insane false duel processor problem!!!!

I have encountered the wierdest error that is causing some serious headaches. My Win2000 suddenly started to think that I have two processors instead of one. I checked my BIOS and of course it says I have one. But windows doesn't agree. I found an environment variable that says NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS and that equals 2. Thus what I think is the root of the problem. I can change it too one but it turnes back into two when I reboot. I have formated and the problem still exists. This is really anoying because my computer is only using half of the processing power unless a software app is able to use duel processors. Does anyone out there know what is going on?

 

Hi madmatt and welcome to the board.

Do you by any chance have a P4 processor? If so, it's possible what you're seeing is the result of hyperthreading . Best explanation I can come up with is it's a sort of virtual dual processor setup. For it to work, your motherboard must also support it. If you're motherboard and cpu both support it there'll be an option in the bios to turn it on and off. If you have it and it's currently on, it's normal to see what you're seeing.

 

Ok that makes sence. I have a P4 and I didn't know about the hyperthreading technology. So if I understand it correctly it basically allows your processor to move onto another process even though another process has stalled and crashed thus enabling the user to continue using there computer while the affending process figures itself out.

So does this mean that because of that fact my single processor shows up as two? If my understanding of hyperthreading is correct, windows will still use all of the processing power even though it showes up in the task manager as only using half of the cpu. Is this correct?

 

I don't have any experience using it, but from what I have read about it the anwer to both questions is yes. I should add that (again from what I've read) there seems to be some disagreement on whether HT should be turned on with Win2K or not. MS recommends to turn it of on systems not runnng XP. Others disagree. You can have a look at these search results from Google if you want to read about it more. You'll have to decide for yourself.

 

Dude Zander,
you are my hero. It was the hyperthreading all along! The info you gave me really helped me to hunt down the problem. By turning off hyperthreading in my BIOS it solved the problem right away. Now I get to re-install a billion apps. But I don't care, I have a huge performance boost because now win2k will use all of my processor. Thanks again!

-madmatt

 

You're welcome.