Cpu or mb problem? only one core working

[stan47]

I recently had a glitch that took out one of my two 1-gig memory sticks, an IDE to SATA converter card, and the boot sector of my main drive. I have replaced all of that, reloaded all the software, and everything is fine. Except, the cpu gadget I use shows core 2 on the core 2 duo as never going active--it reads 0% all the time. And core 1 goes up to 100% when I do anything very intense. Before the surge (or whatever it was) both cores tended to read around 50-60% or less, even when doing something intense. Is this more likely to be a cpu problem or a mb problem? Is there any way to test the cpu to see if it is bad? I hate to buy a new one and then find out that the mb was bad and not the cpu. Has anyone else ever had this problem?

TIA,
Stan

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes Stan,
that Glitch could have damaged the motherboard... or CPU

 

[stan47]

Yes, I think I'm going to gamble on it being the cpu and try a new one. Dunno about return policies on cpus, but I would guess most places won't take them back.So, if it's not the cpu, I may be out the price for both a cpu and a new motherboard.