Did i lose 2 cores??!?

Grab coretemp (which is a small download and freeware) and fire it up.

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

Should show you what you need.

266 X 7 = 2.4
266 X 6 = 1.6 (idle)

Mine is showing 1.2875 Volts.

This one runs @ 3Ghz (FSB to 333) without an overvolt - SLACR (GO)

Sorry 9 is the X ... not 7

my bad

If it was actually broken in any way then you probably wouldn't be able to run at all.

Just one reason among many others why you should run with
manufacture defaults.

Sorry. I don't believe in overclocking.

There is absolutely no reason why someone needs to overclock.
Your systems default settings run fast enough to play any game
presently on the market full tilt.

i dl the program. and ran it. it still says the 2 cores.. sorry for the repost. its just that being my first oc. just a little anxious and worried. could it really jsut be a reporting issue?

Couple of things:

XP SP2 and earlier might not recognise more than 2
Check BIOS for some kind of Multi Processing option
Is BIOS updated to latest version?
See what this diagnosis tool says
Might need a Windows reinstall.....but thats a final option.

Whats your motherboard, and BIOS version?

Ignore Enigma ... he is having a bad day prolly.

Does the coretemp report it as a Q6600 but then only show w cores?

If so then you might have broken it and it trully was a quad.

Otherwise you might have been had and it only is a Q6600 in the first place/

U sure it is a Q ??

yea it is for sure a Q6600.. i wouldnt get that wrongg. before i was ocing i actually had it at idle 2.4ghz stock and cpuz did say 4 cores and 4 threads. now it only says 2.. every program i dl to verify it such has core temp, cpuz, and hw monitor all says 2 cores.. everything is running fine.. i have an asus p5n-d mb with the bios version 0701

Open up task manager, look at the performance tab.

CPU Usage history should be divided into 4 sections.

Well not 100% how these cpu id progs get their information. If they go through windows calls it could be a misreporting issue. Was going to say check control panel/system etc for multiprocessor but since you report 2 that part sounds ok.

Wonder if it is worth just resetting the BIOS back to default, just in case it has disabled two cores somewhere in there.

On the overclocking front, I'd tend to stick with stock voltage and increase in smaller chunks. There's plenty of info about, but obviously not your most urgent problem at the moment.

Good luck and hope you get a positive outcome.

Karl

If he doesn't then a half dead Q6600 is a bit of an enigma if it is true ... MU would want to test it under a microscope and bench it.

Intel might be interested ... never heard of a core dying and not taking out the other one ... surely the MCM interconnect wouldn't be able to buffer it and let the other core run ... surely?

Must be one of the above reasons .. windows went wonky or the bios.

Remove, clean, regrease and reseat the Heatsink anyway - check the chip and see if it smells burned up?

You should be able to RMA it anyway ... tell em where you bought it that it just died ... don't tell them you OC'd it.

try benching it to see if you have lost performance, if you have not then it is a reporting problem.

Most likely the CMOS/flash settings got corrupted during the OC adjustments and are set to disable 2 of the cores. He's got to reset the BIOS - i.e., remove the battery and set the jumper pins to reset for a few seconds and then back to normal position.

I had similar occurrences with two boards using "stock" settings, a 939-nForce with CnQ where RAM automatically went from 200 MHz to 125 MHz and the CPU multiplier failed to increase from 5x to 11x, and an X58 where XMP profile was specified as 8-8-8 but system was booting with 9-8-8.

msconfig won't suddenly show up disabling two cores.

The Windows version, including service pack, won't just downgrade without a re-installation or upgrade to a completely different version.

CPU-z, Core Temp, and hwmonitor wouldn't all misreport this. They only report what Windows detects.

Yep ++ for resetting CMOS. Chaos why fly in here and call everyone a dumbass? Also your suggestion was already posted by black panther. Let's try to maintain some calamity and civility shall we. Insults are not required.