A4-5000 Shows up as single core

skyline4727 · Aug 30, 2016

I'm working on a computer for a friend. It's an all in one with an AMD A4-5000 APU and Windows 10 is seeing it as a single core processor. I did a clean install and it's still the same. I even checked with CPU-Z and that shows one logical core as well. I went into MS config to see if it was limited to only one core but it was set to 0 which means it will use all available cores. Even if I try to change it, I only see 0 and 1 as the two options. I checked the BIOS but I didn't see anything that would affect the number of cores. The BIOS only sees it as a single core as well. Is it possible for three of the cores to fail and have Windows running on just 1?

darthvader30 · Aug 30, 2016

Can you list the specs.

skyline4727 · Aug 30, 2016

darthvader30 :

A4-5000, 6GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Win 10 Home

darthvader30 · Aug 30, 2016

Motherboard?

skyline4727 · Aug 30, 2016

darthvader30 :

Whatever OEM Dell used

Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163 · Aug 30, 2016

Are you sure you're not confusing utilisation with logical processors? In task manager they're turned off in the graph by default. You have to rightclick then choose Change graph to > Logical processors.

All the best!

skyline4727 · Aug 30, 2016

Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163 :

darthvader30 · Aug 30, 2016

Can you upload a screenshot of CPU-Z and also of task manager. It's not possible for 3 cores to fail and just 1 works fine.
Did you notice this recently after installing windows 10? Which windows were you on before and did it show 4 cores?

skyline4727 · Aug 30, 2016

darthvader30 :

It was already Windows 10 when he brought it to me but I think it was 7 before. I noticed on his old Windows 10 so IDK if it was doing the same thing on Win 7.

Pics - http://imgur.com/gallery/hMsyA

darthvader30 · Aug 30, 2016

Right click on Core #0 in CPUZ, does is show 4 cores?
Go to msconfig and just select 1 core and reboot and check in task manager if it shows L2 cache 2MB or less. It's weird since your cache amount is correct but not all cores are not active.
Does the BIOS has any kind of power saving option? If yes, turn it off.

skyline4727 · Aug 30, 2016

darthvader30 :

Yeah, I thought that was weird too. It only shows 1 core when I right click in CPU-Z. I checked all the BIOS options, but nothing to change about CPU. All the power saving options are off.

darthvader30 · Aug 30, 2016

What happened when your selected 1 cpu in msconfig?

skyline4727 · Aug 30, 2016

darthvader30 :

Nothing, it looks exactly the same. Still shows 2mb of cache.

darthvader30 · Aug 31, 2016

Well then the only thing I can think of is running prime95 http://www.mersenne.org/download/#download . Most probably the other 3 cores went offline to save power. Prime95 will stress the CPU and maybe those cores will come online during the stress test.

Also, go to device manager and expand processors, how many times is your processor listed?

skyline4727 · Aug 31, 2016

darthvader30 :

Tried Prime95, still shows one core on there while it's running. Device manager only shows 1. I've uninstalled it and restarted a few time just to be sure but it always comes up as 1.

darthvader30 · Aug 31, 2016

Is your gaming performance impacted? do you see games lagging or sluttering ?

skyline4727 · Aug 31, 2016

darthvader30 :

He doesn't really use it for gaming but it is really slow at everything. The CPU is constantly at 100% usage and the computer stutters when opening task manager or Chrome. It actually takes a while to load a new webpage in Chrome even with fast internet. The whole thing feels really sluggish. That's what made me want to check task manager in the first place and how I found out about the issue.

darthvader30 · Aug 31, 2016

Alright, is your BIOS updated to the latest version? Make aure that it gets updated to the latest version. Also, did you install all the latest chipset drivers? I know it has nothing to with this but still it's worth a shot. If not, download it from AMD's website.

The last option would be to reinstall windows 7 and verify that all cores are online or not.

skyline4727 · Aug 31, 2016

darthvader30 :

There haven't been any BIOS updates in a while but this computer is running the most recent. I thought the same thing so I downloaded the AMD APU drivers a few different times but still nothing. I may have to just reinstall Windows 7 and see what's going on. Honestly though, I'm more than tempted just to tell him to get a new computer. This processor has less than Atom level performance. I was going to recommend a Pentium or i3 and swap the HDD for an SSD.

darthvader30 · Sep 1, 2016

Yeah that would be much better than messing with this PC. i3 6100 + SSD would be a huge performance improvement over this PC.
Open resource monitor and can you see any cores parked?

A4-5000 Shows up as single core

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