My system is now detecting 2 cores from my Q6600

After 2 years of flawless functioning, my system stopped to boot. I found that it was because the motherboard was shorting with some metal parts. Now it boots, but it is now freezing all the time, and windows is only detecting 2 cores from the Q6600 processor. In dxdiag menu, it says it is a Q6600 processor, with 2 CPUs... In CoreTemp, its menu shows that it is an E6600 (Conroe) processor.... and the system is sooo slow, it does not feel fast as before anymore.

What could be happening here? Why is the system only detecting 2 cores here?

System specs:

MSI P6N Diamond Motherboard

Q6600 Processor GO revision

GeForce GTS G92 video card

Thermaltake Toughpower 850watts SLI PSU

4x1GB Ram memory OCZ SLI-Ready Edition PC6400

No overclocking

The max temp I saw in CoreTemp before this issue was at 70 degrees celsius, since I switched to stock heatsink

Well either your motherboard is damaged, your CPU is damaged, or your BIOS is not properly addressing your CPU.

The shorting probably permanently damaged something, which would explain why it's slow and unstable.

At least try resetting your motherboard though...

I just reseated the heatsink, restarted and windows began to detect 4 cores again and I felt the system fast again as before.. But it crashed in only 3 minutes of use, it's freezing all the time.

How can I know accurately if the motherboard or the processor is damaged? I really don't want to spend money in a part which was really working, and find out that it was the other part that was defective. I really need to find what is wrong here.

I just reseated the heatsink, restarted and windows began to detect 4 cores again and I felt the system fast again as before.. But it crashed in only 3 minutes of use, it's freezing all the time.

How can I know accurately if the motherboard or the processor is damaged? I really don't want to spend money in a part which was really working, and find out that it was the other part that was defective. I really need to find what is wrong here.

bandieramonte

well...if you don't have parts to swap and play with to figure it out at home...then well your best best will be to take it to a PC repair shop. It'll cost money but you'll get the answer.

Someone suggested me to reset the CMOS, unplug the power cable, and press the ON button for 10 seconds to drain the motherboard capacitors. I then did a system reboot, and could run with total stability for more than 2 hours, where I could do an antivirus scan, backup 40GB of files and browse videos on youtube.

Is it correct to affirm that if I could do that, then necessarily the processor or motherboard can't possibly be damaged?

The crash could be RAM related as well. Try the sticks one by one in different slots and see how it goes.

Ok I ran memtest with each of the 4 memory modules individually, and they passed. I ran in dual channel mode and passed too. I ran with 3 of them, and pass. But when I run with all them 4 at the same time, it never passed..

Why would memtest return errors only when the 4 modules are installed?

Ok I ran memtest with each of the 4 memory modules individually, and they passed. I ran in dual channel mode and passed too. I ran with 3 of them, and pass. But when I run with all them 4 at the same time, it never passed..

Why would memtest return errors only when the 4 modules are installed?

bandieramonte

You either have a bad ram slot. Which means you will probably need a new mobo.

[QUOTE="bandieramonte"]

Ok I ran memtest with each of the 4 memory modules individually, and they passed. I ran in dual channel mode and passed too. I ran with 3 of them, and pass. But when I run with all them 4 at the same time, it never passed..

Why would memtest return errors only when the 4 modules are installed?

Pirson

You either have a bad ram slot. Which means you will probably need a new mobo.

[QUOTE="bandieramonte"]

Ok I ran memtest with each of the 4 memory modules individually, and they passed. I ran in dual channel mode and passed too. I ran with 3 of them, and pass. But when I run with all them 4 at the same time, it never passed..

Why would memtest return errors only when the 4 modules are installed?

Pirson

You either have a bad ram slot. Which means you will probably need a new mobo.

My 680i has a lot of truoble giving stable power to all four of the slots. I wouldn't be surprised if the mobo is still in a salvagable condition.

To OP: have you tried bumping the memory voltage up a tad in the BIOS?