How to enable multi-processor support

[Guest]

Hi,

We got some new Dell GX620 machines here at work. They have Pentium D 840
processors, and the bios shows that both processors are enabled. Also the
device manager in XP shows that there are two processors. However, the task
manager only shows one processor, and CPU-ID also only shows one processor.

So I'm assuming that our support guys must have ghosted over a uniprocessor
image of XP onto these new machines.

My question is, how can we enable the multi-processor support in XP sp2
without a complete reinstall?

Thanks, Derek

 

[Kerry Brown]

It may be working if the device manager sees both CPU's. In the Task Manager
View menu make sure one graph per CPU is enabled. If that's not it then you
have to change the HAL.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=309283

 

[Guest]

So does that article mean that we can just upgrade XP, and that will install
the new multi-processor HAL, while keeping all of our installed applications
working?

Thanks, Derek

 

[Kerry Brown]

Depending what HAL is installed you may be able to get away with just
changing the HAL in the device manager. If that doesn't work you have to do
a repair install.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;315341

Depending on how many machines you have it may be easier to fix one then
create an image and deploy it to the rest.