Dual-core, lost second CPU

Quentin Stephens

unread,

Sep 30, 2006, 2:59:17 PM9/30/06

to

XP Pro SP2, fully patched. Pentium D 805 2x 2.266 GHz, 1 GB RAM,
Geforce 4 4200, Asus P5P800VM motherboard.

I made the mistake of trying IE7 RC1. Shortly after installing it,
I noticed that my second CPU had disappeared in Task Manager. I
checked, and while I can see a second CPU in Device Manager, I can
no longer Set Affinity in Task Manager and a single process will
take up 99% CPU.

Removing IE7 did not restore the second CPU. Nor has reverting to
various restore points. Nor has doing an upgrade install of
Windows XP Pro.

MS's knowledgebase didn't help. I've posted in the IE 7 newsgroup
without sucess.

I've confirmed that I'm running the correct HAL - ACPI
Multiprocessor PC. I'm definitely running XP Pro. There are
definitely two processors listed under Processors in Device
Manager, yet Windows only seems to be using one.

I'm reluctantly looking at yet another full install. Unless you
know the fix.

Robert Moir

unread,

Sep 30, 2006, 4:15:26 PM9/30/06

to

Quentin Stephens wrote:
> XP Pro SP2, fully patched. Pentium D 805 2x 2.266 GHz, 1 GB RAM,
> Geforce 4 4200, Asus P5P800VM motherboard.
>
> I made the mistake of trying IE7 RC1. Shortly after installing it,
> I noticed that my second CPU had disappeared in Task Manager. I
> checked, and while I can see a second CPU in Device Manager, I can
> no longer Set Affinity in Task Manager and a single process will
> take up 99% CPU.

> I'm reluctantly looking at yet another full install. Unless you
> know the fix.

what say your boot.ini file (root of first hard drive partition)?

Quentin Stephens

unread,

Sep 30, 2006, 5:17:57 PM9/30/06

to

"Robert Moir" <robspamtr...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:umeGj0M5...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl:

It didn't say anything special:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I've tried explicity setting two CPUs:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional"/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional 2CPU" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /numproc=2

without success.

Jaymon

unread,

Sep 30, 2006, 10:28:01 PM9/30/06

to

http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3964&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
See if the MS hotfix associated with issue 896256 is for you, it can be
downloaded without calling MS, from the above link..
Cheers..
j;-j

Andrew E.

unread,

Oct 1, 2006, 3:53:01 AM10/1/06

to

Go to intel.com/downloads,install the chipset installation utility for youre
board,also download the processor id utility and run after the 1st....

NoNoBadDog!

unread,

Oct 1, 2006, 4:47:01 AM10/1/06

to

That is why I love my AMD Athlon64 X2...I don't have to have 13 different
pieces of software installed to get the processor to work.

Bobby

"Andrew E." <eckr...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:C9C30ECD-C8B5-48C5...@microsoft.com...

Robert Moir

unread,

Oct 1, 2006, 1:50:27 PM10/1/06

to

NoNoBadDog! wrote:
> That is why I love my AMD Athlon64 X2...I don't have to have 13
> different pieces of software installed to get the processor to work.

And nor do you with Intel processors. There's clearly something abnormal
here, I suspect it'll be very very odd indeed or a "hardware independant"
system problem.

Jaymon

unread,

Oct 1, 2006, 5:36:01 PM10/1/06

to

You could try looking in msconfig, boot.ini tab, advanced options, check the
box /NUMPROC= 2 and reboot to see if it will force dual mode.. If it has been
checked and set to 1, just uncheck it and reboot the system..

Another option might be to manually add /usepmtimer to the boot.ini file, to
fix irregularities for AMD or Intel Dual Core CPU systems, see example below..

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

Check your bios, chipset drivers, etc - against the latest updates too..
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5P800-VM
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5P800-VM
Cheers..
j;-j

Jeff Barnett

unread,

Oct 1, 2006, 8:53:58 PM10/1/06

to

I thought that XP choose the HAL (hardware abstraction layer) during the
initial system install and that is where if makes the one/more than one
CPU distinction. If that is true, XP would have to be reinstalled to
gain use of the second CPU, the HAL cannot be switched dynamically. I'm
not sure that what I said is true. Could one of the group experts please
comment.

-- Jeff Barnett

xxx

unread,

Oct 1, 2006, 10:42:33 PM10/1/06

to

This thread might help you (I hope!).

http://discuss.extremetech.com/forums/1004339342/ShowPost.aspx

Steve

Jeff Barnett

unread,

Oct 2, 2006, 1:46:51 AM10/2/06

to

The thread had little to do with the point I was making. If XP was built
with a single CPU, no HT enabled in the BIOS, then I don't think you
can enable it later.

-- Jeff Barnett

mark-seattle

unread,

Nov 8, 2006, 2:27:02 PM11/8/06

to

I had a similar problem. Was working fine in dual mode and then stopped.
Showed two processors in device manager, but only one CPU window in
taskmanager. BootIni\advanced only showed one processor.

Went to device manager\Computer and it showed a Multiprocessor PC. Updated
the driver, rebooted. Now fine.

As always, Windows is as fragile as an egg.