890 xa-ud3

[Lsdmeasap]

I am not sure, I have never done this myself, but I do know not all CPU's will unlock. Have you used the CPU you are trying now on any other boards and successfully unlocked it?

Ya if you are not using IDE you can disable it. If you are using it and it's freezing you may have a dying disk connected to it that is causing the freeze up.

[artdrivers]

Did you enable the CPU Unlock in Advanced Bios Features? Then Save Y and Exit. Then try setting CPU core Control to Manual. CPU core 2 and 3 to enabled. Save Y and exit.

Advanced BIOS Features
AMD C1E Support [Disabled]
Virtualization [Disabled]
AMD K8 Cool&Quiet control [Auto]
CPU Unlock (Note) [Enabled]
CPU core Control [Manual]
x CPU core 2 (Note) Enabled
x CPU core 3 (Note) Enabled
} Hard Disk Boot Priority [Press Enter]
First Boot Device [Floppy]
Second Boot Device [Hard Disk]
Third Boot Device [CDROM]
Password Check [Setup]
HDD S.M.A.R.T. Capability [Disabled]
Away Mode [Disabled]
Full Screen LOGO Show [Enabled]
Backup BIOS Image to HDD [Disabled]
Init Display First [PCI Slot]

Keep in mind not all of them will unlock successfully.

[iamjohngalt]

Thanks for your help guys but,
My 890xa-ud3 does not work that way.
I did exactly as you said, artdrivers, and I only see core 0 and core 1, so I have no chance to enable any other core. They don't even appear.

Lsdmeasap, I also tried every possible way in BIOS to disable IDE and apparently I need native IDE mode with my new Samsung SpinPoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive using XP SP3 on the first primary partition.

The machine will not boot up without manual intervention (even using Optimized Defauts.) It stops at "Memory Information: DDR3 1333 Unganged mode" and will not proceed unless I press a key. Then "Detecting IDE drives" appears and it proceeds fine (or goes into setup if I press "del". Then for some reason the setup BIOS does not recognize the first keypress; it doesn't react until the 2nd keypress.)

Gigabyte support is completely pathetic. No matter how I explain the problem they have no answer except what I already tried. They apparently don't read what I have explained. They will not acknowledge that only core 0 and core1 are visible. They even advised me to set cores on the MB Intelligent tweaker. They don't even know their own product. Not surprising since the documentation does not include anything about this. I gave them my phone number and they will not call either. Just explain how it works or admit there is a problem and STOP WASTING MY TIME.

A company that was competent would have screenshots online showing how to do it. It would take maybe 30 minutes to do that. Then support could refer to it and send users to see it. But they don't have the most rudimentary documentation available, and they don't know how the mobo works.

PATHETIC!
I chose this motherboard because of recent QA problems voiced by buyers on the ASUS motherboards at newegg. Now I know that GIGABYTE is no better in QA and much worse than my experience in support.
So the mobo goes back to newegg along with the combo memory and GIGA gets a scathing review that will hopefully save some other honest person the grief and waste of time I have experienced. Hopefully some Gigabutts will eventually lose their jobs for providing such pathetic support.
I have been building computers for more than 25 years and this is the worst support I have seen.
Thanks again for trying guys, but this is bad hardware/firmware.

[iamjohngalt]

Followup to the torture from Gigabyte...
Gigabyte has now bailed and claims this board is not compatible with Phenom II 555BE cpu and not compatible with my Crucial memory.
Of course, they suggest that I get rid of the CPU and memory.
Right!
First experience with Gigabyte will be my last.
This mobo goes back to newegg because it is incompatible with commonly used cpu and memory.
Hope ASUS can do better.

[Lsdmeasap]

Sorry to hear things went so bad here!

Wish I could have been more help, but as I said artdrivers would be the best person to help you.

As for your last reply, crazy!

Not sure what they are thinking there, this board supports all three 955 CPU's.
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Socket AM3 - AMD 790X - GA-890XA-UD3 (rev. 2.0)

And the memory is probably fine as well.

It may just be your CPU isn't one that will unlock, not sure as I mentioned I've never personally done that. Did you try enabling ACC/set Hybrid, then reboot and look for the other cores?

I think you may need to before they would appear if they were going to, just one last shot to try and help.

[iamjohngalt]

Lsdmeasap,
The rev 1 of the board lists the 555 as supported and the AMD website only shows one product Phenom 555 and it is the Black Edition. I don't see any 555 except the black edition anywhere in a web search (but I didn't check all 644000 results either.)
The memory is not on the Giga supported list and I only ordered it because it was in a combo at newegg. But apparently the support guys at Giga think it is causing the bootup problem. However, when I received the mobo it came with the F3 BIOS, and using that BIOS the system booted up fine (but had no ability to unlock the cores so I updated the BIOS to F6A.) That tells me that there is some problem in the current BIOS that causes the bootup problem with this memory.
The board seems well built and I wish they had found the answer. I could live with the CPU not unlocking... I'd just get another one if I wasn't satisfied with performance, but the bootup/memory problem and weak support just gives me a bad feeling about using this board and about Gigabyte in general. Unfortunately if I change the memory, I lose the combo discount on the memory and the mobo, and the effective price of the mobo increases by $30 (and I still have to wait for another $15 rebate from Giga, which may be questionable if that is as competently done as the Giga support.)
So this mobo loses its attraction for me.
Thanks for the help.

[Lsdmeasap]

I just meant all three 555's because there is two with the same stepping with two different TDP's, and a third with a different stepping. All show as compatible in the above linked CPU compatibility list.

The memory may be giving you issues I'm not sure on that, you could check if it's listed as compatible with this board at Crucial.

You didn't have ACC on F3? It was originally called that on the older BIOSes and then only renamed to Unlock Cores on the newer ones. You could go back and check F3, if you do be sure to hit Ctrl + F1 on the MAIN page before going into MIT just in case it is missing. Actually I'll check in the BIOS myself here shortly and update this post accordingly that way you don't flash for no reason.

*Edit* I checked, it's not there so no need to go back. F4 has it though, have you tried it?