dual core support xp

Hello all,
To make this short, I will just cut to the chase here. Multicore processor for windows xp has been said that I would need a patch 896256 from Microsoft. That was a while ago, I was wondering if this is still true today? From windows update page, MS update will patch
Halmacpi.dll
Ntkrnlmp.exe
Ntkrnlpa.exe
Ntkrpamp.exe
Ntoskrnl.exe
to a higher version than that of 896256, to version 5.1.2600.3093 to be exact. It's a security update I believe, which overwrites the hotfix 896256 anyways, do I still need to patch 896256(version 5.1.2600.3023)?

(Hot fix 896256 was not released to automatic update, you need to fetch that on your own.)

One more thing that troubles me is that, it seems that halmacpi and all the "....mp.exe" suffix is for multicores, but I only have hal.dll, ntkrnpa.exe and ntoskrnl.exe
Does that mean my system is not optimal for multicores? or are they the same thing besides different file names for different systems. My dates for those files are not the same either, they are reading aug 2004, which is an older date, not showing correct dates.

SJ

 

There is a sticky in the Sager and Clevo boards about XP dual core hotfixes. You could check there for all the information you need. It is found here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416


The version I have is KB896256-v4 which was the current version released by Microsoft.

 

That is exactly my point, that thread is a glorified extended Microsoft knowledge base case ID 896256. I am not sure if this needs to be applied anymore. Could you if you have it, locate the files in c:\windows\system32 and hover over it to see what version your files are. If have windows update to date. I have hal.dll, ntkrnpa.exe and ntoskrnl.exe of version 5.1.2600.3093

If you look at what hot patch 896256 does, it changes those file to version 5.1.2600.3023 which is older than what windows update has which will be overwritten to 5.1.2600.3093. If that's true, does hot patch 896256 still do anything?

 

My hal.dll file is version 5.1.2600.3023 while my ntkrnpa.exe and ntoskrnl.exe files are version 5.1.2600.3093. If this XP hotfix doesn't work then I can always use the AMD dual core optimizer and it will get the same result.

Hope some one else can chime in on this thread and give some more info...

 

my Hal.dll is 3023 as well, I guess one would still need to install 896256 to get hal.dll to version 3023, as the new windows update only changes kernel files? let me do some more research...

 

here is a few osfix that came with my machine preload
883517 replace kernel to version 2507
909095 replace kernel to version 2774
889816 replace kernel to version 2885

889613 replace HAL to version 2562

finally 896256 replaces both kernels and HAL to 3032

windows update 931784 changes kernel to 3093

so to conclude you only need 896256 for hal.dll and 931784 for the kernels

question: why do they(lenovo thinkpad) pack all those fixes in the OEM when they only need 896256 and latest windows update.