The utility of multiple cores with XP Home

[Daniel Prince]

If I install a new mother board with two or more cores and run two
CPU intensive programs under Windows XP Home SP3 that are not
written to use multiple cores, will the mother board or Windows run
the two programs on different cores? Thank you in advance for all
replies.

 

[Rarius]

If I install a new mother board with two or more cores and run two
CPU intensive programs under Windows XP Home SP3 that are not
written to use multiple cores, will the mother board or Windows run
the two programs on different cores? Thank you in advance for all
replies.

If you installed WinXP with a single core CPU, it will have installed
the single-core hardware abstraction layer (HAL). If you then install a
dual or quad core CPU WinXP will then only ever use one core. To use the
other cores you must reinstall windows...

If you installed WinXP with a dual or quad core CPU, it will have
installed the multi-core HAL. Then WinXP will balance the load between
the CPUs. It will shuffle applications and OS load between the cores
even if the applications are not multithreaded.

Rarius

 

[Daniel Prince]

If you installed WinXP with a single core CPU, it will have installed
the single-core hardware abstraction layer (HAL). If you then install a
dual or quad core CPU WinXP will then only ever use one core. To use the
other cores you must reinstall windows...

Wouldn't I have to reinstall windows when I change mother boards
anyway?

What is the best procedure to do this type of reinstall? Do I have
to delete my Windows directory? Do I have to reformat my Windows
partition? (I have not changed mother boards since I first
installed XP. My present mother board and CPU are 6.3 years old.)

 

[Rarius]

Wouldn't I have to reinstall windows when I change mother boards
anyway?

Not necessarily. You can often get away with just uninstalling the old
mobo drivers, changing the mobo and installing new drivers.

What is the best procedure to do this type of reinstall? Do I have
to delete my Windows directory? Do I have to reformat my Windows
partition? (I have not changed mother boards since I first
installed XP. My present mother board and CPU are 6.3 years old.)

Personally I would buy a new HDD and install a fresh XP on that, keeping
the old one as a backup. If your old mobo is over 6 years old it will
only support PATA drives. Your nice new one will support SATA which is
much better! Also remember that HDDs do grow old and die. A new drive is
will probably last longer than your old one!

If your drive(s) are PATA it would pay to check that your new one will
support PATA. Last time I upgraded a mobo, I had to replace my old PATA
CD/DVD drives with SATA ones because I wanted to keep an old PATA HDD on
the system, but the new mobo only had one PATA port!

If you can't afford a new HDD, backup and format. It might work with
just deleting the windows directory, but I doubt it. XP installs stuff
in the root of the drive as well as in the windows directory and much of
it is hidden!

Rarius