Athlon X2 4200+ only using 1 core

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Namrepus221

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May 23, 2008
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I use a ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. I upgraded to a dual core some months ago with a AMD Athlon x2 4200+ OEM

I checked some of my settings recently... and I'm only using one core of the processor.

CPU-Z shows I have an AMD Athlon X2 4200+, but it only shows a single core and thread for the processor.

Windows Task Manager only shows one graph instead of 2. But Windows Device Manager shows I have 2 Processors.

Here's a screenshot of my Task Manager: http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/1531/amddualcoreproblemmk6.jpg

I've been told on AMD"s forums that I have to reinstall/repair windows...but I'm afraid that if I do I'll lose all my stuff

Before anyone suggests I use AMD's Dual Core Optimizer, well I have tried. It wont' open , it'll install. Just won't run or open at all.

Any help would be greatly apperciated. And if anyone needs extra information. I will gladly provide it.
 
when is the last time you updated Windows and what version do you have?

also when is the last time you updated your motherboard's BIOS?
 
Let's see

I do update windows on a somewhat regular basis. But I really can't find what "revision" i'm running, but all my "system" thing will tell me is i'm running Windows XP Professional SP2

BIOS according to ASUSUpdate is as follows

ASUS A8N-SLI DELUXE ACPI BIOS Revision 1805

And I ran the last update to it about last month when I first discovered that I was only running one core
 
sounds like you need the Windows kernel updated for it to recognize the multi core CPU....i have never had to do this for it to recognize a change though....odd...

have you thought about updating to SP3? That might make it happen for you without having to uninstall/reinstall windows
 
I'd love to update to SP3...but I'm afraid of getting that neverending BSOD error I've heard alot about.
 
i do believe that only affected users who owned OEM PC's, specifically HP's which had the intel.sys file loaded during the drive image process from the factory, but they were running AMD CPU's, so it caused a problem....might want to wait on other opinions....there is probably a way to update the kernel to recognize multi CPU's or cores without taking the SP3 plunge just yet...kind of late right now, give this thread a day or so
 
nobody_here said:
i do believe that only affected users who owned OEM PC's, specifically HP's which had the intel.sys file loaded during the drive image process from the factory, but they were running AMD CPU's, so it caused a problem....might want to wait on other opinions....there is probably a way to update the kernel to recognize multi CPU's or cores without taking the SP3 plunge just yet...kind of late right now, give this thread a day or so
Click to expand...

Hmm... the Processor I bought from Newegg was an OEM processor... Think this would be the problem?
 
Namrepus221 said:
Hmm... the Processor I bought from Newegg was an OEM processor... Think this would be the problem?
Click to expand...

no, it's likely the OS, i think you are on the right track, i am pretty sure a clean Windows install would fix it, but there may be a less painful way, keep looking
 
In Msconfig under the boot tab click advanced options, in this menu you should see a check box for "detect hal", check it than click ok and reboot. This worked for me when my system lost a core after updating to vista sp1.
 
NatakuARN said:
In Msconfig under the boot tab click advanced options, in this menu you should see a check box for "detect hal", check it than click ok and reboot. This worked for me when my system lost a core after updating to vista sp1.
Click to expand...

:D right on!
 
NatakuARN said:
In Msconfig under the boot tab click advanced options, in this menu you should see a check box for "detect hal", check it than click ok and reboot. This worked for me when my system lost a core after updating to vista sp1.
Click to expand...

I just checked MSConfig. There is no check box listed that states "detect hal" located where you say it is.

This is all that is shown in the advanced tab.

[ ] /MAXMEM
[ ] /NUMPROC
[ ] /PCILOCK
[ ] /DEBUG
___[ ] /DEBUGPORT
___[ ] /BAUDRATE
___[ ] /CHANNEL
 
Namrepus221 said:
I just checked MSConfig. There is no check box listed that states "detect hal" located where you say it is.

This is all that is shown in the advanced tab.

[ ] /MAXMEM
[ ] /NUMPROC
[ ] /PCILOCK
[ ] /DEBUG
___[ ] /DEBUGPORT
___[ ] /BAUDRATE
___[ ] /CHANNEL
Click to expand...

Your right, should have checked my XP machine first. Maybe it can be done some other way?
 
NatakuARN said:
That is a good suggestion, if the hal type is properly detected by windows you should be able to select 1 graph per cpu in the task manager.
Click to expand...

Has far as I know from what I've been able to read, the HAL type is incorrect.

It shows "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC," as my computer, won't let me change it to anything else or update it.

But according to microsoft's site

On Windows XP and later versions, the ACPI Uniprocessor HAL and the MPS Uniprocessor HAL recognize the existence of more than one processor and report the MP ID. Plug and Play detects that the computer devnode's hardware ID list has changed and moves the devnode back through the "found new hardware" detection process. Therefore, when you add a second processor, the MP files (HAL and kernels) are automatically installed, and you do not have to manually update the driver in Device Manager.
Click to expand...
 
Namrepus221 said:
Has far as I know from what I've been able to read, the HAL type is incorrect.

It shows "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC," as my computer, won't let me change it to anything else or update it.

But according to microsoft's site
Click to expand...

So the option to update is greyed out or not present? I think the only other options would be a clean install or a repair install.
 
NatakuARN said:
So the option to update is greyed out or not present? I think the only other options would be a clean install or a repair install.
Click to expand...

Updating the driver does nothing.

It only shows "Standard PC" and "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC" nothing else.
 
I GOT IT!

I managed to find a program called "HALu" which automatically updates the HAL to the proper set up. I'm not running Dual Cores like I should!
 
Any case, it's a strange problem because generally winxp detects in windows task manager if you have habilited one or two cores ( many mobos has that problem and when you are installing windows you have to press f6 to select the correct hal for you rig), but in hardware properties two cores and windows task one core :S, it's weird...
 
Tell me about it. It's really strange. Every other person who I've asked about this said that Windows automatically knew about the dual core without having any sort of major problem like this. Not even AMD could tell me that this might've been the problem, let alone acknowledging it as a possibility.

I'm glad I changed out my fan now cause of how screwed up I made my PC before.

Seriously folks I left the "protective" clear plastic on the bottom of my old fan and applied the grease to it... and I'm acctually suprised I didn't ruin the chip or the heatsink with that little mistake... Please feel free to laugh at me.
 
Namrepus221 said:
Tell me about it. It's really strange. Every other person who I've asked about this said that Windows automatically knew about the dual core without having any sort of major problem like this. Not even AMD could tell me that this might've been the problem, let alone acknowledging it as a possibility.

I'm glad I changed out my fan now cause of how screwed up I made my PC before.

Seriously folks I left the "protective" clear plastic on the bottom of my old fan and applied the grease to it... and I'm acctually suprised I didn't ruin the chip or the heatsink with that little mistake... Please feel free to laugh at me.
Click to expand...

pics?
 
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