[RESOLVED] DUAL CORE PROCESSOR

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My Compaq Presario CQ5210F is a dual-core AMD Athlon II X2 Processor and Nvidia GeForce 6150se. I read about this tip in the monthly Smart Computing magazine and I just wonder if you more learned computer wizards agree with what the writer wrote. He was complaining about the slowness of his computer when he wrote this tip. He went into msconfig, clicked on the Boot tab and selected Windows configuration(may be the only option), then clicked on Advanced Options and then inserted the number that corresponds to the number of processors his computer has. When I did this for my processor, I noticed that the figure entered was set at 1 and so I changed it to 2 because I have a dual processor. Don't really know what to expect but the tip made sense to me but I do wonder why the factory set it to 1 rather than 2. Change may cause a heat problem so I'll have to check on that. I look forward to the July issue to see if more is reported about this. Look for your input and as usual, TIA

[photolady]

Buf, I don't think that's right. You only have one physically installed processor inside your computer, not two. And mine is a dual core also, but shows only one in that advanced options too.

[General Winters]

The factory did not set it to 1 ...

Until you tick the box the computer uses your default number of cores, when someone ticks that box then are generally using it to test their system eg to see if a core is faulty or to try running software on one core to see how that works re performance on max cores.

Since the drop down box starts at 1 and continues to whatever number of cores you see, when disabled it is grayed out and shows the start of the list, 1...

http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-...ows-7-a-2.html

The default is to use all processors during boot. What you see there in msconfig is an option to _limit_ processors used to a number of your choosing. It shows "1" by default, but the processor-limiting function is not engaged unless you check the box to turn it on. No need to fiddle with this.

In other words, your computer will use the default number of cores when booting if the box is unticked.

If you want to limit the number of cores for some reason, then tick the box and select the number of cores ..

Some people claim, that ticking the box and selecting the max cores can however help your boot time... cough...

[SuperSparks]

I agree, all cores are used by default. The only purpose of those Boot Advanced Options is for troubleshooting purposes, otherwise they should be left alone.

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Thank you Knowing I could rely on quick and correct answers is why I posed my question. Thanks again--and I am going back to original setting of one .