Downgrade to Single Core

[Clocker]

I want to sell my 4400+ Toledo core (while it's worth something) and go single core for a while until I decide to upgrade again (probably to C2D). I bought an X2 for a specific task that took me about a month a while back and I no longer need the capability of dual core.

How can I downgrade to a single core A64 without having to reinstall Windows?

Thanks,
C

 

[Mercutio]

You are switching the HAL that Windows is using.
On "Server" windows, there's a program to let you do this. Desktop Windows has no such app. You'll need to start an in-place Windows upgrade and change your hardware after the system reboots for the first time.

The process is fairly painless.

 

[Clocker]

So just boot off my XP disk, do an upgrade (?) or a repair install ? Then when it goes to reboot, switch the hardware. Seems easy. Just want to clairfy about the upgrade business...not totally clear on that.

Thanks,
C

 

[Mercutio]

While windows is running normally, insert your XP (hopefully slipstreamed with nlite or whatever) install CD. Start an install. Choose to upgrade. Let it run. It will reboot your PC.
When your PC reboots, shut it off, swap your hardware and when power it back on.

 

[Stereodude]

I want to sell my 4400+ Toledo core (while it's worth something) and go single core for a while until I decide to upgrade again (probably to C2D). I bought an X2 for a specific task that took me about a month a while back and I no longer need the capability of dual core.

How can I downgrade to a single core A64 without having to reinstall Windows?

Thanks,
C

How much can you possibly get by selling it? $150? and then you have to turn around and spend another $60 on a lower end CPU... Seems like a lot of hassle for $90 and a slower PC.

 

[Clocker]

$90 is $90

Plus I will get a ~25% higher clock speed with the single core cpu I'll be getting so it will be better for gaming and the other single threaded stuff I do..

 

[Clocker]

While windows is running normally, insert your XP (hopefully slipstreamed with nlite or whatever) install CD. Start an install. Choose to upgrade. Let it run. It will reboot your PC.
When your PC reboots, shut it off, swap your hardware and when power it back on.

Thanks!

 

[Stereodude]

$90 is $90

Plus I will get a ~25% higher clock speed with the single core cpu I'll be getting so it will be better for gaming and the other single threaded stuff I do..

Isn't your 4400+ a 2.2gHz? The $60 CPUs are 2.0gHz. I don't see any Single Core S939's above 2.4Ghz and they're ~$80 shipped.

 

[Clocker]

2.4Ghz I didn't bother re-doing the math. Either way it's $ in my pocket, a faster CPU for what I am doing, and the time investment is minimal.

 

[Clocker]

I copied my WinXP disk to my 2nd HDD and hacked the registery Sourcepath to point to it. I should be good to go with that, right?

 

[Bozo]

Why can't you go into Device Manager and under Computers and have it scan for new hardware.
On some systems I have taken a backup from a Celeron box and installed it on a P4 without any trouble. I just install the latest .inf files from Intel after Windows finishes finding all the new hardware.

Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

There is a different kernel for single and multi processor systems

 

[Bozo]

There is a different kernel for single and multi processor systems

That's good to know as I am planning on going from a Celeron D to a Core 2 Duo.

Bozo :joker:

 

[LOST6200]

How can your time sbe wortht the fefforts? Id ont sel anythign less thant $200 net.

 

[Clocker]

How can your typing be so bad? You might invest some of your valuable time into that.

 

[LOST6200]

I have no rational explnantion, but I dpnt; feel inhibited anymore. I cannot fix thoe mistakes. Perhaps aftyer the death and bodily donatation, they can slice my brain and wsee if any organic cause was presetn. My fibgers need a spellchecksxeer.

 

[LunarMist]

How can your time sbe wortht the fefforts? Id ont sel anythign less thant $200 net.

Sometimes the concept is more important than the money.

 

[Adcadet]

I'm playing around with compression software these days, and it's pretty impressive on my C2D system to see my CPU utilization on both cores running 80+% while my computer still feels responsive. Maybe it's the way 7-zip is written (with it's thread being low priority) and that fact that I'm compressing from one drive to another and my OS and swap on on yet another drive, but I'm impressed that my computer remains almost as responsive under this load as when it's truly idle. I wonder how much of this is because I've got a dual core system. Clocker, you had a dual core system and I know you've run single core systems - any recent comparisons?

 

[Clocker]

The reason I went dual core was because I had to rip and encode about 5,000 songs from CDs and, to save time, I wanted to do two CDs at the same time. I didn't want to have any issues ripping & encoding multiple songs at the same time and wanted to get done as quickly as possible so I moved to dual core for that. I have to drop in the new CPU when I get home today. I doubt I'll feel much degradation in going from single to dual core. I don't do anything that keeps the cpu heavily loaded all the time like the ripping/encoding did... I rarely use zip programs because I have enough extra space that I don't even bother...

 

[Bozo]

Don't know about dual/single core issues, but running any kind of virtualization softare on a Celeron pretty much sucks. Even with 2GB of RAM and 2-WD Raptors in RAID 0.

Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

My experience with VMs has been mixed. Unless the machines are idle most of the time, or have a core/RAM/HDD all to themselves, the performance has been lacking.

Also, MS' tech support guys won't guarantee a fix on a VM. They will provide their "best efforts" and thats it.

 

[Mercutio]

I think that just proves the adage: "What Intel Giveth, Microsoft Taketh Away."

 

[Clocker]

While windows is running normally, insert your XP (hopefully slipstreamed with nlite or whatever) install CD. Start an install. Choose to upgrade. Let it run. It will reboot your PC.
When your PC reboots, shut it off, swap your hardware and when power it back on.

Worked perfectly & painlessly. Thanks Merc.

 

[Bozo]

I went to move a 5 year old XP install to a new motherboard/cpu. Just plugging the hard drive into the new motherboard resulted in a BSOD, which I expected. So I did the upgrade install described here.
But, I managed to screw it up. I used an XP CD with SP2 silp streamed into it. (the original install had no service pack on the CD) When asked for a CD key, I mistakenly typed in the wrong one.
The computer boots up fine, but I cannot install any MS upgrades or fixes. MS Update does not work. MS web site will validate the install as being legal, but the install is not "authorized". (IE and MS Update will not connect to the net. I used Firefox)
Looks like I should have used the original CD and CD key. Now, the original CD won't even recognize that there is a Windows install on the hard drive.
Guess it was time to do a clean install anyway.

Bozo :joker:

 

[Mercutio]

If it's running at all, you can do the standard repair install.
Only this time, use a proper key.