coldkiss

Thank you for the replies and suggestions - I've managed to fix my system now, or at least find a workaround. I had a look at the different hardware driers I installed but it was Oleg_II's suggestion that uncovered the source of the problem. It seems taht the latest Win2k update rollup (KB891861) both V1 and V2 may have a bug in the new "hal.dll" it installs for AMD X2 dual-core processors and perhaps also P4 hyperthreading or other SMP CPU setups. The original filename for this Hardware Abstraction Layer version is "halmacpi.dll" which is the ACPI Multiprocessor PC HAL. The Win2k SP4 version is 5.00.2195.6691 and KB891861 updates this to 5.00.2195.7006 - which exhibits the temperature bug with SMP systems. I looked up the \WinNT\System32\$NtUpdateRollupPackUninstall$\ folder and found the backup SP4 version and then replaced the updated "hal.dll" file with this backup version and now the temps are fine and in line with the WinXP installation on my dual-boot system (33c idle). This temperature problem was driving me crazy with puzzlement so many thanks to you all for your input and especially to Oleg_II!

What going on with my Windows 2000 pro install with this new Athlon X2 3800+ on an MSI K8N Neo2 motherboard? Check out these temps with the bundled heatsink: Bios temp = 40c Win2k idle temp = 54c Win2k load temp = 54c WinXP idle temp = 34c WinXP load temp = 53c This is on fresh installs of both OS' using the ACPI multiprocessor HAL with the latest windows updates, drivers and BIOS. I use WinXP only for work and Win2k most often for gaming and web surfing so its hot heatsink ways are a little worrying. I've tried switching to the ACPI uniprocessor HAL and that makes the temps drop down to 34c idle but of course that's with only one core active so its not much use with an X2. I wonder if the C1 HLT state is enabled in the OS when both cores are being used... Any ideas as to what could be causing this wierd behaviour?