For arguments sake, where is a purchaser of a stock-low-end pc supposed to obtain a legal copy of the "full version" of Win XP-H? I already "purchased" a license when I bought the computer, so... it shouldn't have to cost me anything.

I am about to install an OEM full copy of XP home on a machine. It cost me a wee bit over £50 here, but I had to buy a piece of hardware to get it. I bought the cheapest bit of hardware they had, which was a £3 mouse, which I will use at sometime for someone else.

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Really don't want to, and shouldn't have to, purchase an "additional" license for Win XP-H.

For arguments sake, where is a purchaser of a stock-low-end pc supposed to obtain a legal copy of the "full version" of Win XP-H? I already "purchased" a license when I bought the computer, so... it shouldn't have to cost me anything.

I am about to install an OEM full copy of XP home on a machine. It cost me a wee bit over £50 here, but I had to buy a piece of hardware to get it. I bought the cheapest bit of hardware they had, which was a £3 mouse, which I will use at sometime for someone else.

Ok, that is entirely up to you.

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For what its worth: Some time today, at this point mainly thanx to my laptop AMD Athlon-M 2500+, I will surpass 20,000 Rosetta credits.

Accumulated more credit than % of all Rosetta@Home users: 93.54%.

Was hoping the X2 could get me in the top 5% of Rosetta.

I really like Rosetta, and had hoped extra crunching ability would in some small way help Dr. Baker & team.

It says "2".

Hmm, does sound strange indeed.

If you do Start Menu->Run... and type in "cmd" (without quotes) and "set NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS", (again without the quotes) what do you get? It should say "2".

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Mats

So Windows definitely thinks you have two processors. I doubt very much you'd get that result if you didn't have an operating system that actually can run two processors at the same time, so upgrading your OS will not help [I think].

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Mats

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Appreciate your thoughts on how to possibly solve the "problem", but in this case I think the cure is worse than the symptoms!

My computer was $199, RAM upgrade $100, Arctic Cooler fan upgrade $25, and Athlon X2 upgrade $150. Total ~ $475.

50 GBP is about $95.

Why should I have to pay 20% of the total cost of my entire upgraded system to purchase an ADDITIONAL license for software I had already purchased?

EDIT --> Or ~ 50% of the cost of my original system ($199). <-- End Edit

Something is very wrong if this is what I need to do to get the X2 to function properly.

I'd rather reinstall my Sempron.

Ok, that is entirely up to you.

BIOS, Device Manager, and Task Manager also all confirm dual cores.

It says "2".

Hmm, does sound strange indeed.

If you do Start Menu->Run... and type in "cmd" (without quotes) and "set NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS", (again without the quotes) what do you get? It should say "2".

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Mats

So Windows definitely thinks you have two processors. I doubt very much you'd get that result if you didn't have an operating system that actually can run two processors at the same time, so upgrading your OS will not help [I think].

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Mats

have you tried reducing the power consuption by removing components or tried a more powerful PSU?

Can you underclock the system in the BIOS? That will reduce the electrical load from the CPU and might let both cores fire up.

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have you tried reducing the power consuption by removing components or tried a more powerful PSU?

Can you underclock the system in the BIOS? That will reduce the electrical load from the CPU and might let both cores fire up.

There is no way to "not run" one of the cores. If the PSU isn't up for the job, it would cause incorrect operations (usually resulting in blue-screen or hang of the system, but sometimes just in incorrect results from certain calculations or such - either way not the scenario that Bad Penguin is seeing), not one core not running.

The only way you could make one core "not run" is to execute some code on it that stops it, such as "CLI; HLT" (which says "Disable interrupts; wait for interrupt" - and thus will wait forever). I very much doubt that Windows contains this code other than in the bit that stops the machine after a blue-screen or power-down (the lattter only on machines that don't electronically power down, so pre-ATX power supplies, when it says "It is now safe to power down the machine" - and even this is most likely not a "CLI; HLT" operation, as if I remember right, a three-finger salute will restart the machine at this point).

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Mats

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Hi Penguin,

I hope your are not yet tired of trying things, but there is a program called CoreTemp that measures the core temperatures on dual core CPUs. You can find it here.

If you install it you can see the temperatures of both cores. Maybe that tells you more: If one core is significantly warmer than the other that may be because one is working and the other is not.

Regards,

Christoph

At idle, one core typically runs warmer than the other by 3 or 4 degrees C.

At idle, one core typically runs warmer than the other by 3 or 4 degrees C.

P.S.


You do not need to buy a new Win-XP home since it all should be there if ti is SP2 version (which is what you need for dual cores to work)

If you are worried, get hold of the new Vista release and test that :-)
or
Get hold of a copy (borrow ;-)) WindowsXP Home from someboady and use you OEM Product ID to install.

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Team mauisun.org

Fluffy, I have seen this before with HP stuff and upgrades. I know what you are saying about SP2. But the cure was to delete the partition and install a full version with SP2.

Edit: Penguin, maybe you should send for a replacement CPU and see if there is something wrong with the one you have.

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Yes, try to get "somehow" a normal Win XP CD and delete all partitions during install and create new ones. You have a licence you don't need to buy Win XP again all you need is a "normal" WinXP CD. If you'd live in ol' europe I'd send you one.

I googled around and found that these restore partitions are often little more than a disc image of the original factory configuration. A single-core system would ship with a single-core configuration, and a dual-core system would ship with a dual-core configuration. The suggested solution to the upgrader is just what Whl suggests -- obtain a real version of Win XP.

Another suggestion is to try a Linux live CD, such as knoppix. ("live CD" means it can boot off of the CD without installing anything.) You can buy a knoppix CD, or you can download knoppix and burn the CD yourself. You can also buy/burn live CDs for some other versions of Linux.

I googled around and found that these restore partitions are often little more than a disc image of the original factory configuration. A single-core system would ship with a single-core configuration, and a dual-core system would ship with a dual-core configuration.
...

But that doesn't matter here since it's picking it up a ACPI Multiprocessor AND seeing it as two CPU's under Processors in device manager.
It's seeing it correct and using the correct HAL.

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Team mauisun.org

Have you run prime95 x2 yet? You are sorted on running 2 instances? If so run the 8kb. or small FFT and that will stress both cores of cpu.
Your in a process of elimination.
Motherboard supports dual core.
O.S. suports dual core.
Memory test.(memtest)
Cpu test.(prime95)
PSU? (digital multimeter)
Hang in there it's worth it :}

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As a "stock-low-end" computer, there is really nothing to remove. The only differences away from stock is three extra sticks (@512mb) of memory, replacing the stock cpu fan with Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro, and swap-out of cpu.

BIOS is also extremely limited. No over/under clocking abilities.

have you tried reducing the power consuption by removing components or tried a more powerful PSU?

Can you underclock the system in the BIOS? That will reduce the electrical load from the CPU and might let both cores fire up.

Good idea, and will try when I return home ~ 9:00 pm eastern.

The AMD utility software "Dashboard" only shows temp for cpu as a whole, but it is 40C, which is much lower than what my hot-running Sempron was doing when Boinc'ing 100% load, 24/7.

So, I doubt this, but can't rule it out until I try your suggestion later tonight.

I will post results.

Hi Penguin,

I hope your are not yet tired of trying things, but there is a program called CoreTemp that measures the core temperatures on dual core CPUs. You can find it here.

If you install it you can see the temperatures of both cores. Maybe that tells you more: If one core is significantly warmer than the other that may be because one is working and the other is not.

Regards,

Christoph

I hate to say it, but maybe so. Today is the last day with NewEgg that I can do the money-back thing.

If they're goona charge me a restocking fee, I'll probably just get my money back. If they waive all fees, I'll consider a replacement cpu.

Edit: Penguin, maybe you should send for a replacement CPU and see if there is something wrong with the one you have.