# Gigabyte's 890X Can Unlock Cores!! (Modded BIOS inside)



## Formula350 (Mar 24, 2010)

I'm so irked! Decided to look at the 890XA boards BIOS to see if they by chance have the ability to unlock and what do you know... it does! Yet, it is hidden, so I unhid it  Now though, the only people I know who can do that (Rebel's Haven) aren't accepting new forum members 

Anyone here by chance know how to extract stuff like that? I'd flash my 890GX with it if I didn't think it would brick it due to it having the IGP :\

Anyways here's the 890XA F3 BIOS with JUST the ACC Core Unlocking options unhidden.
Unlocked (oddly no CPU core 6):
CPU core Control
CPU core 2
CPU core 3
CPU Core 4
CPU Core 5


----------



## sneekypeet (Mar 24, 2010)

looks like it is possibly a different bios file. Chech to see if the size matches.


----------



## Mussels (Mar 24, 2010)

see if hitting ctrl-F1 in the BIOS menu shows the hidden options on the normal BIOS.


----------



## Formula350 (Mar 24, 2010)

sneekypeet said:


> looks like it is possibly a different bios file. Chech to see if the size matches.



Well it's virtually the same board, even by the looks, but I'm not 100% sure I follow what you mean by the size. It IS the same on-disk size, but if you mean the inner BIOS file, I suspect it would be different since it doesn't have the IGP related content.




Mussels said:


> see if hitting ctrl-F1 in the BIOS menu shows the hidden options on the normal BIOS.



It is actually not IN the 890GPA BIOS. If it was, I'd be able to see it in ModBin. Like the on S754 board my neighbor has in his HP is a cripple ASUS board, and you would not believe all the crap I unlocked for that thing! It's a pretty much full-fledged mobo now heh Sadly it uses the SIS chip which was limited to 232mhz and I was able to max that out right away. But it didn't have any OC options, memory timing options, IGP tweaking options, it was literally an off-the shelf board.

Here is what an option that is previously hidden (it's called disabled in ModBin) looks like when browsing through it.
Black options = totally "absent" to the user in the BIOS menu. Also I highly doubt (but honestly I can't say for sure) they are accessable by Ctrl+F1, but as I don't have this board I can't say :\
Inside some of the menu options that the user CAN access, there are actually options that are still "absent", those are just simply toggled "Non-Selectable" as the second pic shows. That is for the Memory Clock, and usually you only can select Auto and Manual, but as you can see MaxMemClk is also there but not available until I enable it  I can only assume that is for running the highest profile programmed into your memory, like the Intel Extreme Profiles, or the OCZ Black Edition which have the AMD version. 

Since it was late last night, that is why I just put up that BIOS w/o the rest of the features unlocked. This new one has these features unlocked:
CPU Clock Ratio renamed to CPU Multiplier, as it is what you are selecting.
CPU Northbridge Freq.: x21 & x22 now available. (x23-30 I can't unlock)
CPU Frequency(MHz) renamed to more accurate HTT Frequency(MHz)
HT Link Frequency renamed to more fitting HT Link Mutli. (it's multipliers after all)
Set Memory Clock: MaxMemClk now available.
Memory Clock: DDR3 400, 533 & 667 now available.
Patch AMD TLB Erratum: now available.
AMD K8 Cool&Quiet Control renamed to proper term, AMD PowerNow! Control
CPU core Control: now available
CPU core 2: ditto
CPU core 3: ditto
CPU Core 4: ditto
CPU Core 5: ditto
PCIE Configuration->Primary Dual Slot Config: Menu->Submenu now available.


I'll add the rest of what is changed, plus the new BIOS when I get back, need to do some running around.

EDIT: Alright also changed-
Onboard GSATA Mode: RAID option is now available.
SBGPP Function: option now available
SBGPP Port Link Config: ditto
SBGPP UnHide Port: ditto
SBGPP ASPM State: ditto
A-Link PhyPLL PowerDown: ditto


----------



## Cecil (Apr 12, 2010)

Have you tested this personally? From the look of it, it looks like that just controlls locking cores, not unlocking. I have an X2 555 that unlocks, and want this board, but only if it will unlock too.


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 12, 2010)

Cecil said:


> Have you tested this personally? From the look of it, it looks like that just controlls locking cores, not unlocking. I have an X2 555 that unlocks, and want this board, but only if it will unlock too.



I don't own this board, only the 890GX, which that isn't hidden in there.

To be honest, I have considered that is what it means as well, but don't really know since I don't have it. Similarly though, I can't imagine why they would hide that option, ya know? And while it might not be worded like it would be ACC, since it doesn't have the option to change the value, the ASUS board simply has dip switches to unlock cores. So who knows :\


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 12, 2010)

Mussels said:


> see if hitting ctrl-F1 in the BIOS menu shows the hidden options on the normal BIOS.



BTW, As of my posting, I've gotten a CPU and also read [H]'s review of the 890GPA board where they mentioned CTRL+F1 working. However it didn't unhide but a few minor options, compared to what my BIOS does (for the 890GPA and XA). Still wish I knew WTF SBGPP meant/was for


----------



## Cecil (Apr 12, 2010)

Yeah, it just looks to me like the option to dissable cores for Thuban or something. 

I went with the ASUS 890GX instead. Makes me sad, as I love Gig.


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 12, 2010)

Cecil said:


> Yeah, it just looks to me like the option to dissable cores for Thuban or something.
> 
> I went with the ASUS 890GX instead. Makes me sad, as I love Gig.



I do too, and even with the lack of unlocking, I just have a bad taste in my mouth with ASUS for how their BIOS is executed. I tried tweaking my friend's P45 rig and after owning a Gigabyte board with Dual BIOS for so long, I was pampered with not having the issues when an OC goes wrong. The ASUS would recover for you, but after it recovered it would put everything back to defaults, and I don't know for sure if that board had CMOS profiles :\ My S939 board would loop boot if it was unstable and before it got so far, you could hit DEL and enter the BIOS with all your settings intact so you could change whatever to fix the instability. This 890GX board is taking what ASUS did right by reverting settings to let you boot and alerting you to that fact, but took it a step further and made it better by JUST making the clocks default. So you go into the OC section, move 3 things from Auto to Manual and they are then the exact settings you attempted with  Make an adjustment and try again heh

I hope down the line that GB incorporates the ability to unlock back into the boards, but only time will tell :\ They also appeared to have changed the heatsinks, based on a _new_ review I read, and I prefer the new ones much better to the ones mine has  I emailed GB about it, and they said it might be a pre-release board (so unlikely) but I told them I doubt it and provided a link to pics. It was an [H] review if you're interested, and my pics are here: http://maxpain.lackeydom.net/890GPA/


----------



## Mussels (Apr 12, 2010)

Formula: on my DFI, *nothing* gets changed on a failed boot. it loads default settings, but doesnt over-write the ones i'd set (so if i did a save and exit, it'd just fail to boot again )


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 12, 2010)

Mussels said:


> Formula: on my DFI, *nothing* gets changed on a failed boot. it loads default settings, but doesnt over-write the ones i'd set (so if i did a save and exit, it'd just fail to boot again )



Ah yes I forgot about the DFI. I had not had one of their boards till that S939 uber one I got, and I do admit I like their execution the best. It would POST and then if it got passed the POST, to load the OS, it would then trigger a checkpoint and save those settings for every boot. Otherwise if that trigger didn't trip, I suspect it is on an internal timer, the computer would reboot and repeat it all again till you fixed it  Whether or not they still use that way of doing it, no clue, since so much time has passed since S939 heh As GB has slightly changed their way of doing it since then.


----------



## Mussels (Apr 13, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> Ah yes I forgot about the DFI. I had not had one of their boards till that S939 uber one I got, and I do admit I like their execution the best. It would POST and then if it got passed the POST, to load the OS, it would then trigger a checkpoint and save those settings for every boot. Otherwise if that trigger didn't trip, I suspect it is on an internal timer, the computer would reboot and repeat it all again till you fixed it  Whether or not they still use that way of doing it, no clue, since so much time has passed since S939 heh As GB has slightly changed their way of doing it since then.



my x48 does, so yeah, they still do it that way.  it.


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 13, 2010)

(Mirrored in my 890GPA BIOS thread)

Darn, finally got around to loading a modded BIOS onto my 890GPA and the first one so far resulted in POSTing fine, but when I went to go in the BIOS I got a checksum warning message. The backup BIOS kicked in and flashed the primary, and all is fine (now that's a cool feature!). The one I tried was modded slightly different than what I have been posting, so I'm going to try one of those right now and see if the same thing happens. I'll report back with those findings.

EDIT: Just tried a fresh BIOS mod with only the changes made being what are listed up above that were hidden, no name changes made or rearranging. Thought it worked, but then none of my options were showing up. Set all my settings as I like em and saved/restarted and it went with the same checksum error about the HPA(?) BIOS :\ Oh well, would've been nice but can't win em all! I think I'd need a much newer version of ModBin than what I have.

Leaving the files up for research/archival/whatever purposes.


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 14, 2010)

heh I didn't even know about the Ctrl f1 trick 
thx
/wonder if his bios has any hidden options that can't be shown with ctrl+f1


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 15, 2010)

rjc862003 said:


> heh I didn't even know about the Ctrl f1 trick
> thx
> /wonder if his bios has any hidden options that can't be shown with ctrl+f1



I believe it is only for Award BIOSes, as if there is another way in AMI I'm not sure what it is. Might even be the same haha But since you're rocking a GB board, I'm sure yours is Award still


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 15, 2010)

lol I found a few extra options
spread spectrum
ioch/HT/IGPU clock gating ( no idea what that this is for toggled it did't seem todo anything )
advanced memory timing stuff ( this I will play with later see if I can break 3.4 ghz finally)


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 15, 2010)

rjc862003 said:


> lol I found a few extra options
> spread spectrum
> ioch/HT/IGPU clock gating ( no idea what that this is for toggled it did't seem todo anything )
> advanced memory timing stuff ( this I will play with later see if I can break 3.4 ghz finally)



Yea the spread spectrum I assume is for the South Bridge, like my 890GX has. Seems like you're unlocking the same items I am. My 890GX showed a few more IGX options, which helped me gain quite a few 3DMark 2K1 points for the HWBot IGP competition lol The NB Power Management (that clock gating option) I think is like Cool'n'Quiet for the IGP, but I'm not sure. 

The one BIG thing I was hoping would be shown, which I had unlocked in the modded BIOS (that didn't work) was the SBGPP options, 1GB of UMA option, "MaxMem Speed" option and TLB Erratum option to turn it on/off. I mean yea the TLB option probably wouldn't have helped any, but oh well lol

I know my Athlon II X2 250u is basically the same as your processor, except with a ton lower default voltage and multiplier, but with these voltages I was able to go from 1.6GHz to 2.9GHz with the NB and HT speeds also @ 2.9GHz lol

Here are my voltages (keep in mind my 890GX is a revamped 785G, but also that might be why I can run these voltages, so don't kill anything!):
http://maxpain.lackeydom.net/890GPA/Clock & Voltage.JPG

The 1.05 for the CPU VID and NB VID are the CPU Core and CPU-NB voltages, which the core is 1.45v and CPU-NB is 1.275v. The 1.9v is the NB/PCIe/PLL voltage. The 2.74v is the CPU PLL Voltage and then NB Core is what I have the NB voltage at. This board has one kind nice feature, where the voltages have colors for "*Safe Voltages*", "*Be Careful*" and "*WARNING*"  The only ones in "WARNING" are CPU PLL which is .04v into the red and the DDR, which are 1.9v sticks and the board's default is 1.5v, so it thinks I'm really overvolting them, which I'm not. The rest are in orange with the exception of the CPU-NB which is still in the blue. So 1.275 CPU-NB I'm safe at. It's the "CPU PLL" and "NB/PCIe/PLL" that I really have no clue about. I don't know how they affect overclocking or what the max voltages on them should be :\

The one thing though is the CPU-NB voltage will be vastly different between us, since my chip runs a default of 1.05v CPU, so where my BIOS shows +.250, it only ends up being 1.275. Yours will probably start at 1.35v so for you I wouldn't do 1.275v or 1.6v lol Don't go more than 1.5v for that. Also you might not have all the same voltage options, but there  they are for ya!


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 15, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> Yea the spread spectrum I assume is for the South Bridge, like my 890GX has. Seems like you're unlocking the same items I am. My 890GX showed a few more IGX options, which helped me gain quite a few 3DMark 2K1 points for the HWBot IGP competition lol The NB Power Management (that clock gating option) I think is like Cool'n'Quiet for the IGP, but I'm not sure.
> 
> The one BIG thing I was hoping would be shown, which I had unlocked in the modded BIOS (that didn't work) was the SBGPP options, 1GB of UMA option, "MaxMem Speed" option and TLB Erratum option to turn it on/off. I mean yea the TLB option probably wouldn't have helped any, but oh well lol
> 
> ...


this board gives my cpu 1.42v by default and 1.9v for the ram by default ( no idea why) so I stepped it down to 1.36 and 1.85 when ever I try and push the host clock over 230 things start locking up or BSODing tried dropping HT/NB/RM multipliers No effect I assume either the board has hit a wall or the ram is crap I will mess with the timing later and see if I can get it to 3.6 stable I wish I new how to mod my bios to see if I could find any other helpfull options 
also this board seems to have either a phantom sensor or something very hot I got a TMPIN3 that reads 65-68 @ idil and 75-85+c @ load No idea what it is nothing that I touched was that hot and its stable but I would like to be sure if its a phantom or if i might have a problem some day


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 15, 2010)

rjc862003 said:


> this board gives my cpu 1.42v by default and 1.9v for the ram by default ( no idea why) so I stepped it down to 1.36 and 1.85 when ever I try and push the host clock over 230 things start locking up or BSODing tried dropping HT/NB/RM multipliers No effect I assume either the board has hit a wall or the ram is crap I will mess with the timing later and see if I can get it to 3.6 stable I wish I new how to mod my bios to see if I could find any other helpfull options
> also this board seems to have either a phantom sensor or something very hot I got a TMPIN3 that reads 65-68 @ idil and 75-85+c @ load No idea what it is nothing that I touched was that hot and its stable but I would like to be sure if its a phantom or if i might have a problem some day



Well I have a feeling that since this 890GX didn't like the modded BIOS, that yours wouldn't either. But it really is easy to do for Award based BIOSes, since you just use MODBIN. It's DOS program so you have to fire it up in the Command Prompt, but it's really straight forward. The most recent version isn't quite as friendly as the older ones since they change the colors, and you rely on the colors to find out what menu options are hidden :\ With the new colors though there is no change for the hidden items so you have to go through ALL of them and check! :shadedshu I mean it's easy to do, but just takes 10 more mins to make it through every option.

I'd give ya MODBIN, but I don't want to chance you bricking your board. I mean it's a good chance with it being a GB that you won't, since my 890GX picked up that the Checksum was bad and flashed it back to a good one from the backup. My ooold S939 worked fine with my mods, so whatever has been changed between then and now has resulted in the latest MODBIN version I've came across, not working anymore  Which is a bummer! I'm confident that any board S939 and older, it'll work w/o a problem though, as I've tried it on a few of mine and like 5 of my buddy's


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 15, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> Well I have a feeling that since this 890GX didn't like the modded BIOS, that yours wouldn't either. But it really is easy to do for Award based BIOSes, since you just use MODBIN. It's DOS program so you have to fire it up in the Command Prompt, but it's really straight forward. The most recent version isn't quite as friendly as the older ones since they change the colors, and you rely on the colors to find out what menu options are hidden :\ With the new colors though there is no change for the hidden items so you have to go through ALL of them and check! :shadedshu I mean it's easy to do, but just takes 10 more mins to make it through every option.
> 
> I'd give ya MODBIN, but I don't want to chance you bricking your board. I mean it's a good chance with it being a GB that you won't, since my 890GX picked up that the Checksum was bad and flashed it back to a good one from the backup. My ooold S939 worked fine with my mods, so whatever has been changed between then and now has resulted in the latest MODBIN version I've came across, not working anymore  Which is a bummer! I'm confident that any board S939 and older, it'll work w/o a problem though, as I've tried it on a few of mine and like 5 of my buddy's


gimme I have bricked 2 motherboards due to bad bios flash's whats one moar


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 15, 2010)

rjc862003 said:


> gimme I have bricked 2 motherboards due to bad bios flash's whats one moar



haha Alright 

"modbin6" is the latest I've found before they changed all the colors, you can use it and load up the BIOS to see what ones are hidden, fire up the other in the next window to do the actual mods.

The only thing I can figure as to why it didn't work with the 890GX is that the IGP BIOS being included in there so it didn't repack it correctly :\ I've not been having luck extracting the BIOS and being able to mod the extracted menu, then repacking it. Nothing seems to want to open the menu file :\


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 15, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> haha Alright
> 
> "modbin6" is the latest I've found before they changed all the colors, you can use it and load up the BIOS to see what ones are hidden, fire up the other in the next window to do the actual mods.
> 
> The only thing I can figure as to why it didn't work with the 890GX is that the IGP BIOS being included in there so it didn't repack it correctly :\ I've not been having luck extracting the BIOS and being able to mod the extracted menu, then repacking it. Nothing seems to want to open the menu file :\



dude if I was a chick I would kiss you right now
guss what I found  a Options and just any Option  I found the Option to get me to 3.6 Ghz  weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee aww screw it im gonna kiss you anyway


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 15, 2010)

So what is this magic option that nets you 3.6GHz?  Cuz I doubt it is labeled "MOAR MEGALHURTZ FOR UR CPUz!!" heh



Oh also, for anyone  still following this thread, the options I though were ACC were confirmed by a Gigabyte tech (I had to contact Tech Support for something, don't remember) and I tossed in that Q. Alas it is only for shutting down cores :\ He DID say that AMD doesn't condone the inclusion of ACC options in the 890's BIOS (which is why none of them have it, with ASUS having physical dipswitches) *but* they are looking into other methods


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 15, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> So what is this magic option that nets you 3.6GHz?  Cuz I doubt it is labeled "MOAR MEGALHURTZ FOR UR CPUz!!" heh
> 
> 
> 
> Oh also, for anyone  still following this thread, the options I though were ACC were confirmed by a Gigabyte tech (I had to contact Tech Support for something, don't remember) and I tossed in that Q. Alas it is only for shutting down cores :\ He DID say that AMD doesn't condone the inclusion of ACC options in the 890's BIOS (which is why none of them have it, with ASUS having physical dipswitches) *but* they are looking into other methods



dct gang/ungang and extra memory bank Options
already flashed and oced shes running like a swiss clock


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 15, 2010)

rjc862003 said:


> dct gang/ungang and extra memory bank Options
> already flashed and oced shes running like a swiss clock



Sweet!  So might be just an either with either the 890GX or 890 chipset. Did you flash from inside the BIOS or from windows with @BIOS? If you did it from inside, I might have to try that...

With MODBIN you can make it so you don't have to hit CTRL+F1 everytime as well.

I wish mine unlocked extra bank options, but we might have the same ones and mine just are unlocked to begin with.


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 15, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> Sweet!  So might be just an either with either the 890GX or 890 chipset. Did you flash from inside the BIOS or from windows with @BIOS? If you did it from inside, I might have to try that...
> 
> With MODBIN you can make it so you don't have to hit CTRL+F1 everytime as well.
> 
> I wish mine unlocked extra bank options, but we might have the same ones and mine just are unlocked to begin with.


I used the q flash tool in the bios  I am currently running F6 ill wait until GB releases a bios with some relevant fixes /wishes for custom fan speed options


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 15, 2010)

rjc862003 said:


> I used the q flash tool in the bios  I am currently running F6 ill wait until GB releases a bios with some relevant fixes /wishes for custom fan speed options



You know that EasyTune lets you adjust fan speeds, right? While I agree, not having the option in the BIOS does kinda blow, AOD also lets you set the fan %. Wonder if SpeedFan would allow you to set temps and % for a more "set and forget"... AOD does a fair job with it set to Automatic, but that requires you to leave the program running :\ Then again I can't say I've really had a fair usage of AOD since I'm running the already insanely cool running 250u  I mean I'm only pushing 23C full load on a 4yr old stock AMD X2 aluminum HSF heh

Glad the new options let you pull a few more MHz  Makes me wonder if that is why I haven't been able to breach 2.9GHz... What were they all set to, and what did you change them to?


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 15, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> You know that EasyTune lets you adjust fan speeds, right? While I agree, not having the option in the BIOS does kinda blow, AOD also lets you set the fan %. Wonder if SpeedFan would allow you to set temps and % for a more "set and forget"... AOD does a fair job with it set to Automatic, but that requires you to leave the program running :\ Then again I can't say I've really had a fair usage of AOD since I'm running the already insanely cool running 250u  I mean I'm only pushing 23C full load on a 4yr old stock AMD X2 aluminum HSF heh
> 
> Glad the new options let you pull a few more MHz  Makes me wonder if that is why I haven't been able to breach 2.9GHz... What were they all set to, and what did you change them to?



ezturn refuses to run here speed fan causes hard clocks I hate AOD so yea I am SOL
and bah BSODs so now I am down to 3.5Ghz


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 15, 2010)

rjc862003 said:


> ezturn refuses to run here speed fan causes hard clocks I hate AOD so yea I am SOL
> and bah BSODs so now I am down to 3.5Ghz



What did you end up changing though? You probably need more voltage too, since you knocked them down


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 15, 2010)

moar fiddling 
I relaxed the mem to 5-5-5-18 and droped the HT to 1.6Ghz(with oc thats 1950Mhz) bumped the cpu Vcore to 1.42 from 1.36 still no go bsods when I try and run just cause II
so my current settings are

231x1.9Ghz(2050HT)x3.33 mem 760Mhz @ 5 5 5-15 @ 1.86V
3.47ghz (OMFG I 0.7Ghz Im A mad overclocker =;/ ) and 10Mhz On the ram everything is stable enough I think ill give it up


----------



## Formula350 (Apr 15, 2010)

5-5-5-18 isn't relaxed from 5-5-5-16  Now, 6-6-6-16 would be, or 5-6-5-16 even 

I'm confused what you're talking about with 3.74GHz though... Thought you were having problems with BSOD @ 3.6GHz?


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 15, 2010)

I meant to say  3.47 lol


----------

