Xeon E3 1230 v2 Showing only 2 cores and 4 threads

[Insky]

Titlle, in cpu-z and BIOS it shows only 2 cores instead of 4.

[WhitetailAni]

Why is it at 0.9 volts?
Not sure if that's correct or not, just wondering.

[Trevorq243]

Did you get the chip on Ebay? If so, we might have some bad news for you...

If not, there's a chance some cores got disabled. I suggest nosing around in the BIOS, especially around advanced features pertaining to the CPU, to see if any cores are disabled/parked. I've been tinkering in my BIOS myself recently and the number of unfamiliar CPU acronyms is staggering... just make sure you haven't turned off anything important. Google is your friend there! 
 

Also, it'd help a lot if we had more info on your build. Post full specs here, and/or put them in your profile so we have something to go on. Good luck!

[Insky]

1 hour ago, Benji said:

What's the motherboard you're using? Because most actually offer options to only have a few cores enabled. In your case you probably disabled two cores.

Intel DH61CR, BIOS version is 0048

 

45 minutes ago, Trevorq243 said:

Did you get the chip on Ebay? If so, we might have some bad news for you...

If not, there's a chance some cores got disabled. I suggest nosing around in the BIOS, especially around advanced features pertaining to the CPU, to see if any cores are disabled/parked. I've been tinkering in my BIOS myself recently and the number of unfamiliar CPU acronyms is staggering... just make sure you haven't turned off anything important. Google is your friend there! 
 

Also, it'd help a lot if we had more info on your build. Post full specs here, and/or put them in your profile so we have something to go on. Good luck!

It's not from Ebay.
I can't find anything in the BIOS that could enable these cores, only How many cores should it use (options are: All,1, 2) and Enable/Disable Hyperthreading
My bad sorry for not including the full PC specs, here they are
CPU: Xeon E3 1230 v2
GPU: Radeon HD 7770 1 GB (Yes I know it's old, I will upgrade soon hopefuly)
RAM 2x4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz
MoBo:  DH61CR
and 500 GB Hard Drive

[Trevorq243]

 

12 minutes ago, Insky said:

CPU: Xeon E3 1230 v2
GPU: Radeon HD 7770 1 GB (Yes I know it's old, I will upgrade soon hopefuly)
RAM 2x4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz
MoBo:  DH61CR
and 500 GB Hard Drive

Alright, so that's some aging hardware for certain. Someone more knowledgeable than I could speculate on if that matters or not, but for now, maybe some circumstance surrounding the issue would help. Is this a "new" build from old parts laying around, a system you bought and built new and is only having trouble now..? I doubt software changes could set off the issue.

One thing I'm not seeing in your build list is the PSU. If it's as old as the rest of the build, there's a chance it's on its way out. I don't know for certain if that would cause the issue, but dying PSUs create all sorts of weird problems that are tough to track down. Maybe the CPU is detecting that it can't get all the juice it needs and is automatically turning off cores? 

Pure speculation, take it with a grain of salt, but if this is a new issue there has to be something that changed recently to make it happen.

[Trevorq243]

Quick jump in - some googling around is turning up that some Xeon chips will automatically shut stuff off in low-power consumption situations. I don't know if it does that in Windows or not, but what happens if you load the chip? Say, run a game or a CPU benchmark and see if the core count changes? Total shot in the dark.

[Insky]

3 minutes ago, Trevorq243 said:

 

Alright, so that's some aging hardware for certain. Someone more knowledgeable than I could speculate on if that matters or not, but for now, maybe some circumstance surrounding the issue would help. Is this a "new" build from old parts laying around, a system you bought and built new and is only having trouble now..? I doubt software changes could set off the issue.

One thing I'm not seeing in your build list is the PSU. If it's as old as the rest of the build, there's a chance it's on its way out. I don't know for certain if that would cause the issue, but dying PSUs create all sorts of weird problems that are tough to track down. Maybe the CPU is detecting that it can't get all the juice it needs and is automatically turning off cores? 

Pure speculation, take it with a grain of salt, but if this is a new issue there has to be something that changed recently to make it happen.

I don't remeber the PSU brand but it has 80+ certificate (bronze If I remember corectly) and it was bought in october I think
The hardware is indeed old, yes, but I never had problems with it, I replaced my old i3 2120 today with this CPU and it appears that this Xeon  adapted the core/threads count of that i3

 

2 minutes ago, Trevorq243 said:

Quick jump in - some googling around is turning up that some Xeon chips will automatically shut stuff off in low-power consumption situations. I don't know if it does that in Windows or not, but what happens if you load the chip? Say, run a game or a CPU benchmark and see if the core count changes? Total shot in the dark.

I tried Cinemabench, nothing. It even recognises it as 2 core/4 thread E3 1230 v2

[Trevorq243]

8 minutes ago, Insky said:

I don't remeber the PSU brand but it has 80+ certificate (bronze If I remember corectly) and it was bought in october I think
The hardware is indeed old, yes, but I never had problems with it, I replaced my old i3 2120 today with this CPU and it appears that this Xeon  adapted the core/threads count of that i3

 

Alright, now we're getting somewhere. That is odd - CPUs don't just adopt each others' core counts. I don't know if this will help or not, but I'd try jumping into the BIOS, disabling hyperthreading, booting to Windows, seeing what that does, then going back into the BIOS and re-enabling hyperthreading. It really does sound to me like there might be something up with the chip/board, but poking it by enabling/disabling stuff might do something. Otherwise I'm at a loss. Where did the CPU come from?

Also, more to @Benji's point, there may be some compatibility hiccups with the board/chip combo. There's always a chance that the board doesn't officially support the chip; Intel likes to play games with socket compatibility. Just because it fits doesn't mean it works, unfortunately, and there may be something in the board preventing the Xeon from working to its full capacity. I just don't want to make that assumption right out the gate, you know?

Edited January 28, 2021 by Trevorq243
Saw a new reply

[Insky]

Alright, I found the solution. In msconfig ( the thing you can open with RUN (windows key + R), in Boot section, Advanced options, there is a check mark to select number of processor threads or cores, Idk, but I Had it checked. I unchecked it, turned off and on my pc and voilà! Thanks for help!

[Trevorq243]

1 minute ago, Insky said:

Alright, I found the solution. In msconfig ( the thing you can open with RUN (windows key + R), in Boot section, Advanced options, there is a check mark to select number of processor threads or cores, Idk, but I Had it checked. I unchecked it, turned off and on my pc and voilà! Thanks for help!

That is... exactly what the linked post did. Great timing, and glad it's fixed!

 

Augh, sorry to keep blowing you up, but I found this on Tom's Hardware that might help. 

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/task-manager-not-showing-right-amount-of-cores.2666193/

Surprise, a setting somewhere got tweaked. My gut tells me it might not do it since the issue is happening in BIOS too, but what the heck. Might still be worth a try. Just make sure all cores are enabled in BIOS before you try it.

Edited January 28, 2021 by Trevorq243
Timing

[Insky]

1 minute ago, Trevorq243 said:

Augh, sorry to keep blowing you up, but I found this on Tom's Hardware that might help. 

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/task-manager-not-showing-right-amount-of-cores.2666193/

Surprise, a setting somewhere got tweaked. My gut tells me it might not do it since the issue is happening in BIOS too, but what the heck. Might still be worth a try. Just make sure all cores are enabled in BIOS before you try it.

That's the exact place where I found my solution, anyway, still Thanks!

[Trevorq243]

Can I just say - it's totally wild to me that a setting in Windows was able to affect how the chip showed up in BIOS. I'm glad you found a solution, but I'm also glad I learned something today. Never in a million years would I have suspected that Windows settings could trump what the BIOS shows. The more you know, eh?

[Insky]

1 minute ago, Trevorq243 said:

Can I just say - it's totally wild to me that a setting in Windows was able to affect how the chip showed up in BIOS. I'm glad you found a solution, but I'm also glad I learned something today. Never in a million years would I have suspected that Windows settings could trump what the BIOS shows. The more you know, eh?

Yes I agree, that was the last thing I could think of that could have caused this.