and everythings cool. The best part is that I must have better contact with my AX-7, because she idles now at 35 cel, where it was at about 38 before. I can live with that

I don't know if I'll ever have the guts or the nerve to try that again, but if you guys have any suggestions about what I could do differently, please shoot. Thanks for all of the advice so far!

[lightbulb8817]

Did you buy an unlocking kit or a Defogger repair kit? I bought a defogger repair kit, and it took me 4 hrs to unlock. It sounds like you need to mix your conductive stuff, you make it sound so watery. I made sure I mixed it. Just take your time.

[Crazyjerm]

speaking of defogger kits, where do you get those?

[LAG]

Don't feel bad bro, I failed 4 times before I just gave up on it! Well, actually on the 3rd time, I got it to unlock a higher multi (this was an 1800+) and got 12.5, but it was only stable at 12.5x137, where at default multi I was getting 11.5x146 which is much better in overall performance.

[OrcWarrior]

Originally posted by Crazyjerm
speaking of defogger kits, where do you get those?

You can get them at auto-parts/accessories places. Sears or Pepboys might have them too. Maybe even Walmart

[lessthanjake_666]

Originally posted by OrcWarrior

You can get them at auto-parts/accessories places. Sears or Pepboys might have them too. Maybe even Walmart

I bought my defogger kit at Auto Zone. my O'Reily's had some kits too. I wonder what they think when a computer nerd comes in and buys a kit like that? Hehe.

[Scolecite]

make sure you get the kit version, it has the brownish liquid substance youll need to unlock your chip. DOnt go for the pen versions of the stuff cause it dosent go on as nice as the other stuff. I spent 1 hour with the pen stuff, tried like 5 times almost gave up, then bought the kit stuff it worked in 2 minutes using the head of a push pin.

[Crazyjerm]

Thanks, thats very good to know

[mealeyma]

Holy cows!!! I never even thought about applying the stuff using a push pin and small amounts.... I used an online guide to unlocking that suggested that you use shipping tape over and over after aligning and then brushing on a ton of the stuff... I think I may retry this using the pin idea, small amount of the fluid and magnifying glass...man I wish I would have thought of that then! At any rate, thanks for posting -- I'm gonna retry in the next few days.

[tYteaZzAzN]

i actually read about a method that seemed to work quite well.
http://www.vr-zone.com/guides/AMD/AthlonXPUnlock/
it involves some simple materials such as a soft eraser, silicone thermal paste, and circuitworks conductive silver grease. When i get the chance, i'll probably stop by frys' electronics to go pic up some circuitworks silver conductive grease, and use the method described above. Or hey, jsut use the materials you have now and you'll be fine. good luck

[lightbulb8817]

Originally posted by mealeyma
Holy cows!!! I never even thought about applying the stuff using a push pin and small amounts.... I used an online guide to unlocking that suggested that you use shipping tape over and over after aligning and then brushing on a ton of the stuff... I think I may retry this using the pin idea, small amount of the fluid and magnifying glass...man I wish I would have thought of that then! At any rate, thanks for posting -- I'm gonna retry in the next few days.

You can try using the pin way, but I think it may be harder than the tape way. Did you buy an unlocking kit or did you get the defogger kit? If you got the defogger kit, I think you didn't mixed the brown conductive stuff in the little jar enough. You make it sound like it's watery.