I was looking into this today when I saw a new post from a company I follow about this subject. Apparently you can use powercfg.exe, and you do not have to reboot, so you can test the changes in real time. It seems incomplete, but is at: hXXp://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php (posted in hXXp so you don't think I'm a spammer) .. change to http to get there.. I recommend it as a read, even if he calls it a draft. It sounds good to me, lol.

I did verify that his powercfg.exe example code works, at least for me. Seeing it in real-time was cool! Also having an AMD Bulldozer platform (same as the author said he was testing on), it made a big difference. Whether it does for you or not, I can not say. This was a difference I could notice, so I was quite surprised. I'd been having extreme troubles in virtual machines especially. This solved it. Pfft.. such a simple change, and how much electricity are we even saving?

If he has some tool coming, as he purports, then that's cool too.. though with these commands known the techie doesn't need it.

TomG-- No, please do not go "fix" (delete) the system reserved partition. That is not a problem needing fixing, but rather a very useful feature, that could save your butt if your computer will not boot. It in no way affects the performance of your computer. There is no reason to delete that partition. The OP in that thread gave very bad advice, in recommending that people do that. In fact, on reading it, although it is an old thread, I replied to that, as I felt I should warn people not to do that, I went into more detail there. You might want to look at what is now the last post of that thread (just submitted by me a few minutes ago), to read more about it.

I am running the AMD Phenom and in a fit of curiosity, I ran about 45 minutes sonar and resource operation monitoring, it will never stop the core.

I've recently upgraded to a 8 core cpu running Sonar 7 on Win7 all 64bit. I noticed that it does not like using more than 2 cores. I get all kinds of sound artifacts during playback. I turned off the multicore support in Sonar so it only uses one core, now all the issues I was having have stopped, and things seem to run smoothly though my one core is running at 50% or more load. Would the problems I had been having be related to core parking?

This info is very outdated now. I have been told by IT people I trust and they say this---Windows 7 is the first operating system they have found no reason to mess with. Leave it alone. Just enjoy the ride. Don't worry about core parking. it's a none issue now. I've never seen the CPU meter go past 15%. Finally no drop outs, finally no blue screens,finally everything works, finally my interface is running in low latency mode, finally I can use session drummer without freezing. I feel no desire to tamper with windows 7.

I had no end of click and pops using vst plugs with my i5 windows 7 system laptop until I switched off core parking. it was always maxing out the first core. Now it runs great solid as a rock. I even use it for gigs running vst like guitar rig live it is that stable. It behaves as an i5 should now. Core parking was the last throw of the dice before selling it and it is amazing the difference. Here is a great tool for testing it out by the way.

http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility

After re-reading all this, I am still confused as to which does what.

I agree with jcollake about ramp-up time being underestimated. And depending upon the process this issue is/isn't important. So, for most persons with current computers this will not be a noticable. But it is still there.

For me this is another of the little bits I want to avoid, so when I do have a problem I will not have to think this is the cause, as shambolic learned.

A utility I just found:

[link=http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility]http://www.coderbag.com/P...U-Core-Parking-Utility[/link]

Also please see ParkControl at http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php . It applies CPU core parking changes without reboot, without direct registry edits, and lets you set the behavior for individual power profiles. It is 100% freeware. The page was mentioned above I see, but before the development of this Freeware utility.

TomG


Firstly major props to new forum member sky60234 for the following method.
 
Some of you will recall my previous regedit to turn-off Win 7 Core Parking here:-  http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.ashx?m=1852473
 
This is now superseded by a much better method.   Thanks to  sky60234   there is now an  easier  / non-destructive  /  fully reversible  way to do this - ie: no deletions of .Reg keys needed - only an entry value adjustment.

 
________________________________________________________
 
In short, here is the better method from sky60234:-
 
- Go to Regedit
 
- Find this key:-  " 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 "
 
- Within this key, there is a value called:  " ValueMax "
 
- This value represents the % number of cores the system will park - the default 100%  ie:  all Cores are potentially park-able
 
- Change the value from 64 to 0 so the " ValueMin "  and  " ValueMax " are both zero
 
- You will have to find the key a few times and repeat the process for each time it is found - the number of instances will depend on the number of power profiles in your system  [  in my DAW it was only found twice ]
 
- Do a full shutdown and power-off and cold-re-start
 
________________________________________________________
 
 
I have tested the above on a clean Windows 7 x64 / Clean 8.5.1 install and it works perfectly - all Cores are available at all times and none are ever parked - the result  =  even CPU loads at all times regardless of loads.
 
As sky60234 noted, the advantage of the above is that nothing at all is being deleted from the Registry -  all that is being done is that a value is being adjusted.
 
Again, major thanks and props to   sky60234  for this excellent  fix.
 
Tom

Thanks Tom for all the investigations, in my case I did tried everything, and the same results, 2 Cores and 2 Logical. Then I started to change something in the bios and the same results, intel speedblabla and deactivating HT, and MAXCPUID disable but the same results. Until I enter msconfig.exe in ADVANCE BOOT options there is the number of CPU to be use, I start with 4 and so the parking cores are 2, no matter how, or where I change this, registry or apps, so I put 2 Cores and surprise CPUZ tells me my i7 3820 is 1 core 1 logical. AAHHHHhhh!!!!
 
What I didt to see my 8 bars, 4 cores and 4 logical was to disable this option in msconfig ADVANCE BOOT just that, DISABLE NUMBER OR PROCESOR CORES, sorry for my english, I'm from somewhere else USA. That is the solutions, and the apps, and the regkeys all they work, but in some cases like my system the option in advance boot is stronger than changing the power profile. I just joined this forum to tell this story, maybe someone angloparlant(skeaks english) will put imagenes and the steps to follow. THANKS ALL REALLY, THIS IS A NEW PC, I HATE TO SEE 2 CORES AHHHH HATE THAT. THANKS ALL.

Or you could use the official fix at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2646060/EN-US