Unlocking the 4th core

I have a AMD Phenom II X2 550 processor
GA-M68MT-STP motherboard. It has version F1 and i did not updated the motherboard
There is an option in my Bio's called Unlock core's that when i enable it it unlock's the 4 cores, but my pc freezes when i watch a video on youtube or leave my computer on for 4-5 mins and i have to revert back to 2 cores to fix the freezing.

Originally Posted by TheUnknown

There is an option in my Bio's that when i enable it it unlock's the 4 cores, but my pc freezes when i watch a video on youtube or leave my computer on for 4-5 mins and i have to revert back to 2 cores to fix the freezing.

I'm just speculating here but that could be why the CPU was not sold as a 4-core CPU. If one of the cores are unstable they will disable that core and sell the CPU with less cores enabled. If you could control which cores are enabled, you might could get by with three cores.

Thank's for the reply, i will try to see if my motherboard can enable only 3 cores
edit: My motherboard can enable or disabled the core's and now i have 0 core 1 core 2 core and i am going to see if my computer crashes. Look's like it's working

Originally Posted by cliffordcooley

I'm just speculating here but that could be why the CPU was not sold as a 4-core CPU.

you are exactly correct as a little google search will confirm. Why mobo manufacturers ever came out with this misleading marketing ploy defies logic. anyhoo, kudos for a great post.....

Do i need a better Power supply for more cores?

No, but as was said. It probably will not work anyhow.

I reverted back to 2 cores but, my computer still crashes. and i hear a buzzing noise, that's strange.

Buzzing noise is not good. My first suspect would be a fan chafing. But it could also be a HDD or even the PSU. You have to close in on the noise and determine the source.

Originally Posted by whs

Buzzing noise is not good. My first suspect would be a fan chafing. But it could also be a HDD or even the PSU. You have to close in on the noise and determine the source.

my computer frozed and i heard the PSU was hot and being loud, i think it's that but i don't know.

The 4th core is usually locked on AMD chips because the components were found to be defective. The same practice is done on some mid-range to low-end graphics cards. They do stability testing (burn-in) to ensure that it will work with 3 cores for all possible computational scenarios (or at least they should per QA) and this is very well known to be the case with 3-core AMD chips. As for the weird noises and stuff, this has to be a moving component. It could be a fan or the HDD.

Determine the source of the noise by keeping the case open and literally putting your ear to the case and identifying what component is making the noise. If it is the CPU fan or the HDD, you need to immediately turn off the computer. If it is the HDD, you need to immediately clone the drive or back up your stuff unless you deem it expendable. It is going in this case. If it is the CPU fan you my have some clog or if it is an old stock fan it may be time to replace the fan and heatsink. By unlocking the 4th core you could have also destabilized the temperature controls on the processor (unlikely, but possible), making the CPU fan spin up to maximum capacity in order to compensate. You can check this with SpeedFan or AIDA64 sensor modules. The BIOS should also have these readouts on most systems under the PC Health category.