Vista + CPU upgrade

[Victek]

I'm running Vista Business x86 and thinking of upgrading my single core CPU
to a dual core CPU. Will this be transparent to the operating system or
will a repair be necessary?

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I'm running Vista Business x86 and thinking of upgrading my single core
CPU to a dual core CPU. Will this be transparent to the operating system
or will a repair be necessary?

Be prepared to clean install. A repair may not work..

 

[Ian D]

I'm running Vista Business x86 and thinking of upgrading my single core
CPU to a dual core CPU. Will this be transparent to the operating system
or will a repair be necessary?

If you're just replacing the CPU on the same motherboard,
the system will work, but only with one core. At minimum,
a repair install would be necessary, and might be successful,
but a full clean install may be required, and is the better option.

If your single core CPU is a P4 with HT, no change will be
necessary.

 

[Victek]

I'm running Vista Business x86 and thinking of upgrading my single core

If you're just replacing the CPU on the same motherboard,
the system will work, but only with one core. At minimum,
a repair install would be necessary, and might be successful,
but a full clean install may be required, and is the better option.

If your single core CPU is a P4 with HT, no change will be
necessary.

Thanks for the replies. I was afraid that it was not going to be possible
to enable multi-core functionality in the current OS install. That does put
a damper on things.

 

[Ian D]

I just upgraded my duel core to a higher deul core and all I had to do
was flash the bios on my motherboard to accept teh new cpu. For ASUS
motherboards, it was a snap. Get up with you motherboaqrd manufacturere
and see what they have to say.

Good luck!

Going from a dual core CPU to a quad on the same motherboard
does not require a reinstall as Windows already has a multiprocessor
hardware abstraction layer (HAL) installed. The requirement for a
repair or full reinstall occurs when going from a uniprocessor HAL
to a multiprocessor HAL to support upgrading from a single core CPU
to a multicore CPU.

The only exception is when upgrading from a single core P4 with
HT to a multicore CPU, because a multiprocessor HAL would
already be installed for the HT.

 

[Victek]

I just upgraded my duel core to a higher deul core and all I had to do

Going from a dual core CPU to a quad on the same motherboard
does not require a reinstall as Windows already has a multiprocessor
hardware abstraction layer (HAL) installed. The requirement for a
repair or full reinstall occurs when going from a uniprocessor HAL
to a multiprocessor HAL to support upgrading from a single core CPU
to a multicore CPU.

The only exception is when upgrading from a single core P4 with
HT to a multicore CPU, because a multiprocessor HAL would
already be installed for the HT.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Do you know if it's possible to
"repair" Vista so it would install the multiprocessor HAL? Vista doesn't
have a repair/install option like XP as far as I know. I wonder if it would
detect the change from a single to dual core, or just treat it like a single
core CPU? TIA

 

[Ian D]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Do you know if it's possible to
"repair" Vista so it would install the multiprocessor HAL? Vista doesn't
have a repair/install option like XP as far as I know. I wonder if it
would detect the change from a single to dual core, or just treat it like
a single core CPU? TIA

I'm in a Vista group and thinking XP. There is no repair install
in Vista. The closest thing is an in place upgrade, but you need
a retail version. If your Vista DVD is OEM, you'll have to do
a clean install.

To do this, replace the single core CPU with the dual core CPU.
Start Vista, which will run, but with only one core active. From
Vista, run setup on the Vista DVD, and do an upgrade install.
Vista will replace its files while retaining your installed apps, and
previous settings. If all goes well, you will have an operational
multi-core system. It would be advisable to back up your system
partition before the installation. If the upgrade install fails, you
can restore your previous single CPU installation, or format
and do a clean install.

Besides installing a multiprocessor HAL for a dual core CPU,
Vista will also install a multiprocessor OS kernel.

 

[Victek]

I'm in a Vista group and thinking XP. There is no repair install

in Vista. The closest thing is an in place upgrade, but you need
a retail version. If your Vista DVD is OEM, you'll have to do
a clean install.

To do this, replace the single core CPU with the dual core CPU.
Start Vista, which will run, but with only one core active. From
Vista, run setup on the Vista DVD, and do an upgrade install.
Vista will replace its files while retaining your installed apps, and
previous settings. If all goes well, you will have an operational
multi-core system. It would be advisable to back up your system
partition before the installation. If the upgrade install fails, you
can restore your previous single CPU installation, or format
and do a clean install.

Besides installing a multiprocessor HAL for a dual core CPU,
Vista will also install a multiprocessor OS kernel.

Thanks again! Last question: My Vista DVD should work for the upgrade
install (it's not OEM), however it doesn't include SP1 which is currently
installed. Would I just install SP1 again after the upgrade? I do have
multiple image backups so I can take my chances, but it's nice to have some
idea what to expect

 

[Ian D]

Thanks again! Last question: My Vista DVD should work for the upgrade
install (it's not OEM), however it doesn't include SP1 which is currently
installed. Would I just install SP1 again after the upgrade? I do have
multiple image backups so I can take my chances, but it's nice to have
some idea what to expect

I don't know if you can do a backward upgrade from
SP1 to RTM. In reality SP1 is just a collection of updates,
so, except for the SP1 version label, it might not matter.
If it can't be done, the upgrade would balk before starting
the install. You will need to reinstall SP1 and all updates
after the upgrade. You might have to re-activate.

 

[Mark H]

An inplace upgrade will fail to install if SP1 is on the computer, but not
on the install disk.
If you have not deleted the SP1 replaced files, you can uninstall SP1 and
then do the upgrade.
Otherwise, you may be looking at a clean install.