Disabling 2nd core in dual-core CPU?

U

Uffe

Is it possible to temporarily disable one of the two cores of my dual-core
Athlon-64 X2-4600?

Silly as it may sound, but this was suggested to me by the local rep for
Topfield digital video recorders, as I'm unable to connect my Topfield
digital TV box to my PC via USB. The current Topfield USB driver doesn't
work in a dual-core CPU environment and is not recognized by my XP Home SP-2
(and the dual-core CPU). Temporarily disabling one of the cores would
simulate a single-core system and might trick the driver to install. After
that I would need to re-enable the disabled CPU-core, of course.

Any suggestions?

TIA Uffe
 
M

milsabords

Uffe said:
Is it possible to temporarily disable one of the two cores of my
dual-core Athlon-64 X2-4600?

Silly as it may sound, but this was suggested to me by the local rep
for Topfield digital video recorders, as I'm unable to connect my
Topfield digital TV box to my PC via USB. The current Topfield USB
driver doesn't work in a dual-core CPU environment and is not
recognized by my XP Home SP-2 (and the dual-core CPU). Temporarily
disabling one of the cores would simulate a single-core system and
might trick the driver to install. After that I would need to
re-enable the disabled CPU-core, of course.
Any suggestions?

TIA Uffe
Click to expand...

With Sysinternal's Process Explorer, it is possible to set the affinity of
an appl to one core.
 
M

Mitch Crane

Is it possible to temporarily disable one of the two cores of my
dual-core Athlon-64 X2-4600?

Silly as it may sound, but this was suggested to me by the local rep
for Topfield digital video recorders, as I'm unable to connect my
Topfield digital TV box to my PC via USB. The current Topfield USB
driver doesn't work in a dual-core CPU environment and is not
recognized by my XP Home SP-2 (and the dual-core CPU). Temporarily
disabling one of the cores would simulate a single-core system and
might trick the driver to install. After that I would need to
re-enable the disabled CPU-core, of course.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I don't know it this will make the USB driver work, but:

Start->Run
msconfig->BOOT.INI tab->advanced options button->/NUMPROC 1

Or you can directly edit boot.ini and append '/numproc=1' to the end of the
boot options:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /numproc=1
 
U

Uffe

Mitch Crane said:
I don't know it this will make the USB driver work, but:

Start->Run
msconfig->BOOT.INI tab->advanced options button->/NUMPROC 1

Or you can directly edit boot.ini and append '/numproc=1' to the end of
the
boot options:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /numproc=1
Click to expand...

Thanks, Mitch, you taught me something new.
This trick really did what I had asked for - disabled the other core.
Unfortunately, the USB driver would not work although the system ran on a
single core only. I suspect the reason was that the processor was still
recognized in the Device Manager as dual-core, despite running on one core
only, so the USB driver was not "fooled enough". That driver is dated year
2003, so it seems outdated in relation to today's hardware. Strange that
Topfield lag behind with their USB driver. If there's no USB driver update
soon, I'll have to connect the devices with an RS232 cable, which is another
other option.

Cheers
 

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