AMD 64 X2 on Biostar K8M800MA-M2 w/WinXP Pro

Hi all,

I've posted this in 2 forums, so I apologize to those who read both. I'm not completely sure whether this is a H/W or S/W problem. I have a couple of things going on that I'm not quite sure about and I hope someone can help.

I bought a Biostar K8M800MA-M2 MB using AMD 64 X2 4600 w/PC6400 (800 MHz?) DDR2 DRAM and WinXP Pro w/SP3 (32-bit). I downloaded a couple of utilities to check on performance, one from AMD and 1 called CPUZ/CPUID.

I've noticed 2 things. 1st, when I check on the CPU w/the AMD utility, I only see "Processor 0" and "System" in the left column (Nothing about a 2nd processor or core...same for CPUZ). When I checked the help for the AMD utility, it says that for an X2, there should be data for each individual core.

When I bring up Task Manager, under Performance: Views/CPU History/ the "One Graph per Processor" option (only one) is sometimes grayed out, sometimes not. Also, the graph shows only 1 CPU. In addition, going to Hardware Device/Processors in System (from Control Panel) there are 2 processors listed each having a driver associated with it. Logic tells me this makes sense with a dual-core device, but then maybe this indicates a problem.

I have the latest AMD drivers installed and maybe it's working but the CPUs are so unbalanced that the 2nd CPU doesn't warrant any information (as in "less than 1% RDA"

It would seem that at the BIOS and driver levels, things are as they should be. At the OS level, however.....What I'm not sure of is how much of the OS is used by utilities like CPUZ/CPUID and the AMD CPU program, or do they get into the "real nitty gritty" (by pass most of the OS).

Other than this, the board seems rock solid. Do I really have a dual core running? If so, how can I confirm? If not, did I miss something in the BIOS.

2nd, and this may be more of a hardware issue (and maybe has something to do with my dual core problem) I set up the DDR2 to run at 800MHz. When the BIOS boots it shows that I made that setting. However, both CPUZ and the AMD utility show memory bus speed at 400MHz. Again, did I miss something?

Thanks in advance for any help or pointers someone can provide.

Cheers....Steph

I remember when i bought my first x2, the mobo wouldnt read the second core period regardless of the drivers/bios settings... try flashing it and see if that helps.

bob_man_uk,

Thanks for the suggestion. Are you saying that maybe the BIOS didn't take completely in the flashrom? I looked at Biostar's website and, based on dates, I have the latest BIOS loaded. Was your situation the same? Maybe this also might address my memory speed problem as well.

I'm concerned about reflashing unnecessarily (if the s/w will even allow me to do so). You know Murphy's Corollary: If you fix something long enough, you eventually break it anyway I guess it's worth a try.

One other note...I don't know whether it matters...maybe... when I ramped up the new board, I was able to take my existing WinXP Pro install HD (from my XP 2400+/ECS K7VTA3) and plug it into the new mobo. It came up and running w/out any problems and went thru all the driver updates fairly well. It just doesn't see the 2nd processor. Any thoughts on whether this is a need to do a WinXP "repair"?

I appreciate your time and thoughts.

Cheers...Steph

bob_man_uk,

Well, I did as suggested. I "updated" the BIOS, but that produced no change. I also attempted to re-install WinXP SP3 and, while it did do some updating (didn't take very long), that didn't help either.

I read in another forum that setting ACPI to multiprocessor would help. Unfortunately, in my BIOS, there is no such option. I also looked at some other postings and noticed that in my Task Manager under Performance, View/CPU History there is only one item listed "One Graph per CPU" (and it goes between dark and grayed out, depending on something in the boot). I saw that one other option is "One graph for all CPUs" (or something like that) but I don't see that one. In addition, I went back and ran CPUZ/CPUID again and it produced a listing that showed Processor #1 dimmed out in a drop down box and Cores = 1.

I'm beginning to tear out my hair on this (at least, that hair which isn't falling out by itself I must be missing some "D'uh!" thing. I'm starting to think that maybe the processor is bad, but I have to go back to Hardware/Device Manager/Processors and it shows 2 processors listed (both AMD 64 X2 4600).

If anyone has any ideas here, I would certainly welcome them about now....

Thanks and cheers.....Steph

Are you overclocking? I've heard that some dual and triple core processors are just quad core processors where a core or two didn't 'take'. There's logic in the processor to self-diagnose this and disable the bad core. If you've clocked too high one core may be unstable enough to trip that logic.

i was about to say just that... well not exactly that but maybe take/send the cpu back as faulty and get it replaced... im assuming youve not had it very long

Thanks to both of you for the continuing assistance...and patience. I did figure things out.

Nope, not overclocking...yet And it turns out the processor and memory are fine. I discovered my problem had to do with the hal.dll file and how XP2 deals with ACPI. Specifically, once XP2 is loaded the ACPI is not easily changed (even if you think it is...somewhere MS says so..tho there is a way to do it). I came across a link that truly helped solve my problem:

http://www.ngohq.com/processors/1189...g-windows.html

There are other links I found first that suggested moving files from Windows\ServicePackUpdate\i386 (including halacpi.dll among others) and it messed with my system (a disclaimer _is_ provided). Instead, I recommend the link above because that took care of the problem I had. It's also based on another link at the MS site that actually says how to do it (go figure

My memory issue....turns out that my board, while not officially stated as being able to do so (reviews of the board said that it could), appears to be operating at 800MHz, dual channel.

Everything's fine...just a little cleanup to do and I'm set.

Thanks again and.....

Cheers...Steph