Please warn users about Microsoft's even number of CPU's problems

[ToddAndMargo]

When setting up a new Windows virtual machine, please warn the user if he selects an odd number of processors. This is one example of Microsoft's code quality problems with an odd number of processors:

​http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954835

On my Windows Server 2003, sp3, x86, virtual machine, I found all sorts of stability problems were solved by switching to an even number of cores. Problems not related to KB954835, but I had that one as well.

Warning the user would save others so, so very much trouble that I had to go through. And, since it is very unlikely that Microsoft will ever improve their code on these things, you have to warm the user.

Many thanks, -T

[Sander van Leeuwen]

Could you be a bit more specific? The above KB link is only about an installation problem with SQL server. AMD has released triple-core CPUs in the past.

[ToddAndMargo]

Replying to sandervl73:

Could you be a bit more specific? The above KB link is only about an installation problem with SQL server. AMD has released triple-core CPUs in the past.

Would you please change the "warm" to "warn" in the subject line?

The reason I gave you the link to KB954835 was because it was reproducible and documented (I got caught by it too). The rest is anecdotal: the terminal server 2003 ran like hell until I reduced the number of processors from three to two. After reducing to two, I stopped getting freeze ups and disconnects. No CPU storms either.

AMD's three cores sound perfect: two for the guest and one for the host.

-T

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.