disabling hyperthreading without reinstalling

[biosol]

I've got a system running specialized video capture and 3D modeling software. I've had a problem with rebooting, which I thought I solved by installing an after market HSF, but the system rebooted once again and I'm wondering if disabling HT might finally solve it completely.

In the system I have a 3.0E prescott HT cpu with 1GB DDR 400 RAM (which I've switch out with another system without improvement), a 120 GB IDE HD, and 4 firewire cards that I hook one Canon MiniDV camera to each one. When I've attached just 2 cameras I haven't seemed to have had the reboot problem, but that might just be because of limited testing. With 3 or 4 cameras attached it was rebooting mostly without a blue screen but something with a blue screen after less than a minute of live video feeds from the 3 or 4 cameras. I thought it might be a heat issue so I installed a Thermalright XP-90 and that did definitely help. The next day I was able to run live feeds from 4 cameras for 20 minutes on two occasions and I thought that was the problem. However, a week later it rebooted with 3 cameras going, but after the reboot staying operating for over 15 minutes.

The vender has said others are not having this problem, so I'm on my own to fix it, and I cannot take any chances of screwing up and reinstalling the OS because the vender will charge for a new license key.

So I'm wondering about disabling hyperthreading. If I just turn it off in the BIOS will the system still run 'normally'? Based on a Microsoft course I took a couple years ago I know a multi-cpu driver was installed during the installation, and this web site describes how to re-install the single cpu driver, but they say some systems required a reinstall of the OS.

http://www.lim.cz/support/html/HyperThreading/HyperThreading.html

This system doesn't have to run at the absolute best performance level, the software has probably run on p4 2.0 systems just fine. What recommendations do you have? Just try turning off HT in the BIOS, doing that and something in Windows XP SP2, or something else?

Any comments appreciated. Thanks.

 

[BadBigBen]

The vender has said others are not having this problem, so I'm on my own to fix it, and I cannot take any chances of screwing up and reinstalling the OS because the vender will charge for a new license key.

Sounds like a WRONG VENDOR to me...

Secondly, you can DL Belarc Advisor,

http://www.belarc.com,

it will reveal the installed KEY... then you could savely do a new install, with the Key you already have...

to your problem, what is the size of the PSU???? do you have enough Wattage/Amperes to cover all that stuff you have installed? (the bigger is better in this case)... Food for thought...


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[biosol]

Thanks Ben,
I have a 450W psu. Should that run this system or is more needed?

I'm on my own because I just purchased the software from the vender (they were very generous and gave me a huge discount so I can't complain, I put together what should be a $35k system for just over $6k.), so they are just supporting the software which is common. They have helped some, but to a certain point. I don't know if the Belarc will work since this is a niche product they have worked the license key to generate a new 'site' key everytime it's installed and you need to send them the 'site' code and they send you the license code. They're very protective, and also record the cpu serial/id number and some other stuff so using it illegally or copying/moving it is very difficult.

 

[linney]

This article mentions "Prescot" which may be worth a read.

885626 - Your computer stops responding when you restart to complete the installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;885626&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Are you getting any errors in the Event Viewer? You could disable the Automatic Restart so that any error causing a reboot is displayed on the screen.

This unrelated link and the type of problems encountered with a special "High End" system may offer some clues too. The debugging side of things might be useful?

Third copy attempt on 2GB data files = BSOD!
thread779-1025514