Noob with a processor problem

[idata]

Hello. I am having some sort of problem with my 6 month old desktop machine. I have an Origin Genesis with an x58 chipset on the ASUS Rampage II Extreme motherboard. It has been running flawlessly, thanks in part to the Crucial realSSD C300 system drive. Tonight, for some reason 4 of the 6 cores shut down. They are gone everywhere, including in CPUID and the Windows registry. 6GB of my 12 GB RAM is also missing.

The machine still runs, albeit slower. I went back in the BIOS and changed the processor speed to default (it was modestly overclocked @ 3.75).

Does anyone have any idea what I have done? I was reading an article in Tom's Hardware earlier today about SSD optimization, and did shut down a couple of "non-essential" Window services.

Thanks

cgmohler

[Salem_W_Intel1]

Hi,

You could run the either http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-031726.htm Intel(R) Processor Diagnostic Tool or http://intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/ Intel(R) Processor Identification Utility to see how your processor is still running; however, prior to doing that, I'd highly recommend ensuring your system is running with its BIOS default settings, as the operation of any Intel-manufactured product outside the published specifications for each part can result in data corruption and unreliable system behavior, even including the situation you describe.