only one RTAS processor shows up on quad core system

[peret]

Hello everybody!

I think this is actually my first post on this forum. I have been an active reader for years though, always finding valuable info when I needed it. So I'd first like to express my gratitude towards everyone contributing here.

Here's what keeps me wondering: I just upgraded from Athlon XP 3700+(2.2 GHz) with MSI K8t Neo 2 V2.0 MB to Athlon II X4 630(2.8 GHz) with Asus M4A79XTD EVO MB and everything went smoothly. Except in PT the playback engine setup menu shows only 1 RTAS processor as an option and CPU usage limit max is 85%. It shows no other options to choose from. What am I missing here?

On the other hand this new processor and all four cores are present on Windows device manager for example.

All info appreciated, thanks in advance!
-Peter

Pro Tools 7.4 M-Powered
M-Audio Firewire Solo (5.10.0.5054)
1 x UAD-1 PCI
Windows XP Home SP3
Athlon II X4 630 quad core
Asus M4A79XTD EVO MB
4 GB DDR3
2 x IDE hard drive
1 x Lacie USB hard drive

[sunburst79]

Did you do a fresh OS install or migrate your drive from the old system?

The fact that you have all 4 cores showing in Task Manager tends to indicate that Windows is installed correctly. I would completely uninstall PT and do a fresh install along with all of the PACE and iLok drivers.

[Keybeeetsss]

Originally Posted by peret

Hello everybody!

I think this is actually my first post on this forum.

U think?


WELCOME!!!

[DigiTechSupt]

Install the cs10 update for 7.4, which includes a fix for selecting the number of RTAS processors:

http://www3.digidesign.com/index.cfm...&categoryid=36

Fixed: Cannot select the number of RTAS processors on a hyperthreading-enabled CPU (Item #114048)
When working with a hyperthreading-enabled processor, Pro Tools does not allow selection of the number of RTAS processors in the Playback Engine dialog.

[peret]

Cheers!
Still struggling with the core count here. I'll get into that below, but first

@sunburst79:
Thank you for the instant reply, really appreciate it! I migrated my two IDE drives from the old system with the OS on one of them.

@Keybeeetsss:
Thanks, great to be onboard! (yeah, I wasn't sure if I'd posted with different user name years ago... )

@DigiTechSupt:
Thank you for the fast reply. Just after installing the cs10 update and when PT was launching a notification window popped up prompting for OK or Cancel. But of course, anxious as I was didn't write it down or can't remember what it said. Anyway, PT opened okay but still no more than 1 RTAS processor and 85% cpu limit to choose from. Though at this point I don't think it's the PT's fault, at least with the cs10 patch. See below.


Let me rewind a little: initially, after the hardware upgrade, all the four cores showed up in Windows but not in PT. Somewhere along the way during these few days also Windows XP Home went to show only one processor in both Device Manager and Task Manager. At first I thought it was caused by updating the iLok driver, because I happened to check the managers right after and they showed only one cpu. As it turned out, this was not the case.

I contacted Microsoft support by phone explaining the problem in detail and got an e mail answer back today. To sum it up, Windows XP Home supports only one (1) physical processor unit and two (2) cores. This is quite contrary to what I've led myself to believe earlier. Anyway, this means that when I do get the cores to be recognized by Windows XP Home, it would only see two of the them! Talk about spare cores...

According to Microsoft support, the reason for Windows not to see at least those two cores is probably in the HAL and the old setup files.

So one solution would be to reinstall XP Home as the support suggested. But of course that would leave me with only two cores out of four possible. Not a real choice here considering the whole purpose of this hardware update was to bring as much budget power as possible.

Second solution for me is to update XP Home to XP Pro which supports max 2 physical processors and 4 cores. I don't want to go the Windows 7/PT 8 route yet. Only thing is, I'd really like to do it without having to format and fresh install, just updating from XP Home to Pro. It's just that one can't easily find a full retail version of XP Pro with the update option these days. Guess I'm on a crossroads here...

Anyway, thanks again to all for your replys. I'll keep you updated on this.

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by peret

Cheers!
Still struggling with the core count here. I'll get into that below, but first

@sunburst79:
Thank you for the instant reply, really appreciate it! I migrated my two IDE drives from the old system with the OS on one of them.

@Keybeeetsss:
Thanks, great to be onboard! (yeah, I wasn't sure if I'd posted with different user name years ago... )

@DigiTechSupt:
Thank you for the fast reply. Just after installing the cs10 update and when PT was launching a notification window popped up prompting for OK or Cancel. But of course, anxious as I was didn't write it down or can't remember what it said. Anyway, PT opened okay but still no more than 1 RTAS processor and 85% cpu limit to choose from. Though at this point I don't think it's the PT's fault, at least with the cs10 patch. See below.


Let me rewind a little: initially, after the hardware upgrade, all the four cores showed up in Windows but not in PT. Somewhere along the way during these few days also Windows XP Home went to show only one processor in both Device Manager and Task Manager. At first I thought it was caused by updating the iLok driver, because I happened to check the managers right after and they showed only one cpu. As it turned out, this was not the case.

I contacted Microsoft support by phone explaining the problem in detail and got an e mail answer back today. To sum it up, Windows XP Home supports only one (1) physical processor unit and two (2) cores. This is quite contrary to what I've led myself to believe earlier. Anyway, this means that when I do get the cores to be recognized by Windows XP Home, it would only see two of the them! Talk about spare cores...

According to Microsoft support, the reason for Windows not to see at least those two cores is probably in the HAL and the old setup files.

So one solution would be to reinstall XP Home as the support suggested. But of course that would leave me with only two cores out of four possible. Not a real choice here considering the whole purpose of this hardware update was to bring as much budget power as possible.

Second solution for me is to update XP Home to XP Pro which supports max 2 physical processors and 4 cores. I don't want to go the Windows 7/PT 8 route yet. Only thing is, I'd really like to do it without having to format and fresh install, just updating from XP Home to Pro. It's just that one can't easily find a full retail version of XP Pro with the update option these days. Guess I'm on a crossroads here...

Anyway, thanks again to all for your replys. I'll keep you updated on this.

MS is wrong or misunderstood you. XP Home supports 1 (socketed) processor with up to 32 cores. XP Pro supports 2 or more sockets and up to 32 cores. The key word is Sockets or Processors not Cores.

Trust me

You just need to re install XP. That was why I asked if you migrated an old hard drive. If you right click "Computer" in Device Manager it should say ACPI Multi Processor PC. I'm guessing your says Uniprocessor, Single Processor PC or Standard PC.

You can check this by opening up Task Manager going to Processes right clicking something and selecting Set Affinity. You should see a with 0-31 cores listed. Since you have the wrong HAL you may not see this but I think you will.

You simply need to do a fresh install of XP.

[peret]

MS is wrong or misunderstood you. XP Home supports 1 (socketed) processor with up to 32 cores. XP Pro supports 2 or more sockets and up to 32 cores. The key word is Sockets or Processors not Cores.

Trust me

You just need to re install XP. That was why I asked if you migrated an old hard drive. If you right click "Computer" in Device Manager it should say ACPI Multi Processor PC. I'm guessing your says Uniprocessor, Single Processor PC or Standard PC.

You can check this by opening up Task Manager going to Processes right clicking something and selecting Set Affinity. You should see a with 0-31 cores listed. Since you have the wrong HAL you may not see this but I think you will.

You simply need to do a fresh install of XP.

I too thought the MS wasn't quite right in its response.

"Computer" in my device manager says: "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC"

Under "processors" in device manager it says: "AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor", just one of them.

In Task Manager right clicking on any task brings the following alternatives up: "Stop process", "Stop process tree" and "Set priority". I'm not sure if these are the English language version equivalents as I'm running a Finnish language version XP. So there's no "Set affinity" as an alternative.

I'll try the fresh XP install on Sunday when I have more time. Just to be clear, are we talking about complete hard drive formatting clean install here?

[DigiTechSupt]

I'm with Sunburst on this one - if the OS isn't seeing the cores, Pro Tools won't either.

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by peret

I too thought the MS wasn't quite right in its response.

"Computer" in my device manager says: "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC"

Under "processors" in device manager it says: "AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor", just one of them.

In Task Manager right clicking on any task brings the following alternatives up: "Stop process", "Stop process tree" and "Set priority". I'm not sure if these are the English language version equivalents as I'm running a Finnish language version XP. So there's no "Set affinity" as an alternative.

I'll try the fresh XP install on Sunday when I have more time. Just to be clear, are we talking about complete hard drive formatting clean install here?

Yeah a complete format. Chances are are very good that whatever type HAL you have showing in Device Manager is what ever your old computer was not what the new one was.

You should definitely consult your motherboard manual and make sure that you dont have some settings enabled to disable some cores also.
Some boards will allow you to set the amount of active cores in BIOS.

[peret]

Yeah a complete format. Chances are are very good that whatever type HAL you have showing in Device Manager is what ever your old computer was not what the new one was.

You should definitely consult your motherboard manual and make sure that you dont have some settings enabled to disable some cores also.
Some boards will allow you to set the amount of active cores in BIOS.

Ok, thanks sunburst79! There are no options in this MB BIOS to disable/enable cores so it's going to be Windows installing time for me!

I'm also thinking about the possibility of purchasing one or two new SATA drives and OEM XP Pro. If I'm going to format anyway, I might just as well do the upgrade to XP Pro and clean install on a more efficient drive than my old IDEs. I'm considering XP Pro because staying with XP Home would limit the memory to 4 Gb, which is actually lower still in practice. I'll check my budget and see what I come up with.