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Enable Dual Core Support in a Windows XP Single Core Install?

post #1 of 23
12/4/06 at 11:00pm
Thread Starter 
I have a system that was a single core that I just upgraded to a dual core CPU. I seam to remember reading somewhere that there is there something I need to do to Windows XP pro to turn on the dual core/cpu support if it was originally installed on a single CPU (Reg Hack). I could just do a reinstall of Windows so it gets detected from the get go, but I really don't want to if I can avoid it. anybody know the trick ? Thanks in advance.
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post #2 of 23
12/4/06 at 11:09pm
It will recognize 2 cores from the start I think, if not I think there is a little mod thing that utilizes both cores better if you keep searching around.
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post #3 of 23
12/4/06 at 11:14pm
It should not be a problem since windows will properly setup to utilize both cores.
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post #4 of 23
12/4/06 at 11:44pm
i remember under NT, it was a bitch to go from single to multi core. I forget the process but it was hell. There is a whole seperate kernel that windows needs to do this and switching them was like heart surgery if I knew what that was like. Windows 2000 had this problem as well I think.

Havent tried it in XP yet though, but I would put it against a reinstall of the OS... It is the ONLY way to insure full dual core success though (with optimizations).
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post #5 of 23
12/4/06 at 11:58pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whackamac
i remember under NT, it was a bitch to go from single to multi core. I forget the process but it was hell. There is a whole seperate kernel that windows needs to do this and switching them was like heart surgery if I knew what that was like. Windows 2000 had this problem as well I think.

Havent tried it in XP yet though, but I would put it against a reinstall of the OS... It is the ONLY way to insure full dual core success though (with optimizations).


I couldn't remember, if it was a quick reg hack or something major. I read something on it a long time ago and it was on all NT based OS's. I haven't heard much on the topic in a while either and I'm surprised because multi core cpus are such the norm now, where three years ago it was only a select few and mainly servers that had them. If it looks to be the best road I guess I will just do a reinstall. Anyone else have some insight on this.
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post #6 of 23
12/5/06 at 1:07pm
Technicaly when you put in the new CPU it will find the 2nd processor (or core in this case) but that doesn't meen that the system will be using both processors. The easy way to check is to bring up Task Manager and choose the performance tab and see if you see two graphs one for each core. Most likely your only going to see one. If that is the case you are going to have to replace the hal.dll and ntoskrnl.exe from the single core version to the multi core version.

You can do this two ways.
Option #1 - Hal / NToskrnl replacement
a. Make a directory called DUO on C:\
b. Copy halmacpi.dll (search your C:\ drive for this) to C:\DUO then rename it to hal.dll
c. Copy ntkrnlmp.exe (search your C:\ drive for this) to C:\DUO then rename it to ntoskrnl.exe
d. Make a batch file called go2core.cmd and put this in the file.


C:
CD\windows\system32
REN hal.dll hal.old
copy C:\Duo\hal.dll C:\windows\system32
REN ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.old
copy C:\Duo\ntoskrnl.exe c:\windows\system32

e. Run Go2Core.cmd from C:\duo directory.
f. Reboot and you should now see two processors in Task manager

Option #2. Add a 2nd boot option to your boot.ini file
a. Copy halmacpi.dll (search your C:\ drive for this) to C:\Windows\system32
b. Copy ntkrnlmp.exe(search your C:\ drive for this) to C:\Windows\system32
c: Remove the read only flag from c:\boot.ini (right click on file and remove check box)
d. Edit your boot.ini file to the following

#ORIGINAL boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


#EDITED boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Multi-Processor" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /HAL=halmacpi.dll /kernel=ntkrnlmp.exe


Now if your Windows install is NOT on the first partition then you might see a different partition number in the boot.ini so whatever is in your boot.ini keep it the same.

Now when you reboot you should see two options and you have 30 seconds to decide which version you want to load.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
or
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Multi-Processor




Now... If you don't know what your doing.. Please don't blow up your laptop and blame it on me. I have a vast background in a multitude of OS's and have been in the IT field for years.

I do not take any responsibility if you break your laptop.

Other then that... I will answer any other questions you might have
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post #7 of 23
12/6/06 at 2:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by whackamac
Havent tried it in XP yet though, but I would put it against a reinstall of the OS... It is the ONLY way to insure full dual core success though (with optimizations).
ditto.




i need to get these Van Wilder one-liners out of my head! Write that down.

let's see.... think other thoughts.. how 'bout:

I whacked a Mac.
A Mac I whacked.
And on that whacked up Mac, I

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post #8 of 23
12/6/06 at 6:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pugsly0014
Technicaly when you put in the new CPU it will find the 2nd processor (or core in this case) but that doesn't meen that the system will be using both processors. The easy way to check is to bring up Task Manager and choose the performance tab and see if you see two graphs one for each core. Most likely your only going to see one. If that is the case you are going to have to replace the hal.dll and ntoskrnl.exe from the single core version to the multi core version.

You can do this two ways.
Option #1 - Hal / NToskrnl replacement
a. Make a directory called DUO on C:\\
b. Copy halmacpi.dll (search your C:\\ drive for this) to C:\\DUO then rename it to hal.dll
c. Copy ntkrnlmp.exe (search your C:\\ drive for this) to C:\\DUO then rename it to ntoskrnl.exe
d. Make a batch file called go2core.cmd and put this in the file.


C:
CD\\windows\\system32
REN hal.dll hal.old
copy C:\\Duo\\hal.dll C:\\windows\\system32
REN ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.old
copy C:\\Duo\ toskrnl.exe c:\\windows\\system32

e. Run Go2Core.cmd from C:\\duo directory.
f. Reboot and you should now see two processors in Task manager

Option #2. Add a 2nd boot option to your boot.ini file
a. Copy halmacpi.dll (search your C:\\ drive for this) to C:\\Windows\\system32
b. Copy ntkrnlmp.exe(search your C:\\ drive for this) to C:\\Windows\\system32
c: Remove the read only flag from c:\\boot.ini (right click on file and remove check box)
d. Edit your boot.ini file to the following

#ORIGINAL boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


#EDITED boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Multi-Processor" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /HAL=halmacpi.dll /kernel=ntkrnlmp.exe


Now if your Windows install is NOT on the first partition then you might see a different partition number in the boot.ini so whatever is in your boot.ini keep it the same.

Now when you reboot you should see two options and you have 30 seconds to decide which version you want to load.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
or
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Multi-Processor




Now... If you don't know what your doing.. Please don't blow up your laptop and blame it on me. I have a vast background in a multitude of OS's and have been in the IT field for years.

I do not take any responsibility if you break your laptop.

Other then that... I will answer any other questions you might have
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post #9 of 23
12/7/06 at 5:03pm
I thought it was as simple as uninstalling the old processor from device mangler, rebooting, and installing the new processor???
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post #10 of 23
12/7/06 at 6:25pm
That does not replace the Kernel and the hal (Hardware abstraction layer).
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post #11 of 23
12/8/06 at 1:24am
How about forcing to a single core from msconfig>boot.ini>advanced options>/numproc=1. Then reboot, change it to /numproc=2 then reboot again. Won't windows know to make the needed changes to compensate for the dual core. Or is the /numproc option greyed out as it's only seeing a single core in the first place?
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post #12 of 23
12/8/06 at 11:11am
/numproc is only used when you have a multi-processor HAL and Kernel installed. It is a switch developers use for testing applications on a single processor.
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post #13 of 23
12/8/06 at 1:25pm
Errrr - instead of doing open heart surgery on the OS, how about doing a repair installation of Windows XP instead?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341/
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post #14 of 23
12/8/06 at 1:35pm
Why re-invent the wheel. Replace the HAL and KERNEL.

Done and Done..... It's a 30 second job unlike re-install or repair which could really hose things up.

We have used the .CMD file I made on over 100 machines. Since we have a single image for all our Desktops based on the Single core Optiplex machines I made this script to run after ghosting on the newer duel core machines to enable both processors.

It works trust me.
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post #15 of 23
12/8/06 at 2:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pugsly0014
Why re-invent the wheel. Replace the HAL and KERNEL. Done and Done..... It's a 30 second job unlike re-install or repair which could really hose things up. We have used the .CMD file I made on over 100 machines. Since we have a single image for all our Desktops based on the Single core Optiplex machines I made this script to run after ghosting on the newer duel core machines to enable both processors. It works trust me.
I won't bother with the whole spiel about how he's running a laptop and you're doing that to desktops (which are most likely standardized). The main point is while you can change the files, there are settings in the registry that don't get changed (if I remember correctly) when you just do something like that. A full driver install will ensure things are properly installed.
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post #16 of 23
12/8/06 at 3:27pm
OK.. Just to see if that is the case. I just did two full installs of Windows XP SP2. I did not run any updates just bare install on two identical machines. The only difference was one has a single core CPU, and the other has a Dual core.

Once they were both up I ran the sysdiff tool from Microsoft. Compairing the two dump files the only differences HAL.DLL and NTOSKRNL.DLL, and the duel core machine had one extra entry in the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTIONS\System\CentralProcessor

and one extra entry in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\ACPI\

After that I put the dual core processor in the single core machine and booted windows. After it did an auto-discovery and asked for a reboot both CPU's showed in the device manager but when you looked in task manager only one was showing.

I ran my script to enable multi-processor HAL and Kernel, rebooted one more time and when it came back up both processors were showing in task manager.


So basically there is no need to run a repair, or re-install the OS. Everything else is identical.
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post #17 of 23
5/2/08 at 12:40pm
I find several of each of these files on my C: drive with various sizes and dates. How do I know which ones are the correct ones to use?
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post #18 of 23
5/2/08 at 2:35pm
In SP1 has included the patch. Or check with system properties, if your device manager shows 2 CPUs, then you are ok.

This should be an automatic things... XP is now with SP3.

NOTE. The respone is to the original poster, not "lwdaddio"
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post #19 of 23
5/2/08 at 3:27pm
Not sure if you were responding to my message about which of the several halmacpi.dll and ntkrnlmp.exe files I find on my C: drive but if you were I sure couldn't understand what you were trying to tell me.
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post #20 of 23
8/10/10 at 4:48pm

I would like to know on how to Windows XP Multi Core configuration the easy way

I have Windows XP Professional with a Pentium 4 and I would like to know on how to do this the easy and simple way. I tried to follow the steps to do it on the instructions page, but it is too complicated for me. So just give me an easy explanation on how to do this for me step by step with some screenshots so I know on how to do this. Also, is there a Quad Core configuration? Because this would be so much better. But it doesn't that much to me because both are good I guess. So maybe this way, I can get maybe 8 Cpu graphs to show up in my Task Manager. Because right now I only have one. Oh well. So if you can give me an easier tutorial on how to do this for me, that would be great. Well anyway, that's all I want to know for now. So get back to me as soon as possible and let me know on how to do this for me the easy way. So thanks a lot!
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