I have been having problems with a few programs that I run. The programs list so far:

Nero Vision 4: crashes on startup
SageTV 6: crashes on startup /w higher than medium video settings (3D acceleration enabled)
Skype: crashes when other user tries to share their screen over video.

All BIOS, drivers and directX software are the latest versions. I have also tried rolling back to earlier versions without any resolve to the problem.

I narrowed the problem down to having direct3D acceleration enabled in the dxdiag tool. Disabling hardware acceleration lets these programs function normally.

I further narrowed down the problem to when I disable all of the cores of the processor except 1, the programs run fine with direct3D accleration turned on.

What I would like to know, is this just a problem with the coding of the software not being able to utilize the multiple cores correctly, or is my processor faulty and I should seek a replacement?

I am going to do some more testing by turning on the cores one at a time to see if the programs can run stable with more than 1 core and if so how many cores they are stable with. Any input on this situation would be appreciated.

See my signature for hardware setup. If any further information is needed to help diagnose my problem, please feel free to request it.

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Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)
NVIDIA 9500GT 512MB
ASUS SATA 24X DVD Burner
HEC X-Power Pro 650 650W Continuous Power Supply
Windows XP Pro

Edited: 08/10/2010 at 12:53 PM by Maverickwolf

UPDATE

I've tried testing the situation more by enabling more cores in different combinations. I've found that the programs are able to run with direct3D acceleration on with any combination of 4 cores enabled. When ever a 5th or 6th core are enabled however, the programs crash as before when direct3D acceleration is turned on. Therefore I believe none of the cores are faulty, but it is probably the software not being able to handle any cores beyond 4. Is there any possible solution to this with having all of the cores on?

UPDATE 2

I found THG Task Assignment Manager which lets me make profiles for programs to have their affinity set to certain cores when it opens. I have tried setting these programs to run on only 4 cores, but this has not worked either. I have a feeling it has to do with Windows XP professional and direct3D acceleration with directx 9.0c. Some programs run ok with all 6 cores, while some crash unless I turn off 2 cores. Anyone have any ideas or input? Would upgrading to windows 7 perhaps fix this issue, or are these programs just too old to function with 6 cores?

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---------------------------------
Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)
NVIDIA 9500GT 512MB
ASUS SATA 24X DVD Burner
HEC X-Power Pro 650 650W Continuous Power Supply
Windows XP Pro

Edited: 08/10/2010 at 12:46 PM by Maverickwolf

SOLOUTION!!

After a lot of digging, I found a solution to my problem. It is covered in this KB article from microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953028/en-us

However if you are a Windows XP user with SP3 like I am, you will find that the hotfix is not available in the hotfix list. Here is the file you need for the tl;dr version:

http://thehotfixshare.net/boar...wnloads&showfile=6931


I spent over an hour on the phone with Microsoft Tech Support from India trying to get the hotfix. This guy told me so many out right lies to try and get rid of me. Such things as the file was already included in SP3. It was a problem with the software I was using and not on microsofts end, that the file listed there doesn't actually exist and I can not get it, that if I did get it that it was only a work around and would turn off 2 of my cores anyways. I am a pretty calm guy, but this experience infuriated me, just because of the lies he was telling me that I had to call him out on just to try and get further in hopes of getting this hidden file. He was remote connected to my computer and I showed him the article where it said

"A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. "

I also pointed out my version of the d3d9.dll was not the same listed in the KB article. After googling about the KB aritcle while put on hold, which i probably should have done in the first place, I was able to find the file I needed to download and did so and it updated my d3d9.dll file. He came back to tell me he did the research on that article and that's when he said about it being just a work around and it would only turn my cores off anyways so that I did not need the hotfix as I already did that. I said ok, thank you for your time good bye. I restarted my computer, turned all my cores on, and tried some of the programs I had problems with. VIOLA, they all work now, and all cores are functioning according to CPU-Z. What a horrible experience. Sorry about the rant. Just had to get it out! I feel better now and can run XP with all my cores now

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---------------------------------
Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)
NVIDIA 9500GT 512MB
ASUS SATA 24X DVD Burner
HEC X-Power Pro 650 650W Continuous Power Supply
Windows XP Pro