About to upgrade my A64 3000 to A64 x2 4200. I found this guide at XtremeSystems Forums. Is this the way to do it? Anyone have any issues with below or additional help/tips?

Here is how to get your dual core AMD system running like it should with no hitches and stibility issues..............since the new AMD DUAL CORE OPTIMIZER came out people say you dont need the MS HOTFIX anymore, i dont know if this is true or not, but i tested these fixes with and without one another, and found they work better together, giving an increase in performance.....but thats from my personal expierience......try for yourself, i recomend installing both the MS HOTFIX and the AMD DUAL CORE OPTIMIZER, as they work good together and also give a performance increase by about 1-5%.

PLEASE BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY FIRST!!


1 - Install the amd drivers, download it from here... http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html

2 - read this website and download the hotfix....READ here http://support.microsoft.com/?id=896256 ........Download here http://www.amdzone.com/files/WinXPdualcorehotfix.exe

3 - Edit your registry to enable the HOTFIX, follow these steps.
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Right-click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager, point to New, and then click Key.
3. Type Throttle for the new key name.
4. Right-click Throttle, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type PerfEnablePackageIdle for the value name.
6. Right-click PerfEnablePackageIdle, and then click Modify.
7. In the Edit DWORD Value box, type 1. In the Value data box, make sure that Hexadecimal is selected, and then click OK.
8. Quit Registry Editor.

4 - Make sure your BOOT.ini has this command in it, /usepmtimer to check, right click on My Computer go to properties, click on the ADVANCE tab, then under startup and recovery click on settings, then click on EDIT....

5 - Install the NEW AMD Dual Core Optimizer.......from here.....http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_9706,00.html

Your Boot.ini should look something like this now..............

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

Finally your done, if anyone has any questions feel free to PM me.

Ok, here is a simple way to reverse the drivers...........

1 - Uninstall the Hotfix, go into ad/remove programs, click on show updates and remove update numbered KB896256

2 - Reverse the registry entry.

3 - Uninstall the AMD drivers.

4 - Uninstall the AMD Dual Core Optimizer.

5 - Done.

I don't know but I would be very interested in any comments on this as well. I am in the same boat - i.e. want to go dual core but without having to reformat etc.

does this post contain all I need to do?

I followed the guide devilman posted. All went smoothly without a hitch and Windows is definitely faster and more responsive.

I didn't even need to re-install Windows, but I will at some point soon for good measure.

Jon

I'm not sure if any of this is necessary now? I say that because I have upgraded a few machines from mono-core to dual-core and its been a case of just swapping the processors and starting windows.

I haven't installed the AMD drivers. One of the drivers listed above (amdcpusetup.exe) enables the Cool'n'Quiet function and the other driver above (Setup.exe) is meant to be installed *if you experience* any stuttering in games etc.

So as I see it if your not using Cool'n'Quiet and your not having any stuttering then there is no need to do any of the above?

I suspect that guide is very old? I don't think AMD or Microsoft would expect a user to edit their reg to make things work properly?

Thanks I will do this

Geforce,

I have to quickly congratulate you on how helpful you are, a lot of the threads I have read you have posted helpful advice on.

you're a credit to the forums

Yeh it probably is an old guide and all of pretty unnecessary. I'm a tad paranoid so I did follow it and it did work for me.

If nothing else, I do recommend installing the AMD Dual Core Optimiser. Firstly because not installing it can cause weird problems because the dual cores' Time Stamp Counters aren't synchronised, and secondly because CoreTemp 0.95 (and newer versions) will probably crash without it.

From the AMD site:

he AMD Dual-Core Optimizer can help improve some PC gaming video performance by compensating for those applications that bypass the Windows API for timing by directly using the RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) instruction. Applications that rely on RDTSC do not benefit from the logic in the operating system to properly account for the affect of power management mechanisms on the rate at which a processor core's Time Stamp Counter (TSC) is incremented. The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer helps to correct the resulting video performance effects or other incorrect timing effects that these applications may experience on dual-core or multiple processor systems.

Click to expand...

Clark the White said:

I have to quickly congratulate you on how helpful you are, a lot of the threads I have read you have posted helpful advice on.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot mate, means a lot I'm glad you found some of my babble useful/helpful

Jon

Edit: Clarity.

GeForce said:

If nothing else, I do recommend installing the AMD Dual Core Optimiser. Firstly because it can cause weird problems when the dual cores' Time Stamp Counters aren't synchronised, and secondly because CoreTemp 0.95 (and newer versions) will probably crash without it.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure if I am reading that correctly? You recommend to install the Optimiser driver because it can cause some weird problems?

And the CoreTemp crashing is something we are speculating on, has anyone confirmed this yet?

Sorry I am hungover from carnival lol. . . .

Haha sorry. My mistake. I meant that the dual cores' Time Stamp Counters not being sync'd can cause weird problems

And no that's true; it's not confirmed. But I reckon it's worth installing the DCO just to be on the safe side

Jon

GeForce said:

I meant that the dual cores' Time Stamp Counters not being sync'd can cause weird problems

Click to expand...

Right Then I think I'm gonna install the dual-core optimiser and give it a test.

I have no idea what a timestamp is apart from those things people clock in and out of work with in factories!

I was reading a post by Tony on the OCZ forums and he said its important to install this DC driver if you are testing using Orthos (which I still am).

Yeah good work on your posts so far GeForce, always helpful and friendly!

Someone did a really good post explaining how the DCO works on OcUK a while back, but I can't find it for the life of me.

I'll try and explain it

The Win32 API contains other APIs such as QueryPerformanceTimer and QueryPerformanceFrequency. Basically these are application based timing systems. Now games and rendering applications use these API calls to retrieve very accurate timing information, on which they base their frame rendering and physics engines.

Some games, however, bypass the Win32 API. Instead of using this software based timing, they use a hardware based timing by calling something known as the RDTSC x86 instruction.

Now each core on a multicore system has a RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) which is a bit like a clock. So, for the sake of argument, let's take a single threaded game running on a dual core system. Now the API assigns the game to Core 0. So Core 0 is processing game information like this:

TSC @ 1000 - frame 1
TSC @ 1100 - frame 2
TSC @ 1200 - frame 3
TSC @ 1300 - frame 4

Because Core Affinity is not assigned, the API can switch the game thread from one core to the other. This could be for any number of reasons, but a lot of single threaded apps will behave like this. If you run a single threaded program, you'll often notice that instead of one core being at 100% and the other being at 0%, both will hover around 50%. This is the API moving the thread constantly between cores to even out the load.

The problem appears when the API switches the thread to the other core. At frame 4 in the above example, Core 0's RDTSC is at 1300. However, Core 1's RDTSC could well be anything. Let's say it's at 1100. When this happens, as you can see, the timing is completely messed up. From the game's point of view, time has gone backwards. Only 2 frames, admittedly, but this happens continuously and is what causes stuttering and other problems.

Now for the DCO. In short, it "listens" for timing related calls either to the Win32 API or the RDTSC x86 instruction. Then, it reroutes them to a core-independent timing system (the power management timer). Therefore the game (or whatever app) works correctly, even when the API is moving the thread between cores.

As a side note, the power management timer is what the /usepmtimer switch is in the boot.ini file that is shown in the first post in this thread. It makes the entire system use the PM Timer, which eliminates all timing problems.

Hope that was clear enough!

Thanks for that Wayne, the same goes for you I have to say. Always willing to help and very knowledgeable!

Let us know how testing the DCO goes

Jon

GeForce said:

As a side note, the power management timer is what the /usepmtimer switch is in the boot.ini file that is shown in the first post in this thread. It makes the entire system use the PM Timer, which eliminates all timing problems.

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Is that /usepmtimer switch installed now with the dual-core optimiser?

Yup.

If you install the DCO and then look in the boot.ini file, you should see the /usepmtimer switch there

Jon

Cheers!

btw: if you have installed this *Optimiser* have u been running CoreTemp to see if it still can *sometimes* switch off the puter?

Mmm well I've had the DCO installed ever since I put the 4400+ X2 into this machine, and CoreTemp has never yet caused the system to switch off. And I have been running it a fair amount, what with stress testing, switching coolers, playing around with C'n'Q etc

Touch wood

Jon

Hi there

I am not clued up on X2 and the problems with Windows. Is it really bad? If I upgrade to say an Opteron will I have problems?

Michael

Ghuraba said:

If I upgrade to say an Opteron will I have problems?

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Don't get the wrong idea, none of this is a problem really more niggling issues, but the files mentioned above for download correct them.

The Opteron dual-cores would be the same as the X2 as far as windows is concerned.

Thanks for all the comments to this guide. Can I confirm that the windows xp hotfix by editing the registry to enable the HOTFIX, is definetly required still? Some of you mentioned that you thought the guide was old?

But old could mean it's still vaild! Thanks D.

GeForce said:

Mmm well I've had the DCO installed ever since I put the 4400+ X2 into this machine, and CoreTemp has never yet caused the system to switch off.

Click to expand...

I installed the Optimiser and then loaded up CoreTemp and Orthos and left it running, just came back to the PC 45mins later to find it switched off? (stock speeds).

Now to the next step, do you have the CPU driver installed as well? (Cool'n'Quiet).

[edit] Scrap that!! the machine just switched off without Coretemp open so my problem lay elsewhere?

Very strange, my machine has just done the same thing! Left it on the desktop with nothing running, came back a few mins later to find it switched off. Very odd.

I do have the C'n'Q driver installed and activated, the multiplier drops to 5x at idle making the CPU clock 1.0Ghz.

Hmm. I'll have to investigate this further...

devilman_079 said:

Can I confirm that the windows xp hotfix by editing the registry to enable the HOTFIX, is definetly required still?

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Well I installed the hotfix and the registry entry that the guide mentions was not created automatically. So I created it myself. So unless the program itself has changed, then yes the registry mod is still required. If I were you, I'd do it just to be on the safe side It can't hurt.

Jon

GeForce said:

Very odd

Click to expand...

What chip are you running again? its an X2 4200+ right?

Did u buy that chip recently or?