I actually think that if it was only seeing a single processor, I'd at least see all 4 cores (as I did with Win 7 Home) and that Device Manager wouldn't show all 8. It's really that Device Manager display that has me quite puzzled, as if one part of the OS knows there are 8 cores there, while the rest of it doesn't, or is somehow blocking access.

The single processor detection would then only show one processor or core. Only on multiprocessor does it show more than 1 core. As far as I know, you can install Windows with two single core processors, and it then runs with Singleprocessor detection, as both CPUs will be single core/single processors.

But okay, I think I missed something somewhere. Last I read Windows would only show 2 CPUs/cores and BOINC also only shows 2? Or does Windows show someplace you have 8 cores, but it only utilizes two?

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But okay, I think I missed something somewhere. Last I read Windows would only show 2 CPUs/cores and BOINC also only shows 2? Or does Windows show someplace you have 8 cores, but it only utilizes two?

In Device Manager, under Processors, it displays 8 separate entries, as:
"Quad-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2389".

That's the only place, so far, that I've found 8. Everywhere else it just reports 2.

Sorry, dinner happened. ;-)

I found that the chipset for your board is the nForce 3600 and nForce 3050, both deprecated a long time ago. And so their latest drivers from 2008 are probably the same you got.

Looking around the net I see options are:
1. Update BIOS. But since your board is so old, I doubt that's an option.
2. Not sure if this is still available in Windows 10, but do Start->Run->Msconfig->Boot->Advanced options. Is the Number of processors set here, and then set to 1?

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I have decided to pull Win 10 Pro (x64) and revert back to Win 7 Pro after a number of problems that cause the system to be corrupted twice. I'll probably wait until last minute of the year of free upgrades, if at all, before I try it again.

Besides all of the points of interest that I've noted before.

In IE 11 you can specify that if you want to open a link to a new tab, it will automatically go to the new tab. This is not possible in Edge, you can direct to a new tab, but you must bring that tab to the front manually. (minor considering major problems)

Lost access to the start button, Edge, search, could not remove volume indexes, could not updatate folders that I created in 'Program Files) and that I had full control because I am the system admin/creator. Had to allow full control to all users to modify the folder.

Unable to a create a system restore point or do a back up because of mixed formats between 7 & 10, corrupting the image task.

Would not alow me to revert back to Win 7. Had to do a complete system refresh including a complete format of the system drive (C:). It will be sometime over the weekend before I can begin crunching again. I was able to activate my Win 7 using its' product key.

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I don't buy computers, I build them!!

But okay, I think I missed something somewhere. Last I read Windows would only show 2 CPUs/cores and BOINC also only shows 2? Or does Windows show someplace you have 8 cores, but it only utilizes two?

In Device Manager, under Processors, it displays 8 separate entries, as:
"Quad-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2389".

That's the only place, so far, that I've found 8. Everywhere else it just reports 2.

When you launch Task Manager and are looking at the Performance tab, and under CPUs, what does it say there under Sockets, Cores, and Logical Processors?

Sorry, dinner happened. ;-)

I found that the chipset for your board is the nForce 3600 and nForce 3050, both deprecated a long time ago. And so their latest drivers from 2008 are probably the same you got.

Looking around the net I see options are:
1. Update BIOS. But since your board is so old, I doubt that's an option.
2. Not sure if this is still available in Windows 10, but do Start->Run->Msconfig->Boot->Advanced options. Is the Number of processors set here, and then set to 1?

That's okay...lunch happened here (among other things). ;^)

I'll have to look at that nForce driver, but I doubt if there's anything there that would be an update. The BIOS is the latest available, v4.03A, released 4 Feb 2010. It seemed to work fine with XP and Win 7, but I doubt if there will be any new release, even if that is actually the root of the problem.

It's funny, but I actually couldn't find a Run command in Win 10, or the old Start Menu box to enter msconfig. (The Search feature immediately takes you to the web.) Anyway, System Configuration in the Administrative Tools doesn't seem to have changed and I think that gets to the same place as msconfig. The "Number of Processors" wasn't selected for Boot, so I assume the default is 1. Just for the heck of it, I set it to 2 (the only other option) and rebooted. No difference, though. Anyway, I think that's just a way to get the second processor active earlier during the boot up process and doesn't really affect how many the OS actually ends up using. At least that's the way I understood it when I was briefly playing with Win 7 Home and trying to figure out why the second processor wasn't recognized.

Well, I think this is something that I'll probably just keep poking at off and on over the weekend. So far, I haven't been able to find any other threads, blogs, or other Win 10 references to any sort of similar problem, but perhaps something will pop up later. Thanks very much for all your digging and suggestions!

A preliminary check on my xw9400 this morning is not encouraging. There was a notification waiting, saying that a new driver was available for a GTX 660 and would be installed automatically whenever the device was not in use. However, checking the BOINC Event Log, it appears that BOINC was restarted at 3:42 AM with all 4 GPUs now using driver 353.62. So, it appears Bernie may be right that the "Never install driver software from Windows Update" doesn't actually apply to Windows Update, only to newly installed devices.

Did you get any further information or confirmation on this? I was hoping to push my two laptops off Windows 8.1 (the one Windows 10 host I have is for a computer I just built for someone else and aside from having to disable the built-in spyware I'm finding it more pleasant to deal with than 8.1) but the automatic driver update question is holding me back.

I'm wondering if the 'never install driver updates from Windows Update' option doesn't do what it actually says because otherwise this official hack wouldn't have been necessary (which came about because of the Nvidia driver problems on release day).

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Soli Deo Gloria

But okay, I think I missed something somewhere. Last I read Windows would only show 2 CPUs/cores and BOINC also only shows 2? Or does Windows show someplace you have 8 cores, but it only utilizes two?

In Device Manager, under Processors, it displays 8 separate entries, as:
"Quad-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2389".

That's the only place, so far, that I've found 8. Everywhere else it just reports 2.

When you launch Task Manager and are looking at the Performance tab, and under CPUs, what does it say there under Sockets, Cores, and Logical Processors?

2, 2, and 2.

EDIT:

Again, I'll say.....
This old fart is going to remain moored where he is at until it becomes impossible.
Win 7 64 on the daily driver and XP 64 or 32 on the crunchers.

And the more I read here, the more I am steadfast in that. I think I would go insane trying to install and use an OS that does what IT thinks is best for me instead of relying on the way I wish to set it up.
I am convinced that XP was the best OS ever written. Not without a few faults, but completely controllable and manageable. And usually does what you tell it to without question or going off on it's own once you are done telling it.
All this hidden logic and automatic this and that does NOT suit me.
I don't take BS from fellow human beings, and I certainly don't take much of it from a computer that is supposed to be at MY command.

And.....if it comes down to a necessary change, with all the contortions that most are describing here, I might as well finally learn Linux.

And when that time comes, I may be so feeble minded I might just chuck it all and turn hermit....LOL.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

A preliminary check on my xw9400 this morning is not encouraging. There was a notification waiting, saying that a new driver was available for a GTX 660 and would be installed automatically whenever the device was not in use. However, checking the BOINC Event Log, it appears that BOINC was restarted at 3:42 AM with all 4 GPUs now using driver 353.62. So, it appears Bernie may be right that the "Never install driver software from Windows Update" doesn't actually apply to Windows Update, only to newly installed devices.

Did you get any further information or confirmation on this? I was hoping to push my two laptops off Windows 8.1 (the one Windows 10 host I have is for a computer I just built for someone else and aside from having to disable the built-in spyware I'm finding it more pleasant to deal with than 8.1) but the automatic driver update question is holding me back.

I'm wondering if the 'never install driver updates from Windows Update' option doesn't do what it actually says because otherwise this official hack wouldn't have been necessary (which came about because of the Nvidia driver problems on release day).

Not really any further information, but I did go through some of the Windows logs and found that the reboot, which happened after the driver updates had been download, wasn't a graceful one but apparently due to a system crash (cause unknown, so far). Following the reboot, there are a series of Update messages, including:

"Installation Started: Windows has started installing the following update: NVIDIA driver update for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660"
"Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: NVIDIA driver update for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660"
"Installation Started: Windows has started installing the following update: NVIDIA driver update for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti"
"Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80070103: NVIDIA driver update for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti."

The first of those was at 3:42 AM and the last at 3:52 AM. Of course, what I found when I got up was that all four GPUs had the 353.62 driver, against my wishes!

So it sounds as though driver updates are forced through together with regular Windows software updates after all. Disappointing, but not surprising in a way. Probably (mostly) a good thing for the casual user majority, but not so good for those who know what they're doing.

I was really looking forward to getting rid of Windows 8! D:

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Soli Deo Gloria

So it sounds as though driver updates are forced through together with regular Windows software updates after all. Disappointing, but not surprising in a way. Probably (mostly) a good thing for the casual user majority, but not so good for those who know what they're doing.

I was really looking forward to getting rid of Windows 8! D:

It looks that way. I may try downgrading the driver again to an earlier version before I go to bed tonight, just to see what will happen, but I'm not optimistic.

I do not think that this good even for the majority since (correct me if I am wrong) you should disable your anti virus when doing graphics driver updates since it messes with the process I did have it happen to me a couple of times before I learned my lesson.

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ME AND MY BOY LOOKING FOR ET

Hi Folks,
As is my wont, I have/had 2 x Win7x64 on my main rig:-)
So I used the msdownload tool to upgrade the 2nd Win7x64 to Win10.
[I] You get no option to disable sending of data to MS on install.
[2] You do get that option AFTER install and its all been set to NO:-)
[3] it installs the latest Nvidia drivers.
[4] There is the option to not install drivers from MS update and that has
been selected.
[5] It does allow dual boot, trying that out next:-)To get back to my win7ult OS
[6] Time to wait and see what screws up.. But I see that the new browser does NOT inport favourites or cookies from IE11:-/ Pita..

Cheers,

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Cliff,
Been there, Done that, Still no damm T shirt!

The "Number of Processors" wasn't selected for Boot, so I assume the default is 1. Just for the heck of it, I set it to 2 (the only other option) and rebooted. No difference, though. Anyway, I think that's just a way to get the second processor active earlier during the boot up process and doesn't really affect how many the OS actually ends up using.

It does to other people having had that problem of Windows running on less cores than they actually had. For me the number of processors I can choose goes up to 4, which is correct on my i5-2500K: also a quad.

So for you, if everything would be all right, it should've given you the option to choose 1 to 8 processors.

Can you disable one of the two CPUs in the BIOS, to see what that does in Windows?

Thanks very much for all your digging and suggestions!

Nothing else to do on this blue moon day. :)

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Can you disable one of the two CPUs in the BIOS, to see what that does in Windows?

Nope, nothing in the BIOS to allow me to enable/disable a CPU. I think I'd have to physically pull one, but I think I'll leave that option off the table. ;^)

Just out of curiosity, I did try disabling the "AMD Virtualization Technology" option in the BIOS, but that had no effect.

EDIT:

Nothing else to do on this blue moon day. :)

So, the docs for BOINC 7.6.6 are all done, then! ;^)

Seems there is limitations on the OS


PCs with multi-core processors:
Windows 7 was designed to work with today's multi-core processors. All 32-bit versions of Windows 7 can support up to 32 processor cores, while 64‑bit versions can support up to 256 processor cores.

PCs with multiple processors (CPUs):
Commercial servers, workstations, and other high-end PCs may have more than one physical processor. Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate allow for two physical processors, providing the best performance on these computers. Windows 7Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium will recognize only one physical processor.

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I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap

umm isn't there a limit on how many cpu's windows lets you use on home pro or unltimate? i think the limit is 8 unless you go to win server and pay for seats

Actually, Jord covered that in an earlier post.

Windows 10 supports a maximum of two physical CPUs, but the number of logical processors or cores varies based on the processor architecture. A maximum of 32 cores is supported in 32-bit versions of Windows 8, whereas up to 256 cores are supported in the 64-bit versions.

The Win 10 Home version only supports one physical processor, but I believe it can still have 32 cores. I think that's about the same as the Win 7 limitations.

EDIT: Okay, I see you caught that in your edit.

yeah i caught it hehe

yeah i remembered there was a reason i run linux on multi CPU machines :)

EDIT:
Which reminds me i have 2 ibm servers with 16 cores that need to get put to work (well 4 quad cpu's per machine ...got em cheap on ebay but they can take 4 or 5 double size video cards)

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I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap

EDIT:

Nothing else to do on this blue moon day. :)

So, the docs for BOINC 7.6.6 are all done, then! ;^)

Those were long done, and I should stop trying to make them look better. So for the past hour I've been sitting here watching some Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, spandex, plastic, micro-mini-skirts on some of the girls (check what Maya and Vionne wear in Buck's Duel to the Death if you don't believe me), really cheesy fight scenes (stuntmen who don't look like Gil) and Twiki. What more do I wish for? :)

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