Dual Core issue

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ben
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Ben

I have an amd athlon 64 x2 dual core processor running on Windows xp with sp 3.
When I look at the task manager performance tab it only shows one processor.
I've checked the settings to see if the "show one graph per cpu" option is on
and thats not even an option. This has only changed since I installed sp3.
All of my programs seem to be running slower, and I can't even run two
programs at the same time anymore. Any ideas on what I need to do to fix
this?
 
I have an amd athlon 64 x2 dual core processor running on
Windows xp with sp 3. When I look at the task manager
performance tab it only shows one processor. I've checked
the settings to see if the "show one graph per cpu" option
is on and thats not even an option. This has only changed
since I installed sp3. All of my programs seem to be
running slower, and I can't even run two programs at the
same time anymore. Any ideas on what I need to do to fix
this?
Click to expand...


Wouldn't you need the 64bit version of it to run with
dual-core?

I'm running also a AMD dual-core but with another OS, and I
have both versions installed, the 32bit as well as the
64bit.

But if this happens with the 64bit I'm afraid I can't offer
you any solution except to wait and hope and wish for
updated fix or uninstall SP 3...



Dragomir Kollaric[/QUOTE]
 
Does it show both cores in device manager/processors? I have a dual core
AMD WinXpMedia SP3, both show in task manager here.
 
Under Processors on device manager it shows AMD Athlon(tm) 64 x2 dual core
processor 3800+
Click to expand...

I use the very same CPU in Gnu/Linux and yes I've got
several tools telling me that both cores are up and running.

So will windows XP (the 32bit version) run within a 64bit
motherboard and dual-core?

<cut old stuff>



Dragomir Kollaric[/QUOTE]
 
Ben...my device manager is showing that same entry twice. One for each
core. I am sure you only have one enabled, thus only one graph in TM. You
might look thru your bios and see if there is an entry to change that.


Ben said:
Under Processors on device manager it shows AMD Athlon(tm) 64 x2 dual core
processor 3800+
Click to expand...
 
Sadly my device manager is only showing that entry once! How do I fix this? I
looked through my bios and there is no entry to change this. :(
I have no idea what I'm doing anymore. please help
 
Probably but will not take advantage of 64bit.
Dragomir Kollaric said:
I use the very same CPU in Gnu/Linux and yes I've got
several tools telling me that both cores are up and running.

So will windows XP (the 32bit version) run within a 64bit
motherboard and dual-core?


<cut old stuff>



Dragomir Kollaric
Click to expand...
 
Ben said:
I'm still looking for an answer on this... please someone help!
Click to expand...

Go to Device Manager and check the "Computer" entry. Under the (+)
sign, the HAL or Hardware Abstraction Layer will be listed. Mine
says "ACPI Multiprocessor PC". If yours says something different,
that might be part of the problem.

To change from ACPI Uniprocessor to ACPI Multiprocessor, you can
use the Driver Update option. This article gives the basic idea, but it
is for Win2K. WinXP should work the same way.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/234558/en-us

Note that some HAL changes are "difficult" and some are "easy". Changing
between ACPI Uniprocessor and ACPI Multiprocessor is "easy". If the
computer entry says "Standard PC", that is harder to escape from.

For a cross-check, that the hardware isn't doing this, you can
download a Linux distro like Knoppix, and burn a CD using the
ISO9660 you download. When booted, two penguin icons will appear
early in the boot sequence, indicating that a dual core was detected.
Other messages in the boot sequence (recorded in the dmesg for
later enjoyment), will also make mention of setting up the
multiple cores. That is what I mainly use the Linux LiveCD like
Knoppix for (knopper.net), is booting and testing hardware. If
an alternate OS also screws up, that is when you suspect a hardware
issue of some sort.

Paul
 
Ben said:
Here are two pictures of the problem I'm having.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff263/Guidottib/taskmanager.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff263/Guidottib/devicemanager.jpg
Please help me to figure out why both cores aren't working or showing.
Thanks
Click to expand...

Is it possible the installation of SP3, caused the AMD CPU
driver to be uninstalled ?

First check your Add/Remove, and see what AMD software you've already installed.

Next, there are two items you can play with here. "AMD Processor Driver Version 1.3.2.0053"
is second from the bottom. And roughly in the middle of the page, is
"AMD Power Monitor Version 1.2.3" for Windows. The files would be
AMD_Processor_Driver_1320053.zip and AMD_Power_Monitor_123.zip.
Some motherboard makers have their own version of the Power Monitor,
with a fancy looking skin for it. The driver is the one you
want the most - the other one is just for diagnostic reasons.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html

This thread, getting rather long now, was one that helped clarify
what to do when setting up a new AMD processor. Now that SP3
is out, things like Update4 should have been rolled into the
OS without needing a separate download. But as far as I know
(and based on someone's experience a couple days ago), the
CPU driver is still required to get full performance from the
computer.

(It might be best, to start at the last page of the thread, to
find more SP3 experiences.)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416

Other than that, I don't know anything about how that stuff is wired
underneath. The Device Manager at least, seems to have been convinced
to use the Multiprocessor HAL. You could also check the tasks and
see if the ability to "Set Affinity" in Task Manager is there.
You can force a user task to stay on one core or the other, and
that ability would only exist, if the OS thought it had two cores
to be scheduled.

If that all looks fine, then you'd have to wonder how the
plugin that provides CPU charts works, and what its dependencies
are. And I have no idea whether code or scripts are used to do
that.

Paul
 
Ben said:
Well that was very helpful in that I now know that support is not enabled in
my os and/or bios. Now how in the holy heck do i fix that?!
Here's a pic of the message I got from the AMD power Monitor when I tried to
start it.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff263/Guidottib/AMDPowerMonitor.jpg
Click to expand...

Cool :-)

So what is your motherboard (make and model) ?
Or alternately, if Dell/HP/Acer/Gateway, what is the make and model number
of the computer ?

A retail motherboard is going to be easiest to work with,
because I can download the manual. There are plenty of
motherboards that have jack-squat for documentation, and
if it's one of those, you're going to have to figure it
out.

Looking in an A8N-SLI motherboard manual here, one thing
I see is "ACPI APIC support". When it comes to interrupts,
there are two ways to handle them. PIC is programmable
interrupt controller. APIC is Advanced PIC. One of the
advancements, is interrupt steering, so interrupts can be
steered to either CPU on a multi-socket motherboard.

Even in a dual core or quad core processor, there is going to
be a need to do something similar. Steer interrupts, as
determined by what the OS wants to do with them. There
is a picture here, of a system where the I/O APIC (perhaps
part of the chipset) and the local APIC (part of the CPU),
work together to steer an interrupt to the right core.

http://flickr.com/photos/bike/189575110/

ACPI is defined here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acpi

The BIOS passes "tables" of information to the OS. If ACPI
is enabled in the BIOS, then those tables can be passed. Details
about all sorts of interfaces (even ones that control overclocking),
can be passed in those tables. The OS sometimes has drivers
installed, for various ACPI items it finds.

Since your Device Manager "Computer" entry says "ACPI", we know that
ACPI is working. We don't know at the moment, whether the ACPI
table that describes APIC is working. But if you checked the
numbering of the IRQs, you might get a hint. (I think if APIC
is anabled, IRQs go higher than the older 0-15 numbers. My
current computer goes from 0-23 with APIC enabled.)

Another thing I might look for, is MPS. But that isn't present
in the A8N-SLI manual, so I presume it is covered by something
else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiProcessor_Specification

The Wikipedia article gives this link. And MPS turns out to be
none other than APIC and interrupt steering. The picture on
that Flickr link above, is actually extracted from page 17 here.

http://download.intel.com/design/pentium/datashts/24201606.pdf

So, if you tell me the motherboard, and there is a manual
for it, I can have a look and see if there is something
else to flip in terms of bits.

PDF page 159 (Section 5.7) here, has a description of setting up
Cool N' Quiet for AMD. Now it mentions a setting for "ACPI 2.0"
support and setting it to enabled. (And yet, the BIOS section
of the manual, doesn't show it.) So that might be another one
to check. I think ACPI is now up to version 3, but I don't think
that matters :-)

ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Deluxe/e1889_a8n_sli_deluxe.zip

Paul
 
Ben said:
And the answer is.... AMD socket 939 KN8
Thanks so much for all the help
Click to expand...

OK, I downloaded this -

http://www.uabit.com/downloads/manual/english/kn8_series.zip

(Figured it might something along these lines - I guess Abit
made a few different versions of Nforce4 motherboard.)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-detailsInactive.asp?EdpNo=1911214

The board does have an "MPS version" option, which is either
set to 1.1 or 1.4. If it was set to 1.1, then using 1.4
might make sense.

http://www.techarp.com/showFreeBOG.aspx?lang=0&bogno=75

"Dan Isaacs reported that when you set the MPS version
to 1.4 in the ABIT BP6, Windows 2000 will not use the
second processor. So, if you encounter this problem,
set the MPS Version Control For OS to 1.1."

I doubt the problem is going to be something as easy as
flipping that setting, but it's worth a try.

Paul
 
The board does have an "MPS version" option, which is either
set to 1.1 or 1.4. If it was set to 1.1, then using 1.4
might make sense.

http://www.techarp.com/showFreeBOG.aspx?lang=0&bogno=75

"Dan Isaacs reported that when you set the MPS version
to 1.4 in the ABIT BP6, Windows 2000 will not use the
second processor. So, if you encounter this problem,
set the MPS Version Control For OS to 1.1."

I doubt the problem is going to be something as easy as
flipping that setting, but it's worth a try.

Paul
Click to expand...

I've been fighing the same problem for several months, and even the mobo
manufacturer can't solve it....but I was able to make my iGoLogic i3899 mobo
see a dual core Intel chip by tweaking this MPS BIOS setting to 1.1. :-)

There's more going on here though, couldn't make it work on a different
machine. This tweak appears to be dependent upon Win installing something
specific to a certain processor. I have drive images for systems that have
different Intel CPU types in the same mobo and the setting doesn't work on
one of those.

Anyway, thanks!

-John O
 
Forgot to say... it was set to 1.4 so I changed it to 1.1
I wonder if this is going to be a problem later. Oh well its working right
now.
 
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