Upgrading a Celeron D345 to a P4 with HT: XP - Hyper-Threading PROBLEMS??

Hi all, I hope I haven't scr*wed up... :o)

I have a Celeron D345 (3.06 MHz, socket 478) on an Asus P4S800D-X (bios
1008, supports Hyper-Threading and P4 Northwood andd Extreme Edition up to
3.4 GHz) and I've just bought on eBay a Pentium 4 3.4 GHz with Northwood
core (512 MB L2).
My doubt (which sadly occurred to me AFTER the the purchase...) is this: I'm
running Windows XP Home Edition SP2 (original) which has never given me any
problem, installed over 2 years ago, up-to-dated, personalized, configured
with a ton of sw which run exacly like I need
them to etc etc. Now, when I will install the P4 will I have to reinstall
(or "repair" the installation) to make XP see the P$ (because of its
HYper-Treading tecnology and the and the second, "virtual", processor)??
Is the P4 recognized normally by Windows XP at the first boot after the cpu
upgrade and are the necessary drivers (I have read about the HAL for the
multiprocessor systems etc) loaded and the HT automatically enabled? Or will
I have problems and really have to reinstall the system?
In short: is it possible to upgrade a non-Hyper-Threading monoprocessor cpu
on a Windows XP system with a Hyper-Threading cpu without having to
reinstall the OS?

If this is what I am facing I would rather disable the HT through the BIOS
and keep the system this way than reinstalling/repersonalize everything
(just thinking about that makes me sick). Is it possible? What about
degraded performances?


Ciao and thank you all in advance.

BAF


P.S. And since I am at it... :o)
I'm thinking about upgrading, together with the cpu, also the RAM going from
1 to 2 Gb (DDR PC3200). Would I have any improvement considering that I
usually have many processes and applications running at the same time (but
the task manager tipically says I still have around 120 Mb free physical
memory and 300 Mb physical memory used as system cache).
Would I have improvements, if not under my normal use, at least working with
800-900 Mb video files or in loading times at startup or starting
applications?


.

Relevant Pages

  • RE: only 50% CPU usage for some processes
    ... As for only being able to use 50% of the CPU, ... Just to be sure, in task manager, do you see both bars ... using the Hyper-Threading capabilities. ... supporting HT Technology and a Hyper-Threading Technology ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: 2 CPUs?
    ... Windows XP and Hyper-Threading ... I recently changed my CPU in my PC. ... My motherboard doesn't even have | two slots. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • RE: Intel Core Duo/Duo2 T2300/E6400 - Hyper-Threading (the absence of)
    ... If the hyper-threading bit is present in the CPU info, ... always be a an extra CPU presented to the system per physical core? ... That just means the CPU supports hyper-threading technology. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re:
    ... you cannot trust the informations about a CPU anymore:( ... I agree there can be some mistakes on the intel site. ... so it really can't have hyper-threading. ... This at least proves that you can't entirely trust the flags. ...
    (Debian-User)