[rider200]

Last week I had four OS installed on my main computer - really Dumb if you know what I mean but it is the only one that is powerful enough to run XP, Vista, Win 7 32, and Win 7 64.

I never did get ERD Commander to run on a hard drive - an experiment for a later time maybe.

Anyway I was bouncing back an forth in the Win 7's and XP (Vista only lasted an hour BTW) and then it blew up.

Restart go in to Win 7 and install some drivers - drivers failed but that is a different problem. Went back in to XP

I went to a web site looking for some drivers for Win 7 32 bit, I was in XP as normal and when I came out of XP to go to Win 7 32 the F1 prompt came up.

Strange but I went in and looked at the drives, time, the OC (OverClocking) setup every thing looked ok.

By mistake (XP is the default OS in the Boot Menu) I let XP load.

I use a program called Set Affintiy II, when the system started (a little slow by the way) the affinity prgram wasn't in the tray.

So I go to start up and click on the program, it won't run.... really wierd.

I open the device manager and click on the processors, only one processor. Now why only one processor? (It is an Intel Q6600 @ 3.04 GHz, four processors).

The first thing that came to mind (didn't do what I should have done) was that maybe the driver for the processors was corrupt. So like a good user (not a tech) I run the MS Update program. Restart, still only one processor not four!

So I go out on the web and do a search for info on why XP doesn't see a multiprocessor. Nothing worth mentioning shows up with the exception of a service pack by MS. I download the service pack and try to install it, it will not install because it is older than the SP 3 I have installed.

I am still in the Doh! mode, I still haven't tried one of the Win 7 installs.

So the next dumb thing was I put back my week old image of XP on the SSD and see what happens. Not too smart now I can't access the Win 7 partitions with out reinstalling Win 7 32 (It has the Dual Boot manager not the 64 bit).

Not good only one processor, so I decide to reinstall XP and blow away the Win 7 partitions. Doh! is really strong at this point.

Still only one processor and now I have deleted my Win 7 installs....

Next I go to ASUS and look at the FAQ for my motherboard. Nothing, Then I look at the BIOS updates, there are two there newer than the one I have installed when I bought the motherboard. The interesting part of the discription was -'Update for multiprocessor CPU's!' So I download it and flash the BIOS.

After the flash the system restarts and I get the F1 prompt as normal. So I go in set the date and poke around in the BIOS.

Do you know what the ACPI does? Advanced Configuration and Power Interface? Uhhh - No!

I do now, if it is disabled then the motherboard and the Operating System can not comminicate about the processor. The OS assumes there is only one processor and the motherboard (through the BIOS) doesn't tell the OS there is a Duo or Quad processor installed. It also controls the power settings for the processor. If I was tweaking the voltage on the processors I would have noticed something was amiss right away but I don't tweak voltages after destroying a perfictally good P4.

So the moral to this post is don't be in the DOH! mode when troubleshooting your hardware problems. If I had of started one of the Win 7 installs and checked the Device Manager I would have known it wasn't an OS problem but a hardware problem.

And if you have a multiprocessor motherboard and for some reason it reverts to the normal single processor look at the ACPI before doing the DOH!

Now Why did the ACPI become disabled? I have a theroy - Bouncing from Win 7 to Vista to XP about once an hour for most of a day somehow corrupted the BIOS settings. In a couple of weeks when my work load drops off I have a spare SSD that I am going to install all three OS's on again and see if I can duplicate the problem.

A hard lession but then the good ones usuall are.

:)