Getting Windows XP off of domains

[Matt Krass]

Chances are there's all kinds of residual left over, you might really want to just torch the OS and reinstall if you have that option

[sanddrag]

There is a "this computer" option but I still can't log in. I don't want to resinstall the OS. I'd like to keep it. Any help?

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

There is a "this computer" option but I still can't log in. I don't want to resinstall the OS. I'd like to keep it. Any help?

You really should reinstall the OS if it was someone else's computer. Their files could be confidential, and viewing them would be breaking the law.

[SamC]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

You really should reinstall the OS if it was someone else's computer. Their files could be confidential, and viewing them would be breaking the law.

Sice he found it in a dumpster i'm pretty sure thier are no confidential files on that computer.

[sanddrag]

I was able to blank the admin password from a linux boot cd, then I was able to login in safe mode as admin, then take the computer off the domain, and now all is well. I'm actually posting from it right now. This was quite a dumpster find really, it has Dreamweaver and Office as well.

But now I have another question. My motherboard is carrying dual Pentium 3 500MHz processors. In My Computer "Properties" tab it only shows one. I have a feeling this is just due to Windows's stupidity but I'd like to be sure both are being recognized. Is there any diagnostic or hardware specs program I can run that will verify that both processors are working and being recognized. Is there any setup I need to do in XP to make sure that it is utilizing both processors?

I tried checking in the BIOS but the only thing it will tell me is the current temperature of each processor.

[Michelle Celio]

I know there is something you have to do in windows. I'm currently looking threw my course work for an answer. I will edit this post once I figure out where it is..

A hour later...

Symmentric Multiprocessing

I'm still trying to figure out how to implent it. A week out of school (not even) and I allready forgot how to do it. I will keep looking.

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Is there any setup I need to do in XP to make sure that it is utilizing both processors?

Is it XP Home? I was under the impression that only XP Pro is able to use dual processor.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by sciguy125

Is it XP Home? I was under the impression that only XP Pro is able to use dual processor.

no, it is XP pro

[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I was able to blank the admin password from a linux boot cd, then I was able to login in safe mode on "this computer" as admin, then take the computer off the domain, and now all is well. I'm actually posting from it right now. This was quite a dumpster find really, it has Dreamweaver and Office as well.

But now I have another question. My motherboard is carrying dual Pentium 3 500MHz processors. In My Computer "Properties" tab it only shows one. I have a feeling this is just due to Windows's stupidity but I'd like to be sure both are being recognized. Is there any diagnostic or hardware specs program I can run that will verify that both processors are working and being recognized. Is there any setup I need to do in XP to make sure that it is utilizing both processors?

I tried checking in the BIOS but the only thing it will tell me is the current temperature of each processor.

If you don't have the paper license for Office and Dreamweaver, they are not legal to use. Chances are pretty high that whoever threw the PC away is planning on reusing those licenses on their new computer and did not intend to transfer the license to you. Even using their XP license is somewhat on the sketchy side, especially if it is not the OEM license that came with the computer. Since it was joined to a domain, I would guess it is some company's VLK, which would certinally not transfer to you.

If you open up task manager, go to performance. If you only see one processor there, then windows isn't seeing the 2nd one. Since it is XP Pro, there should be nothing you have to do to tell it that there are two processors, chances are its a BIOS config problem.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

But now I have another question. My motherboard is carrying dual Pentium 3 500MHz processors. In My Computer "Properties" tab it only shows one. I have a feeling this is just due to Windows's stupidity but I'd like to be sure both are being recognized. Is there any diagnostic or hardware specs program I can run that will verify that both processors are working and being recognized. Is there any setup I need to do in XP to make sure that it is utilizing both processors?

First thing to do is verify that in fact you do have two processors. If so, verify if Windows is seeing them already. The easiest way is to open task manager and see if there are one or two charts for the processor. If two, your done. If one, then there is hope
Right click on "My Computer" and choose "manage" then select "Device Manager".
In the right half of the window, expand the "computer" branch. It should say something like "APIC uniprocessor PC", the goal will be to get it to say something about "multiprocessor".
Right click on "APIC uniprocessor PC" and choose "update drive". Follow the prompts in the wizard and choose the driver for Multiprocessor. Finish out of the wizard and you should be done. A reboot may be in order. Understand that a multiprocessor system will have very little advantage over a uniprocessor unless you use multi threaded applications, if you do, then there is a huge performance advantage.
Let us know how it turns out.

[Tristan Lall]

To nitpick, you want it to say "ACPI Multiprocessor PC". This process will change the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) to the multiprocessor version, which Windows XP Pro supports. For some unfathomable reason, whoever installed the OS didn't make the 2^nd processor visible to the OS (either by not enabling it in the BIOS, by physically removing it, or by installing while connected to a different motherboard).

Incidentally, speaking of using dual processors, various Windows NT 5 versions have different ways of treating this situation. 2000 will allow up to 2 processors (real or virtual) for Professional, 4 for Server, 8 for Advanced Server, and as many as you feel like paying Microsoft to validate for Datacenter Server (currently 64, as far as I know). XP, however, works differently: it can distinguish between real and virtual processors, and counts a single socket (even with dual cores) as a single physical processor. So XP Home can see one physical plus one virtual (or twice that for dual cores), and Professional can do 2+2 (or 4+4). Server 2003 works similarly, with more capabilities as you pay more and more for the software. By all accounts, NT 6 (Vista and Vista Server) will work similarly.

If you have any problems with this, might I suggest asking on the 2cpu.com forums. They'll be able to give you precisely the information that you need.

But, dual 500s? That's not going to be too fast...any Turion or modern Celeron will absolutely smoke it, multithreaded or not.

[sanddrag]

I know it's not too fast, but it is still useful. The motherboard is a SuperMicro P6DBU with AMIBIOS 2.6

I read all about the HAL thing and it seems like I would need an XP installation CD (which I don't have) in order to change it. Is there any way to do it without? I wonder if updating the BIOS would so the trick. What do you think? I already went in Device Manager under the "computer" item and it just says "Standard PC" and will not let me update the driver to anything else.

[Tristan Lall]

I don't think that the BIOS update will help (though it isn't necessarily a bad idea, if there's an improved version available). The only thing I could see wrong with the BIOS is if SMP mode is disabled—there should be a manual on the Supermicro website describing how to enable it, if it can be changed. (With some really old motherboards, it's controlled by a jumper, but I'd suspect it's a BIOS item on this board—maybe something like "Enable CPU 1" or "Enable SMP".)

Your problem seems to be with Windows alone; in this case, using the CD (or at least the set of appropriate files) seems like the only reasonable way of doing this. Interestingly enough, it is not illegal to use a copied Windows CD for this (or practically any other) purpose, provided that you own a licence for that copy of Windows (e.g. if it was included with the computer, but you received no installation media). Here's the appropriate instructional resource from Microsoft, detailling the procedure. It's written for Windows 2000, but should apply equally to any NT 5 variant.

And, since you mention that you couldn't select the right HAL, in Device Manager, did you select "Show all hardware of this device class" in the Update Device Driver Wizard? See the attachment for what I mean.

[sanddrag]

Thanks for the picture but mine isn't quite like that. I don't haver the radio buttons. Is that 2000? It does give me the option to browse for the files, but of course, I don't have them and couldn't find them anywhere to download.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Is that 2000?

Yes.