One Core of Core 2 Duo not functioning

[Harris2508]

I'm curious if anyone in this group has a thought on this matter. My wife's PC has an ASUS P5BVM-SE board with an Intel E6400 Core 2 Duo that is about 2.5 years old or so. Lately I've noticed that Task Manager reports only one core operating. Also CPU-Z identifies the processor correctly, but shows only one core operating. Same thing with PC-Diag. Using SpeedFan (v 4.39) only one core is reported and the core temperature is quite high, like 57 C, while the CPU temp is about 40 C. Not usually the case for an E6400.

I can try swapping processors, but am wondering if this could be a reporting thing with the motherboard or perhaps something else, like maybe the chipset.

Thanks a lot for any thoughts on this. Very much appreciated!

--Bob Harris

 

[ulysses35]

First things first. Does Task manager show the CPU as one graph ? if so going to the menu at the top and selecting one graphc per core.

You could try using "Realtemp" to see if it gives you a reading for both cores - no temp on one of the cores means that either CPU is faulty or the mobo has a fault.

You could try flashing the BIOS with a newer version, it may help you.

 

[Harris2508]

First things first. Does Task manager show the CPU as one graph ? if so going to the menu at the top and selecting one graphc per core.

You could try using "Realtemp" to see if it gives you a reading for both cores - no temp on one of the cores means that either CPU is faulty or the mobo has a fault.

You could try flashing the BIOS with a newer version, it may help you.

Thank you very much for your reply, much appreciated. Yes, I've checked the setting on TaskManager and it is not set for one graph, it's set for one graph/cpu. Even though the mobo had the current bios, I went ahead and flashed it just in case it could have become corrupted, but that had no effect.

I guess I'll go ahead and swap the CPU and see what happens.

One thing I'm wondering is how long would the thing run on one core before it tanked. Probably awhile, but most likely it would tank just when the system was in the middle of an important task! Guess I'd best deal with it!

Thanks again for your thoughts.

--Bob

 

[Shadow703793]

I remember some one else having a smiler problem on a Gigabyte G35 board. Their solution was that after a Windows re-install it found the 2nd core.

 

[Harris2508]

I remember some one else having a smiler problem on a Gigabyte G35 board. Their solution was that after a Windows re-install it found the 2nd core.

Now that is an interesting idea. As part of my investigation of this issue I did try booting from a BartPE CD to see what that would see on the CPU. It also only reported one core. So, I'm kind of leaning to a hardware issue. The only question is whether its the CPU or the MB. I'm coming closer to thinking the only way to be sure is to swap the CPU. The only thing there is that CPU failures seem to be quite rare in my limted experience.

--Bob

 

[GhislainG]

Is there a setting in the BIOS to disable the second core?

 

[Harris2508]

Is there a setting in the BIOS to disable the second core?

There is no such setting. With hyperthreading CPUs you'll sometimes see the ability to turn that function on or off but I've found nothing like that with this particular board/bios.

I've decided to replace the CPU with another similar Core 2 Duo that I have here. I'll report back what I find.

I really appreciate all of the responses!

--Bob