4930K only reports 2 cores under XP - can I increase that?

[Savage1701]

I had to use XP on a Asus P9X79E-WS board. I have the BIOS set to 6 cores for the 4930K. I am switching between a disk with XP and one with Win 7. The Win 7 OS reports 6 cores and 6 threads. I can't get XP to report more than 2. Any way I can get it to 4 cores, even if I can't get all 6 under XP?

Thanks.

 

[GhostRyder]

Short answer is no, XP only supports up to 2 Cores, XP Professional says it can support 2 processors, but it still says that 2 cores seems to be the limit. I have not heard of a way to override this.

 

[Savage1701]

Thanks. I appreciate it.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Short answer is no

They are asking about cores not physical processors. The link you provided explains how XP is limited to the number of physical processors by licensing restrictions. I'm not finding anything that suggest there is a limit on the core count that XP will support.

 

[GhostRyder]

They are asking about cores not physical processors. The link you provided explains how XP is limited to the number of physical processors by licensing restrictions. I'm not finding anything that suggest there is a limit on the core count that XP will support.

Yes, but below that it seems that the problem is that windows XP still reads multiple cores as multiple processors according to the other users on that thread, now ive not really messed with multi-core processors on XP much, but even by the searching, it seems to be limited by the XP software.

 

[Savage1701]

Seems as though as I Google around, people such as me who migrated their OS drive from a DualCore to a 4- or -6 core processor are having problems, and they seem to be talking about HAL, etc. Unfortunately I can't re-install this OS

It does indeed seem that XP Pro SP3 should be able to support 2 dual-cores or even 8 cores if 2x Quad Core CPU, but I'm not and I don't know how to edit to obtain that.

I can see under msconfig that it only reports 2 cores in the boot string, but I don't know what I need to do to safely edit that.

Oh well.

 

[St1ckM4n]

The first link says:

It's important to understand, however, that this is on a per-processor basis, not a per-core basis. This means that, under the licensing policy, a dual- or even quad-core processor counts as a single processor---something that confused many people in the early days of dual-core technology.

So your six-core CPU should be fine.

You said your Win7 OS only showed 6 cores? Should be showing up with 12 logical cores due to hyperthreading.

Tell us exactly which version of XP you're using. Home, Pro, 32 or 64bit?

 

[Jad Chaar]

The first link says:

So your six-core CPU should be fine.

You said your Win7 OS only showed 6 cores? Should be showing up with 12 logical cores due to hyperthreading.

Tell us exactly which version of XP you're using. Home, Pro, 32 or 64bit?

I think he said in an older post 32bit. I remember saying "why would anyone buy a WS class X79 motherboard with 8 DIMM slots and only run a 32bit OS." xD.

 

[Savage1701]

OK, I will try and clarify my original post:

1. Under Win 7 64-bit it reports 12 "cores" - 6 physical, 6 virtual I would assume, in Task Manager.
2. Under 32-bit XP Pro SP3 it will only report 2 cores. I can't tell if it's 1 physical/1 virtual or 2 physical. MSCONFIG shows only 2 cores in the text lines about booting up and in the number of cores to use at boot up "drop down".
3. The drive that was dropped into the system ran under a Core 2 Duo.
4. Suffice it to say, I can't reformat the drive with a clean install of XP since it is running some trading software that can't easily be re-installed.

 

[St1ckM4n]

Run through the answers in this thread. Let us know the outcome of each.

http://superuser.com/questions/84995/how-to-enable-multiple-processors-on-xp-sp-3

 

[Savage1701]

Options 1 and 3 of that post have been tried.

I will backup my system and try the other 2 sets of instructions to see if they will work.

Thank you.

 

[St1ckM4n]

What values does the NUMPROC dropdown contain?

 

[Savage1701]

NUMPROC reports "2"

I am also suspicious because, as I stated above, the drive was dropped in from a Core Duo machine and the the "Boot" tab under MSCONFIG reports 2 cores in the info about booting as well. Suffice it to say, I can't do a clean install of XP SP3; I need to see if I can safely get the current install to recognize 4 cores. If I can't, then that's the way it is. But I want to try.

 

[St1ckM4n]

Make an image of it, try to run it in a VM.

 

[hood6558]

My brother runs XP 32 bit with his Q6600 Core 2 Quad, and it's always showed 4 cores. Maybe it gets confused with a 6 core proc - I don't think anyone has ever tried to run such a combination, as it is a very expensive platform to be crippling with an out-dated 32 bit OS. Maybe just set it up for dual booting, and run XP only when needed for that trading program.

 

[Savage1701]

Hood, believe me, I know I am crippling the CPU/platform. I am only doing it because I have to. And yes, you are right, I do have it in the equivalent of a dual-boot scenario as I migrate the trading software.

I was just trying to make sure I was not missing a quick and dirty trick to get it to see at least 4 cores.