I love my new dual core proc., but...

[CB]

I've run into several programs so far that were 'not optimized' for running on a dual core proc.

When I run these programs. the only thing that will keep them stable is to change the affinity of the process, so that it only runs on one of the CPUs at a time.

So far it's only been games that I have to do it for over and over again (Everytime I run Theif III or Magic: Online, I have to open the Process list and change the affinity, for example), but I've had several installations mess up, and they wouldn't work until I changed the affinity of the setup.exe process... Now, I just do that from the start whenever I run an installation of anything...

This doesn't really bother me all that much. But it would be nice if I could change the properties of an executable to automatically open with one of the CPUs turned off...

I'm assuming future programs will be authored with dual proc. in mind, so I'm sure it ont be a concern forever...

[GHoosdum]

Download the AMD Dual Core Optimizer (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_9706,00.html) and see if that helps.

[CB]

Hmm... I had assumed that the problem was with redundant prosesses, not with timer sync... I'll try this thing, and let you know.

[GHoosdum]

From what I gather, the timer sync issue is what causes non-SMP aware programs to fail when they are running without affinity to one CPU. It tries to execute instructions out of order (as one or another core completes an instruction) - leading to a crash. The dual-core optimizer causes the instructions to complete in the proper order.

[GHoosdum]

Any results?

[CB]

Seems to have worked :)