Before I throw this computer in the garbage....

The BIOS reports that it is a "Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 running at 2.40GHz", and it is not hyperthreading capable. There is no option to enable/disable it in the BIOS setup menus.

There is, however, an option to enable/disable "Multiple CPU Core Technology" (on or off) and I've tried it both ways, with no effect. Interestingly, when disabling this, it seems to reduce the cores from 4 to 2.

Attached is BIOS screenshot:

It appears I have the 82801I chipset so I'm guessing it doesn't apply?

sun@debian:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:03.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express MEI Controller (rev 02)
00:03.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express PT IDER Controller (rev 02)
00:03.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express Serial KT Controller (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IO (ICH9DO) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 6 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Cedar PRO [Radeon HD 5450/6350]
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Cedar HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5400/6300 Series]
sun@debian:~$

Perhaps I missed it but have you installed or are you testing, wheezy, 10.04, 8.04?
Have you tried more than one?

Rick G

Wheezy, I believe:

sun@debian:~$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 3.4-9-rtai-686-pae (Debian 3.4.55-4linuxcnc) () (gcc version 4.6.3 (Debian 4.6.3-14) ) #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 3.4.55-4linuxcnc
sun@debian:~$

I downloaded the "linuxcnc-2.7-wheezy.iso" from the linuxcnc web site, put it onto a bootable USB, and installed from there.

I have not tried any other version of linux.

Is there another you'd recommend for this?