Windows Client TechCenter >
Windows 7 Forums
>
Windows 7 Installation, Setup, and Deployment
>
Win 7 RTM does not recognize 2nd physical CPU; "Detect HAL" option missing from MSCONFIG.
Win 7 RTM does not recognize 2nd physical CPU; "Detect HAL" option missing from MSCONFIG.
- I have bought and installed Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit edition) on a Dell Precision 690 equipped with dual Xeon 5160 processors. It only recognizes one of the two processors (ie, 2 cores).
From Google, I have found that people with similar problems in the past have been able to solve them with "MSCONFIG > BOOT > ADVANCED OPTIONS > DETECT HAL". Apparently this forces Windows to check that it is loading the multi-processor rather than uni-processor ACPI HAL. The "DETECT HAL" option appears to have been available in Win7RC, but removed in Win7RTM. (This thread, for example, refers: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=670125 ).
Can anyone help?
Thanks
Tim
Answers
Hi,
Windows 7 Home Premium only supports 1 physical CPU. If you would like to enable 2 physical CPUs, Windows 7 Professional or higher version is needed.
Arthur Xie - MSFT- Marked As Answer byArthur XieMSFT, ModeratorMonday, November 16, 2009 4:06 AM
All Replies
Hi,
Windows 7 Home Premium only supports 1 physical CPU. If you would like to enable 2 physical CPUs, Windows 7 Professional or higher version is needed.
Arthur Xie - MSFT- Marked As Answer byArthur XieMSFT, ModeratorMonday, November 16, 2009 4:06 AM
- Many thanks for your reply, but I think you may be mistaken.
1. Clause 2(c) of the Home Edition EULA provides as follows: "2. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS ... c. Licensed Computer. You may use the software on up to two processors on the licensed computer at any one time. Unless otherwise proviced in these licence terms, you may not use the software on any other computer." Clause 2(c) of the Ultimate Edition EULA is identical. The terms of both licences may be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/default.aspx
2. This MS comparison table on which I relied before buying the product does not mention any limitation on the number of processors recognized by Home Edition compared with any other edition:
http://store.microsoft.com/Windows7/Compare
3. The limitation is not mentioned on the product's packaging, either.
4. I did a clean install, running the DVD setup from within an existing Vista Ultimate installation which was overwritten (files moved to "windows.old"). I received no warning to the effect that I would lose the use of one of my processors.
5. Information from other sources - including Paul Thurrott, who appears to be a well-known MS evangelist - says that the Home Edition supports two processors, just like the more expensive versions. See the "Performance features" section in the table here - which he claims to have updated based on actual experience of the RTM product:
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_skus_compare.asp
It would therefore be very helpful if you would kindly clarify the basis of your advice? And are you able to point me to anywhere where MS has given publicity to this limitation?
Thanks
Tim I have bought and installed Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit edition) on a Dell Precision 690 equipped with dual Xeon 5160 processors. It only recognizes one of the two processors (ie, 2 cores).
Hi Tim
From Google, I have found that people with similar problems in the past have been able to solve them with "MSCONFIG > BOOT > ADVANCED OPTIONS > DETECT HAL". Apparently this forces Windows to check that it is loading the multi-processor rather than uni-processor ACPI HAL. The "DETECT HAL" option appears to have been available in Win7RC, but removed in Win7RTM. (This thread, for example, refers: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=670125 ).
Can anyone help?
Thanks
Tim
Have you checked for an updated BIOS and Motherboard Chipset drivers?
It's been my experience that this has solved this issue on many systems.
Hope this helps.
Thank You for using Windows 7Ronnie Vernon MVP
I have bought and installed Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit edition) on a Dell Precision 690 equipped with dual Xeon 5160 processors. It only recognizes one of the two processors (ie, 2 cores).
Hi Tim
From Google, I have found that people with similar problems in the past have been able to solve them with "MSCONFIG > BOOT > ADVANCED OPTIONS > DETECT HAL". Apparently this forces Windows to check that it is loading the multi-processor rather than uni-processor ACPI HAL. The "DETECT HAL" option appears to have been available in Win7RC, but removed in Win7RTM. (This thread, for example, refers: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=670125 ).
Can anyone help?
Thanks
Tim
Have you checked for an updated BIOS and Motherboard Chipset drivers?
It's been my experience that this has solved this issue on many systems.
Hope this helps.
Thank You for using Windows 7Ronnie Vernon MVP
Thank you very much for your reply.
I have the latest BIOS.
The chipset on the Precision 690 is an Intel 5000X, for which I would imagine that MS ships up-to-date drivers with Windows 7. The latest version on the Dell website dates from 2006.
TimI also started with Home Premium. It did not work.
I bought the upgrade to Professional. It did not work.
I then bought the upgrade to Ultimate. It did work.
Conclusion: Windows 7 ULTIMATE is required for 2 physical processors.
This has been a long and expensive process, both in buying the upgrades and more so in the time wasted in the forensic analysis required to determine the feature set available in the Windows 7 product. I would expect the feature to be published on the box.
I suspect that at the last minute the dual processor feature was stripped out without telling anybody. It is bad enough to spend extra money, but the troubleshooting time spent to reach this conclusion sours the impression of the whole Windows 7 product.
Is there any way to get a rebate for the extra money spent on the upgrade from XP->Home Premium->Professional->Ultimate?- Proposed As Answer byebullister Monday, November 02, 2009 5:15 PM
- Unproposed As Answer bytmorshead Monday, November 02, 2009 11:20 PM
- Hello,
Has anyone gotten Windows 7 Professional to work on 2 physical CPUs? I want to resolve this issue one way or another and get my other systems online.
Thank you for your reply, but as I pointed out previously to the person who first replied to my question, I cannot find any justification for supposing that Home Premium edition SHOULD work differently from the Ultimate edition so far as the number of processors is concerned. As I pointed out, the terms of the licence agreement for both editions are identical in this respect; there is no publicity from MS (so far as has been drawn to my attention) alerting prospective purchasers to this supposed limitation in the Home Premium eddition; such comparison as MS has made of the different editions does not suggest that the Home Edition is more limited than Ultimate in this respect; and such other publicity as I saw previously to my purchase also confirmed that the Home Edition supported the same number of physical CPUs as Ultimate.I also started with Home Premium. It did not work.
I bought the upgrade to Professional. It did not work.
I then bought the upgrade to Ultimate. It did work.
Conclusion: Windows 7 ULTIMATE is required for 2 physical processors.
This has been a long and expensive process, both in buying the upgrades and more so in the time wasted in the forensic analysis required to determine the feature set available in the Windows 7 product. I would expect the feature to be published on the box.
I suspect that at the last minute the dual processor feature was stripped out without telling anybody. It is bad enough to spend extra money, but the troubleshooting time spent to reach this conclusion sours the impression of the whole Windows 7 product.
Is there any way to get a rebate for the extra money spent on the upgrade from XP->Home Premium->Professional->Ultimate?
If your suspicion that MS removed support for dual processors at the last minute were correct, then I think it would be a rather serious matter for MS, so I doubt whether that is the explanation.
Perhaps another possible explanation for your experience is that the upgrade to Ultimate triggered the creation of a fresh hardware abstraction layer (HAL), which recognized the second CPU. It is conceivable that there is a bug in the installation routine for the other editions. However, this is of course speculation on my part.
The upshot is that I would still like to know from others what practical solutions I might attempt, short of a complete re-installation.
Tim- Tim-
Update: I installed Ultimate on the machine with Professional and it did not work either. So I cannot yet conclude that ULTIMATE is necessary. But I am pretty sure (based on the experience of the other machine, and on the report of the moderator) that upgrading some level above Windows 7 Home is necessaary.
I'll keep you posted. - Tim (and all)- Final Resolution
I originally upgraded from XP 64 to Windows 7 home premium 64 on two machines and they did not work. So I upgraded one to Professional and it still did not work. Then I put Ultimate on the other and it worked.
So I updated the Professional one to Ultimate and it still didn't work. However, I realized that while mucking around trying to get Home Premium to work I set a switch that may have blocked the Professional from working. I fixed it by: start-> search for MSCONFIG; Boot Tab; Advanced options-> UNCHECK the box "number of processors"; reboot. Now all machines have ultimate and all work
Final Conclusion for Win 7 dual processor support: Home premium does not work; Professional may or may not work; ultimate works
So a quick and practical solution (albeit an expensive one) is to buy an online "Anytime Upgrade" (I still am not sure if you need Professional or Ultimate). Note: I did it the hard way; from home premium to professional is $90, and from professional to ultimate is another $130. I cna't tell for sure which is needed.
The moderator works for Micorsoft and says you need Professional and I guess he is probably right. THere seems to be a disconnnect between the EULA and advertiesments and what is actually in the code that shipped. Tim (and all)- Final Resolution
I originally upgraded from XP 64 to Windows 7 home premium 64 on two machines and they did not work. So I upgraded one to Professional and it still did not work. Then I put Ultimate on the other and it worked.
So I updated the Professional one to Ultimate and it still didn't work. However, I realized that while mucking around trying to get Home Premium to work I set a switch that may have blocked the Professional from working. I fixed it by: start-> search for MSCONFIG; Boot Tab; Advanced options-> UNCHECK the box "number of processors"; reboot. Now all machines have ultimate and all work
Final Conclusion for Win 7 dual processor support: Home premium does not work; Professional may or may not work; ultimate works
So a quick and practical solution (albeit an expensive one) is to buy an online "Anytime Upgrade" (I still am not sure if you need Professional or Ultimate). Note: I did it the hard way; from home premium to professional is $90, and from professional to ultimate is another $130. I cna't tell for sure which is needed.
The moderator works for Micorsoft and says you need Professional and I guess he is probably right. THere seems to be a disconnnect between the EULA and advertiesments and what is actually in the code that shipped.
Intriguing, and bizarre.
However, I would like to hear a "final word" from Microsoft about this. As I said earlier, I think it would be quite a serious matter for MS if they had deliberately failed to publicize a limitation on the Home Premium version. More likely, I am sure, is that some accidental muddle has taken place, or there is some incompatibility which can be addressed with an appropriate setting, or tool, or update.
Tim- Tim-
I guess you can give them the benefit of the doubt. But even if there was nothing deliberate, the customer relations are appalling. The users are finding out by trial and error what the software does, because there was no definitive description of capabilities from MS. There appears to be no interest whatsoever from MS as to resolve the issues or post a solution. We are doing them a huge service by pinpointing problems and they don't seem to care. It looks like they would prefer to sweep it under the rug (I don't think that will work).
If this were Apple, this would not happen in the first place, but if it did, you can be sure it would be fixed quickly. I would think MS would want to give a good impression of Windows 7. Well, they got an extra $300 from me by wasting about $1000 worth of my time. If they dont take care of stuff like this better in the future I think it will eventually blow up in their faces. - Bump ...
Tim - Talk about coincidence. I was searching for the proper way to install a second CPU in my PC. The first thing I come across, from Tim, is identical to my situation. I have a Dell Precision 690 with a single Xeon 5160. The difference here is that I haven't yet installed (or purchased) the 2nd cpu or heatsink. I do have Win 7 64 bit ultimate installed. I will be doing video editing on the machine and don't feel like waiting for renders all day. Am I taking the right step by installing a 2nd 5160 cpu? Or should I pull the guts out and build a quad core? I have a Quadro 256 mb video card and 8gb ram. I was also debating upping the video, but a few video experts mentioned that most of the rendering is cpu-based, not gpu. My main concern here right now is the 2nd cpu install. Thanks.
·
Edition:
Starter
Home Basic and Home Premium
Professional
Ultimate
Processors
1 Physical
1 Physical
2 Physical
2 Physical
Memory
2 GB for 32-bit
(no 64-bit)
4 GB for 32-bit
16 GB on 64-bit
4 GB for 32-bit
128 GB on 64-bit
4 GB for 32-bit
128 GB on 64-bit
- Marked As Answer byArthur XieMSFT, ModeratorMonday, November 16, 2009 4:06 AM
- Unmarked As Answer bytmorshead Monday, November 16, 2009 11:52 AM
·
Edition:
Starter
Home Basic and Home Premium
Professional
Ultimate
Processors
1 Physical
1 Physical
2 Physical
2 Physical
Memory
2 GB for 32-bit
(no 64-bit)
4 GB for 32-bit
16 GB on 64-bit
4 GB for 32-bit
128 GB on 64-bit
4 GB for 32-bit
128 GB on 64-bit
Interesting table. Where does it appear in MS's publicity about Windows 7? Please provide a link.
Thanks
Tim- I don't know where it is now, but during the pre-order page, there was a feature chart that showed that information. That's why I went with Home Premium on the laptops, but got a Professional license for my desktop.
Note, this doesn't affect most people because it only limits the number of physical CPU's, not cores. If you have an 4-core processor, you can still use all 4 cores.
This one is kind of irritating, but I'm guessing they wanted to give people one more reason to upgrade to Pro - since otherwise, Home Premium would do the job for most "professionals" - I've done a pretty thorough search, and found nothing. And as I pointed out earlier, the license terms refer specifically to the use of up to two processors for the Home Edition (same as the Ultimate Edition).
I am sorry to say that the continuing inability to point to any publicity of this un-documented limitation makes me begin to think that this may need to be referred to the trading standards authorities.
Tim
