Somebody gave me a computer a while ago and I just noticed that in the hardware manager it shows there being two processors. also in the Task Manager it shows two processor windows. Could I be dreaming?

Here are some pics of what I'm talking about.

Yes.

do I need a special version of windows or will XP pro SP2 work fine?

do I need a special version of windows or will XP pro SP2 work fine?

You do not need a special version of windows (although you'd probably need something more recent than 3.1, 98, or NT) -- XP Pro SP2 will work fine.

What is it you plan on doing with it?

I thought that pentium 4 was only one core

wikepedia

In 2005, the Pentium 4 was superseded by the Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition dual-core CPUs.

but I guess there are some c2d chips sold as pentium 4, idk

He could well have a motherboard with multiple chip slots. That's what I have.

I don't really have any specific plans for it. I've just been using it as my "dorking around on the internet" computer. I may have to get a mid level video card and plays some games on it now though.

Thanks for your help dusty.

there is a program called cpu-z that tells every little detail about your cpu.

thanks aardvark, I'll check that out.

no it doesn't necessarily mean you have 2 x CPUs

it could be one of the Pentium 4s with "hyper threading" which shows up as 2 CPUs but is only one CPU, one core but they take advantage of the rise and fall of the CPU cycle or some crap.

if it's pentium D it's dual core, but not necessarily 2 different CPUs but that's better than a hyperthreading

they made hyper threading CPUs all the way up to 3.0Ghz if i remember correctly, so since yours is 2.8Ghz it could be hyper threading or Pentium D since Pentium Ds were first made in 2.8Ghz variants

best way to find out is with cpu-z as suggested above

to take advantage of dual CPU/dual core you need the professional variants of Windows eg. NT4.0, Windows 2000 professional or above, Windows XP Pro, dunno about vista

XP home, and windows 95/98/ME will not take advantage of dual core and dual CPU. seeing as it's showing up as 2 then you're already running a suitable OS

I just used cupid and it llooks like you're right DC. It says I have 1 CPU with 2 threads.

I forgot to thank everyone. I've asked a lot of questions on this hotline and have always gotten straight forward non-pain-in-the-ass answers. Thanks!

Here is a story that I have for my dual core processor computer when I first got it.

When I got my present Dell XPS 210 dual core processor computer the above screen is what I had with Task Manager. But the disk drive that I had was giving me imminent warnings of failure and I called Dell about this. They sent me a replacement drive but whether it was failing or not is still a question.

When I installed the replacement drive and allowed the software system to install itself it did not recognize my dual core processor with the Task Manager. I went into the BIOS and it was calling it a multi-processor computer. I called Dell again. They could not believe that I knew enough about it to tell them something was wrong. I keep them on the phone about three hours talking with them working through various things until finally I went into my BIOS and told the system to set itself up for a single processor first then I rebooted twice to ensure that everything was working for a single core design processor. Then I went into the BIOS again and reset it to multi-processor and did the re-boot a couple of times and it re-set everything properly for a dual core computer.

Apparently the replacement drive installation failed at the Windows installation level to recognize the dual processor while the BIOS told me that I have two cores as it actually has.

A quad core would show four cores under that Task Manager window.

God, I don't envy you. I get so goddamned frustrated when computers get all uppity on me. I swear it takes years off my life.

I used to work for Dell - their tech support is one of the most complained about services.

Well...sorry if I mislead you, I didn't think they had dual-core Pentium 4's, and I do know they have dual CPU motherboards, so I just assumed that's what you had.

I used to work for Dell - their tech support is one of the most complained about services.

Isn't that true about everyone? The tech support is the "front line", so it will always be any tech companies main source of gripes.

Isn't that true about everyone? The tech support is the "front line", so it will always be any tech companies main source of gripes.

possibly, but for dell asia pacific, they moved all the support to bangalore india and there were a lot of complaints about their english being ineligible

the malaysians in penang were a bit better but they only handled sales enquiries!

i don't know if it's still the case now, but IBM and HP still had native english speaking call centres

Buy from Dell Small Business and you have US based support.

yes, business/enterprise customers are a whole different story

but you're also paying more for lesser hardware, so it's to be expected

yes, business/enterprise customers are a whole different story

but you're also paying more for lesser hardware, so it's to be expected

The laptop I bought for my gf off of small business was significantly cheaper than the same speced consumer version.

Also, I know from personal experience my Lenovo came with XP home, and supported both of my cores.

Since it's only a P4, it's absolutely hyperthreading. So no you don't have two cpu's.

The laptop I bought for my gf off of small business was significantly cheaper than the same speced consumer version.

o rly, sometimes there's overlap but generally business costs more because you're paying for service and "stability" as opposed to cutting edge features like fairy dust.

Also, I know from personal experience my Lenovo came with XP home, and supported both of my cores.

I think you're right there, dual cores are still counted as one CPU. so Home is ok, 2 physically separate CPU packages is not supported.

Windows XP Professional can support up to two processors regardless of the number of cores on the processor. Microsoft Windows XP Home supports one processor.