Dual Core to Single core, reinstall XP?

[Joony]

Greetings,

At the rec room, we have a Falcon Northwest that was donated to us from a while back. It was a pretty decent computer back in it's day. A64 3200+, 2GB RAM, 6800GT SLI, A8N-SLI.

Anyhow, it's our flight simulator computer, and I was looking to run Flight Sim X on it, which I hear is quite CPU heavy.

Some other computers in our computer lab have some faster CPUs. Namely, the HP dx5150 has a x2 4400+.

So I was thinking about swapping them around.

I read threads about going from single to dual, but not the other way around.

Will there be any issues?

We have a standardized image for the dx5150s, so it would be nice to continue reusing that.

 

[Atif]

IIRC, I did a similar switch back in the day (X2 3800+ -> Athlon 64 3700+)

I didn't have any issues with going back to a single core CPU. Of course, your results may vary, but I wouldn't expect for you to have any problems

Peace

 

[betasub]

The main issue you may encounter is the OS recognising (or not) the processor as a different order of ACPI hardware.

You can prepare for this by un-installing the CPU driver under Device Manager/Computer/ACPI Uni(Multi)processor PC before shutting down and removing each processor (and then installing the correct ACPI driver after installation of a different processor).

 

[T2k]

Uniprocessor driver should handle single CPU without any problem (I never encountered any problem like that.) The problem would be if you'd be swapping mobos but IIUC you won't, right?

 

[Ratman6161]

I read threads about going from single to dual, but not the other way around.

This will work just fine - no worries. I do it all the time in virtual machine environments. With VM's you can change the number of cpus assigned at will so when installing a new one, I always assign two cores during installation. that way the multiprocessor HAL gets set up on install. Then after installation I remove one of the cores. That way I always have the option to add one or more back in later.

Anyway - it works fine.

 

[Joony]

Update!

I swapped it out without any pre prepping.

It boots up perfectly fine and recognized single core. Bad thing is...there is no video signal from post until XP starts up...how strange, any ideas?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Clear the CMOS, if that doesn't work then reseat cpu/ram/vga..

 

[Tanananantanan]

Hi Mr. Joony!

I have today my HP dx5150 SFF (Small Form Factor) with AMD Athlon 64 X2 3200+ standard installed to it, and im planning to upgrade it to Athlon 64 x2 4400+. Im a bit of worry.

Since the SFF (Small Form Factor) is slimmer than the Microtower Chassis and if I will change my Single core processor to this x2 4400+ Dual-Core, will I experience any problem? Will this new processor (including its heat sink and still using the same installed fan in my pc) fit in my SFF Desktop? Will this new processor affect the Mainboard of my SFF Desktop?

Your reply is highly appreciated.

Thank you very much!!!