I'm using this Windows XP computer at work right now and I realized it's poor performance may be due to it only using one core, details follows:
- Processor is a Pentium E5400
- The multi-core feature is enabled in BIOS
- Device Manager shows both cores under "Processors"
- Intel Processor Identification Utility shows both cores
- CPU-Z only detects one core
- Task Manager's performance tab only shows one graph ("One graph per CPU" option is enabled).
- While doing heavy operations CPU goes to 100%, I would expect it to go to 50%
- Process Explorer (by sysinternals) also shows only one graph.
- msconfig has no option checked under "BOOT.INI"->"Advanced options" (and if I try to check /NUMPROC I only have the "1" option)
I'm puzzled, it looks like the second core is detected as hardware but it's not being used. Any help?