L2 cache

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Hi!

My client has a Compaq Presario 2100 Notebook type 2118EU DP835E with a
Mobile Intel Celeron 2.4GHz and 256kB L2 cache, and WinXPHome SP2 on it.

The machine is felt operating quite sluggish, and after doing several virus
spyware etc. checkings there hasn't come up any such type of problems.

By checking the machine with TuneUp Utilities 2003 v3.1, it noted, that
the L2 is just 0kB in size, so, it seems that the L2 is disabled.

In a year or two I have been having some other this type of cases, and the
solution has been simply to enable the L2 in the BIOS, but this particular
Phoenix BIOS KE.M1.65 09/15/2003 do not have any option for a L2
enable/disable.

What is the clue in this? Some marketing restriction, or what?

After checking this with HPQ Support the answer was, there is no option to
enable/disable the L2, because the 256kB would be 0 by default and only 512kB
and 1024kB would be got enabled, due to the design of the processor ...

Isn't this somehow crazy?? There is 256kB L2 available, but disabled ...

If someone do have have some comment or advice for this it's much appreciated.


Best regards,

Pete V.

 

[DantheMan]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

in the registry there is an entry that is by default 0. That may be what
your program is looking at. So, as far as software goes, to optimize
performance, set this value to the value of the cache on your CPU. I don't
believe the l2 cache is disabled, just not specified in the registry.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/Memory
Management secondleveldatacache

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Hi!

Thank you for your reply DanTheMan.

Yes, I have been checking this thing on two other machines, and it seems
that the TuneUp Utilities 2003 v3.1 do look/see the L2, and the L1, too,
directly from the mobo and/or the processor, as on both these checked cases
the SecondLevelCache was noted as "0" in the registry, but found to be
128/256 kB actually in use by TuneUp Utilities, and also somehow felt on the
operation of the machine ...

Now my guess is, that on this particular Compaq Presario 2100 Notebook
Celeron 2.4GHz case the L2/256kB is present and OK on the processor chip, but
not "let to be" enabled by the Phoenix BIOS i.e. disabled by the order of
H-P/Compaq, for marketing or technical or other reasons ...


Let's see, if someone do have some other comment on this.


Best regards,

Pete V.
M.Sc.(IT)
Advanced PC Support
Helsinki, Finland



"DanTheMan" wrote:

>
> in the registry there is an entry that is by default 0. That may be what
> your program is looking at. So, as far as software goes, to optimize
> performance, set this value to the value of the cache on your CPU. I don't
> believe the l2 cache is disabled, just not specified in the registry.
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/Memory
> Management secondleveldatacache
>
>