NT questions
19 messages in this thread
a couple of NT questions which have been ignored in the NT forum,
I installed NT with the "Standard PC" HAL. Now I'd like to try a second CPU on
my ASUS PCI/EISA m/board. I added a second CPU and my BIOS finds it perfectly
with a change of one m/board jumper. But NT is still reporting only 1. How do I
go about configuring NT to find the second CPU. I did read the manual and could
find no mention of how to do this.
Secondly, is anyone aware of multiple license pricing on NT. I bought the
single license workstation 3.51 for about $320 and would like to upgrade to a
multiple license version.
Martin
I don't know if this helps Martin, but I had a problem getting NT to recognize
more than 64 MB of RAM and was able to fix it by upgrading my bios.
Incidentally, similar to your situation, my bios was recognizing all of my RAM
it just wasn't feeding the info to NT.
Tyler,
>> getting NT to recognize more than 64 MB of RAM and was able to fix it by
upgrading my bios. <<
I seem to be OK on RAM, but it might be good to talk to the M/board
manufacturers. I do think there a simpler way of changing HAL's, though.
Anyone else know
Martin:
I have a dual-Pentium that someone had originally installed NT using express
setup. This defaults NT to a single-processor. The only way to correct it was
to re-install NT using the custom installation option. If you watch your
prompts carefully, you'll see where to state the number of processors.
Too bad NT doesn't install like Win95. I really like how 95 found all my
hardware and automatically installed the right drivers. Absolutely essential
for laptop users.
JSH
Jeff,
>> The only way to correct it was to re-install NT using the custom
installation option. <<
bummer. It'd be nice to avoid this. I've already installed and re-installed
multiple times. Oh well.
Martin
actualy that is not true.
NT 3.5 / 3.51 will automatically recognize 2 cpu's on installation,
and NO HAL installs are necessary.
SMP is built into NT at the lowest level.
try to get 3.51 if possible.
Cameron
CYberImage
Cameron, I think Martin realizes this. What he is trying to *avoid* is
re-installing the OS. Is there a way for a single-processor WinNT system to
"find" a new, second processor *without* re-installing?
-Alan
Cameron,
>> NT 3.5 / 3.51 will automatically recognize 2 cpu's on installation,
and NO HAL installs are necessary. <<
I do have 3.51. I tried a re-install and it still didn't find the 2 cpu's which
the BIOS is showing on hardware bootup. There are custom HAL's actually – quite
a few of them. I had to hit f5 during the install and choose Standard PC from
the list of HAL types to even get NT to install because it didn't like the
smpHAL.
Anyway, all is wonderful in NT world now. I really like it except getting it to
see my second CPU. BTW, this is an ASUS EISA/PCI dual Pentium 100 M/board.
I think I'll try it on another system with 2 cpu's which doesn't have NT on it
yet.
Martin
hi martin.
the ASUS dual board is the best board on the market for smp.
we have sold + used them for over a year, selling some 100+.
we just sold a systems to terry Miller , a $25,000 NT monster
for 3ds, and it works great.
I suspect you a having a hardware conflict with 1 of your cards.
I have seen this happen with some non standard scsi cards etc.
trust me the ASUS boards work perfectly with 2 cpu's.
also, make sure you have 15ns cache on the board, ad the latest bios.
i know this board very well.
It is one of only 2 (ami TITAN) that is certified for SMP spec 1.1 by Intel and
Microsoft for NT.
let me know what happens, I specialize in tech hardware problems
and high end NT\ Pentium systems.
we are ASUS and SM dealers as well
hope the info helps
Cameron
CYberImage
Cameron,
>> the ASUS dual board is the best board on the market for smp. <<
I agree.
>> I suspect you a having a hardware conflict with 1 of your cards.
I have seen this happen with some non standard scsi cards etc.
trust me the ASUS boards work perfectly with 2 cpu's. <<
I think you are missing my point and my question. Let me repeat it. When you
install NT it will determine the hardware you are using. It did this fine and
it the M/board had 1 cpu. Now I added the second cpu and it doesn't see it
because it is configured for 1 cpu (the Standard PC configuration). This is
called the HAL file (Hardware Abstraction Layer) and I believe it is what
allows NT to run with different flavours of machine. My question is can I
change it to MPS Multiprocessor configuration without deleting NT and
re-installing completely. Jonas told me no, but I haven't given up.
In a nutshell the question is:
can you change the hardware configuration of NT _after_ installation??
As a test, I did a first time installation of NT on another PC with the exact
same hardware EXCEPT it has 2 cpu's installed from the beginning. This time it
worked fine and NT automatically installed the correct HAL (the MPS
multiprocessor one).
>> also, make sure you have 15ns cache on the board, ad the latest bios <<
OK. I'll call the motherboard.
Martin
Martin,
I've been playing with NT also, and ran across the exact same situation when
adding a second Pentium processor. My answer did come from the NT forum on CIS,
I'm not at my desk right now and don't have access to the notes. There are two
ways to handle your situation. You can buy the NT 3.5 Resource Kit, and use the
included utility to upgrade your installation to the MP kernel, or you can copy
the files yourself from the i386 directory of the CD-ROM.
I believe the files are icmp.dll, and ntkrnlmp.exe. Copy those to your
\system32 directory and rename ntkrnlmp.exe as ntoskrnl.exe. Remember to make
backup copies of your existing files before doing this.
As I said, this info is in a message on the NT forum in the Install and Setup
message section.
Andrew.
Andrew,
excellent. Thanks for the response. I'll try your suggestions.
ndrew,
excellent. Thanks for the response. I'll try your suggestions.
this is asking for trouble my friend.
do a proper reinstall, and do NOT monkey around with NT files.
Cameron
CYberImage
Martin,
I should have waited to check my information, the two files that you need to
copy from the i386 directory on the cd-rom are:
HALMPS.DLL
NTKRNLMP.EXE
You should make backup copies of the following files and then copy over them
with the above files:
HAL.DLL
NTOSKRNL.EXE
I advised you to use a different file in my earlier message, the problem with
trying to work from the top of my head. As mentioned in another message,
sometimes a re-install is much safer.
Andrew
Andrew,
sounds like the best solution was to use uptomp.exe which I don't have since I
don't have the resource kit.
I tried your suggestion and it only partially worked. It seems like there are
several files that need copying. After dealing with the HAL.dll and
NTOSKRNL.exe I rebooted and was told the WINSRV.dll had been modified for
single processor use. That means I need that one too and it is on the cd-rom as
WINSRV.dl_ which means I need to use expand.exe. The one I used while booting
from Dos didn't seem to un-expand the file correctly. There seems like there
might be other files involved too.
I guess I'll get the resource kit or just re-install.
Martin
yes you can do it but it is better to reinstall.
if you do a reinstall in the same directory over itself,
you will keep your basic setup.
there is no reason for you not to do a reinstall.
we do it many times a week for testing on NT.
in a NUTSHELL –
reinstall, there is no downside !!
Cameron
CYberImage
I agree that reinstalling is safer, but it does work as I did it without a
problem.
Cameron:
Maybe NT is SUPPOSED to automatically recognize multiple processors, but I had
an experience installing NT 3.5 where that was definately NOT the case. The
original "installer" used express setup and it only recognized one processor.
Not until we reinstalled NT with custom setup were we able to correct this.
JSH
this must be due to a hardware problem in your system,
as we have built hundreds of dual processor systems
using ASUS and AMI boards with no trouble using express setup.
ASUS and AMI are Intel and Microsoft SMP 1.1 spec certified boards.
many cheaper dual boards do not meet or are not certified for this spec.
it is that simple.
also quality of scsi \ video cards help.
s3 based Diamond or others and adaptec or NCR based cards
work flawlessly everytime, that is why we use them.
industry standard hardware is crucial for win NT \95,
as they are 32 bit protected mode os's that have alot of demands on
hardware ..
what one could get away with in DOS\ windows is no longer the case.
hope the info helps
Cameron
CYBERIMAGE