Windows 7 i7 920 showing only one core

[robow]

Hi,
About 2 months ago I built a new gaming computer i used asus p6t mobo, 12gig corsair ram, 2 285 gtx gpu's, and a core i7 920 processor. I used windows 7 premium 64 bit and all was well it showed 8 threads in task manager aswell as in cpu-z and even speedfan, now it is only showing 1. I have looked around for a solution but can't find one. The cpu view in task manager is locked at one and also locked in msconfig. I have tried to reinstall the drivers but that has accomplished nothing and I made sure that my BIOS was up to date. Does anyone know how to fix this other than reinstall of windows?

 

[Mike]

The only time I have seen this is if the other cores are disabled in the BIOS. It is possible some of the cores died? That would be very unsuual... however, the good news is, you may still be under warranty.

 

[kemical]

Hi,
if you open msconfig again, click the boot tab and then advanced. Just make sure that the box arrowed is unticked..

Link Removed due to 404 Error

 

[loathe]

I'd try taking the CPU out and reinstalling it, new thermal paste and reboot. Maybe your BIOS will detect a new CPU and hopefully fix your problem. Like Mike has said, Ive only ever seen this with BIOS settings. Format and reinstall may be your last option, then perhaps its a hardware fault.

 

[robow]

I will remove and reinstall the processor. If that does not work do you know who I should contact for help.

 

[Mike]

Please be very careful when you reseat the processor as this can cause major problems if you happen to get any thermal paste under the processor, any bending of pins, or in areas that it should not be in. You should also use a very thin coat of thermal paste that is evenly distributed over the processor after it is already seated in the slot - that's how I do it anyway.

If by any luck of rhyme or reason you do actually get all cores detected again you should do what is called burn-in testing and run either Prime95 or SETI@Home for the next 48 hours to ensure there are no lockups and that the core temperatures stay at consistant with 100% CPU in use.

If your cores still aren't detected, something must be wrong with the processor - in which case - you would most certainly want to contact the vendor first, which probably doesn't have a return policy in CPUs, and then Intel to see if they can RMA it for you. You may have more of a chance getting an RMA if the processor was dead-on-arrival if you know what I am saying here.

 

[loathe]

Heres a good guide if your concerned. Certainly care needs to be taken, but its a simple process really.

 

[robow]

Thanks for all the help I have built a few computers so I am comfortable around the processor. Not sure what the actual issue was but it worked when I first built it then just stopped seeing the cores. I didn;t have much on it so I went ahead and reloaded it and did a bios update all is well now. Thanks for the help.

 

[kemical]

Glad to hear you got it sorted.. I suspect the bios update was the key..

 

[loathe]

Mint, nothing worse than sending gear back for replacement. Sweet rig by the way.

 

[cybercore]

To point to what has already been mentioned in this thread, I would check if all cores appear in Bios Setup. If they do, then you may want to reinstall Windows. Also, I would try disabling/enabling Hyper-Threading feature, of course if all 4 cores show up in the Bios.

If the new bios version was burnt recently, maybe I would try to roll back to the native bios version which you have on your motherboard support CD.