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Caches disabled

FLast21
Beginner
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Hello all.

I'm newbie here.

I have an HP with a Core 2 Quad Q8400 processor, I have it since a few years. I'm using with Debian GNU/Linux and I think runs fine. Other day I was running some hardware detection programs in order to test it (the programs) and discovered caches L1 and L2 (it has not L3) are installed but disabled. I was searching in BIOS for some enable option without success.

How I could enable these caches in this processor?

Regards and thanks in advanced

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MGorb1
New Contributor I
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It is hard to believe that L1 cash is disabled. Without it CPU would slow down to a crawl.

For a very long time I haven't seen BIOS option to http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/150109-30-disabling-cache disable even L2 cache.

Could you paste screen shot or text output from that diagnostic tool? Even when I think that it is a mistake.

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FLast21
Beginner
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Of course, below you can find output fo dmidecode -t cache

# dmidecode 3.1

Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.

SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0006, DMI type 7, 19 bytes

Cache Information

Socket Designation: L1 Cache

Configuration: Disabled, Not Socketed, Level 1

Operational Mode: Write Through

Location: Internal

Installed Size: 256 kB

Maximum Size: 256 kB

Supported SRAM Types:

Burst

Installed SRAM Type: Burst

Speed: Unknown

Error Correction Type: Parity

System Type: Data

Associativity: 8-way Set-associative

Handle 0x0007, DMI type 7, 19 bytes

Cache Information

Socket Designation: L2 Cache

Configuration: Disabled, Not Socketed, Level 2

Operational Mode: Write Back

Location: Internal

Installed Size: 4096 kB

Maximum Size: 4096 kB

Supported SRAM Types:

Burst

Installed SRAM Type: Burst

Speed: Unknown

Error Correction Type: Single-bit ECC

System Type: Unified

Associativity: 8-way Set-associative

Handle 0x0008, DMI type 7, 19 bytes

Cache Information

Socket Designation: none

Configuration: Disabled, Not Socketed, Level 3

Operational Mode: Unknown

Location: Unknown

Installed Size: 0 kB

Maximum Size: 0 kB

Supported SRAM Types:

Unknown

Installed SRAM Type: Unknown

Speed: Unknown

Error Correction Type: Unknown

System Type: Unknown

Associativity: Unknown

I'm pasting a portion from lshw -c memory command

*-cache:0 DISABLED

description: L1 cache

physical id: 6

slot: L1 Cache

size: 256KiB

capacity: 256KiB

capabilities: burst internal write-through data

configuration: level=1

*-cache:1 DISABLED

description: L2 cache

physical id: 7

slot: L2 Cache

size: 4MiB

capacity: 4MiB

capabilities: burst internal write-back unified

configuration: level=2

Thank you for your answer

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MGorb1
New Contributor I
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Both of those tools use the same source (DMI table inside BIOS). There might be wrong information.

You can https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-kernel-70/disabling-cpu-caches-936077/# post4651117 read what happens when you disable L1, L2 cache inside modern CPU.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
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This is clearly a bug in the BIOS' SMBIOS support. I have never seen a production BIOS providing a way to disable these caches.

...S

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