Out of frustration with the constant crashing, I turned hyperthreading on my PC bios settings off this morning. Vegas 6 has been crashfree since then. I've never really thought hyperthreading on a single CPU made that much sense anyway!
You have answered your own question...and I quote - from the article:
WORKAROUND
To switch to a uniprocessor HAL, reinstall the operating system.
The actual true "multiprocessor" HAL is designed for two "real" processors. An Intel "Hyperthreading" processor is still a single chip. All that is really happening here is this chip is asked to do twice the work - in a virtual sort of way....depending on what that unit of work is - you may see gains in some areas in Vegas...generally tho - I would rather have my single chip using all it's horsepower without the virtual division of labor that hyperthreading introduces.
With HT off in the BIOS - the only way to get a properly installed uniprocessor HAL and driver set is to reinstall.
If the ACPI Multiprocessor HAL is currently installed you can change to the following options:
• Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC
• ACPI Multiprocessor
• MPS Multiprocessor
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC and ACPI Uniprocessor have the same performance characteristics and by keeping Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC , it will allow you to switch back easier ..
i just found another KB article on MS MSDN site that says do not install SQL sever/client on a HT or dual cpu system , then turn off HT or remove a CPU or SQL may likely crash ..
it is better to install SQL on a non HT system , then turn HT on (IF you plan on switching back and forth) , but in this case - performance is very slightly less perhaps (on HT)
Hm, I am running WinXP SP2 here on my P4 3,06 GHz HT.
However I have upgraded from a 2,5 GHz P4 (no HT) to 3,06 GHz HT about 6 month ago and did NOT reinstall WinXP. Simply changed the processor and that was it.
Still my task manager shows two processes running in parallel (and I've also used several test programs to confirm that HT is actually working as it should be).
How can that be if you need to reinstall XP to get the multiprocessor HAL ?
BTW, I don't have any stability issues with Vegas 6 (or Vegas 5).
My system is one of those toaster sized Shuttle computers. I have a P4 3.06 with 2 gig of RAM, a Radeon 9000 graphics card, Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum Pro, and two 250 gig WD hard drives. I also have 5 external firewire hard drives that I use for Vegas projects. Three of these are Maxtors and two of them are Western Digital.
I think the rendering really depends on the video.
I did some tests with 1-4 threads on a sample project.
Best time was 4 threads - worst 1.
This was on a 3.2 machine with HT on. The sample project would take about 8 minutes to render. Difference between best and worse was about 25 seconds. An interesting aside. Was did this test 3 times which each thread count. Existing Vegas between each render. The difference in render times between 3 test with the same thread count varied by 12 seconds.