Does disabling and then re-enabling hyper-threading cause problems?

Question

Recently, due to a DVD-Rom problem, a Dell support person had be do a ctrl-e followed by a ctrl-f. He said that was to try to get the bios to re-recognize my drives. I did as he said, and it turns out that I had a bad DVD-Rom drive that needed to be replaced. However, the next day I noticed that my task manager was only showing one processor where it had previously showed two.   I booted to the BIOS settings and re-enabled hyper-threading and restarted my computer. Things seem to be fine, but I was doing some searching on hyper-threading on the internet and saw some references to programs adapting themselves to hyper-threading and that performance may be degraded by turning off and then turning back on hyper-threading.   Is this true?   Steve

HTT Good HT Bad · Answer

hardly any programs use hyper threading anyways and unless the prgrams they talked about had AI iam not sure how they could adapt but there shouldnt be a performence los

ronss · Answer

thats how you tell if hyper-threading is enabled or not, if one processor is shown, no -hyperthreading..... if 2 processors is shown, they hyper-treading is enabled.

HTT Good HT Bad · Answer

or dual core

JohnCarterOfMars · Answer

That part I know (how to tell hyper-threading is on of off). The question is whether turning off hyper-threading and then turning it back on somehow sub-optimizes my computer.   Steve

Majestic · Answer

Srschacher,   'Recently, due to a DVD-Rom problem, a Dell support person had be do a ctrl-e followed by a ctrl-f. He said that was to try to get the bios to re-recognize my drives. I did as he said, and it turns out that I had a bad DVD-Rom drive that needed to be replaced. However, the next day I noticed that my task manager was only showing one processor where it had previously showed two.'   What the Dell Tech had you do not only redetected all the drives, but also defaulted the BIOS settings back to their default values.  On your system it would appear that hyperthreading is disabled by default.   'I booted to the BIOS settings and re-enabled hyper-threading and restarted my computer. Things seem to be fine, but I was doing some searching on hyper-threading on the internet and saw some references to programs adapting themselves to hyper-threading and that performance may be degraded by turning off and then turning back on hyper-threading.'   If you don't get any additional responses here you might consider posting in the Software - Other Software forum to see what other opinions you receive.  By comparison, the software forums are much busier than the BIOS forum and reach a wider audience.

GaryJM · Answer

I have a question along the lines of disabling hyperthreading. Forgive my newb-ness, but how do I disable hyperthreading in the BIOS with a Dell Inspiron 6000? Someone said it isn't possible...when I tried the processor was 'locked'...any help? Much Thanks.

Majestic · Answer

GaryJM, since laptop BIOS options differ from the desktops, your question would be best answered in the Inspiron - BIOS forum.  You can click here for a direct link to that forum.

DJBADBOYBRIAN · Answer

I got a ?...ok I have a 8300 Dell and I have to disable the hyper threading to get it to boot up if i enable it , it pops up a blue screen and I have to disable it. I have updated the Bios and drivers and alsorts of stuff I dont know what the deal is I have 2 hard drives both 120 gigs becasue im a DJ but I dont think thats it, I also have 2 burners one regular and a DVD one. im kinna lost I read In the forms that it might be my burner but not sure its a sony DVD burner and the other burner is the one the computer came with. Help me please!!

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