Personal computing discussed

Moderators: renee, Flying Fox, Ryu Connor

 
Aranarth
Graphmaster Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 1435
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:56 am
Location: Big Rapids, Mich. (Est Time Zone)
Contact:

Dumb windows question #1:

Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:00 am

My mother has a laptop with win7 64bit install but it only has a single core processor (socket p)
I just purchased a mobile dual core processor which many people have had luck using with this same laptop.

Now the important question: can I just swap the processors and have windows 7 take care of swapping the HAL etc. without crashing or do I need to do something special?

I don't mind reinstalling win7 if that is what is necessary.
(I have some experieince going from single core to dual core on windows xp which required a reinstall in the end.)
Main machine: Core I7 -2600K @ 4.0Ghz / 16 gig ram / Radeon RX 580 8gb / 500gb toshiba ssd / 5tb hd
Old machine: Core 2 quad Q6600 @ 3ghz / 8 gig ram / Radeon 7870 / 240 gb PNY ssd / 1tb HD
 
homerdog
Gerbil First Class
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:34 am
Contact:

Re: Dumb windows question #1:

Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:27 am

Windows won't care if you swap the CPU. Make sure you reset all the CPU settings in the BIOS to default before swapping.

Since this is a laptop keep an eye on the CPU temps after upgrading.
Antec 300Two + i7-3770K + Gigabyte Z77-D3H + 16GB 1866MHz + GTX970 + SeaSonic S12II 520W + 180GB Intel 330 + 240GB Intel 530
CM Elite 120 + i5-3550 + Gigabyte H77N-WIFI + 16GB 1600MHz + HD7950 + SilverStone ST45SF 450W + 250GB Crucial MX100
 
Aranarth
Graphmaster Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 1435
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:56 am
Location: Big Rapids, Mich. (Est Time Zone)
Contact:

Re: Dumb windows question #1:

Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:32 am

Thanks, win7 will automatically pick up the extra core right?

Don't worry I already checked and the TDP is almost (2watts more) the same between the two chips (going from a 65nm to 45nm) so the extra core is basically "free" as far as heat output is concerned.
Main machine: Core I7 -2600K @ 4.0Ghz / 16 gig ram / Radeon RX 580 8gb / 500gb toshiba ssd / 5tb hd
Old machine: Core 2 quad Q6600 @ 3ghz / 8 gig ram / Radeon 7870 / 240 gb PNY ssd / 1tb HD
 
Concupiscence
Gerbil Elite
Posts: 709
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2012 7:58 am
Location: Dallas area, Texas, USA
Contact:

Re: Dumb windows question #1:

Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:53 am

Windows shouldn't care much at all. Take the old CPU out, put the new one in, apply a thin sheen of thermal paste, put it back together, and go. I'm a little surprised XP even threw a hissy fit for you; a long time ago I helped a friend upgrade a Celeron 420 to a Core 2 Quad Q6600, and the only noticeable difference was that across-the-board speed skyrocketed. From what I remember XP didn't even bother installing a new CPU driver, it just detected the change and ran with it.
Science: Core i9 7940x, 64 gigs RAM, Vega FE, Xubuntu 20.04
Work: Ryzen 5 3600, 32 gigs RAM, Radeon RX 580, Win10 Pro
Tinker: Core i5 2400, 8 gigs RAM, Radeon R9 280x, Xubuntu 20.04 + MS-DOS 7.10

Read me at https://www.wallabyjones.com/
 
Aranarth
Graphmaster Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 1435
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:56 am
Location: Big Rapids, Mich. (Est Time Zone)
Contact:

Re: Dumb windows question #1:

Mon Dec 02, 2013 10:22 am

Thanks for your help!

I got a corrupted HAL error or some such weird issue with XP. It was with XP SP1 which was a really long time ago so I don't remember all the details.
Main machine: Core I7 -2600K @ 4.0Ghz / 16 gig ram / Radeon RX 580 8gb / 500gb toshiba ssd / 5tb hd
Old machine: Core 2 quad Q6600 @ 3ghz / 8 gig ram / Radeon 7870 / 240 gb PNY ssd / 1tb HD
 
trackerben
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2188
Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:28 am
Location: 'Tween oceans...

Re: Dumb windows question #1:

Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:10 am

You won't have to worry much so long as you've got board/BIOS and cooling fan compatibility right. Intel designs their socketed systems and works closely with Microsoft to encourage spending on such upgrades, at least until recently. I'd be more concerned about upgrading drives and migrating the OS, particularly beyond 3TB capacities.
 
SuperSpy
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2403
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 9:34 pm
Location: TR Forums

Re: Dumb windows question #1:

Tue Dec 03, 2013 8:38 am

As far as I know, Windows 7 will automatically upgrade the HAL on first boot, possibly prompting for a reboot. XP misbehaved in this regard because Microsoft 'optimized out' the HAL detection in the name of faster boot times.
Desktop: i7-4790K @4.8 GHz | 32 GB | EVGA Gefore 1060 | Windows 10 x64
Laptop: MacBook Pro 2017 2.9GHz | 16 GB | Radeon Pro 560
 
Flatland_Spider
Graphmaster Gerbil
Posts: 1324
Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2004 8:33 pm

Re: Dumb windows question #1:

Tue Dec 03, 2013 9:12 am

The HAL only matters if you're swapping ISAs. By default the Windows x86 HAL will allow up to two sockets, and it doesn't really care about the number of processors.

Windows still needs to be syspreped before a chipset swap is done.
 
shodanshok
Gerbil
Posts: 28
Joined: Thu May 31, 2012 3:39 am
Contact:

Re: Dumb windows question #1:

Tue Dec 03, 2013 10:58 am

Flatland_Spider wrote:
The HAL only matters if you're swapping ISAs. By default the Windows x86 HAL will allow up to two sockets, and it doesn't really care about the number of processors.

Windows still needs to be syspreped before a chipset swap is done.


While generically true, it really depend on the combination of BIOS and HAL installed.
For example, with some older BIOS, WinXP install a "Uniprocessor ACPI HAL" or, even worse, a "Standard PC" one. In this case, updating to two cores will require a switch to an "Multiprocessor ACPI HAL", but this generally don't require user interaction as WinXP automatically switches to the right HAL (note: turning back to a uniprocessor system leave the multiprocessor HAL in place, so the system continue to run with a slightly lower optimized HAL).

On Windows Vista x64 and later, the system generically install itself with an "ACPI x64 HAL", ready for multicore/multiprocessor. So, in the poster's case, I think that he don't need to to anything to enjoy its newer dual core processor.

Regards.
www.ilsistemista.net - test & bench :)

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
GZIP: On