This document provides some frequently asked questions about Sandra. Please read the Help File as well!

Q: Some of the information in Mainboard Information is wrong!
A: Sandra asks the BIOS for most of the information shown. Many BIOSes (even those released in today) still contain many bugs in the DMI/SMBIOS core. While Sandra double-checks most of the displayed information, there is no way to check all internal information (e.g. card slots). The only fix is for you to upgrade your BIOS by obtaining a newer version and flash it.

Even if you do have the latest version, the DMI/SMBIOS core needs to be configured correctly by the vendor. Only major vendors like Compaq, HP, etc. bother to do this, most OEMs do not. If you do spot incorrect information (double check with the board's DMICFG utility - should be on the CD that came with the board), contact the manufacturer and let them know.

Q: My CPU is not detected correctly!
A: Make sure you do the following:

• Read the Compatibility document to see if it is supported.
• Update to a newer version of Sandra. Sandra cannot detect CPUs released after her own release date!

Q: The FSB of my system is not detected correctly!
Q: The AGP/PCI/USB/1394/FireWire of my system is not detected correctly!
A: Go to Bus Detection for relevant topics.

Q: Why does Sandra say my Pentium 4 is class/family 7 and not 15 as Intel says?
Q: Why does Intel say my Pentium 4 is class 15 and not 7?
A: Legend has it that Pentium 4 was to be assigned class 8 as class 7 was assigned to Itanium. However, due to a bug in NT4 Setup that reads only 3 bits of family instead of 4, 8 would have been been read as class 0 (1000 binary -> 000) thus it would fail. Since, at that time NT4 was very widely used in business something had to be done.

Also, Intel assumed that Pentium 4 will be the last x86 CPU thus there will be no more families of x86 CPUs. ia64 is the way forward. Thus assigning it the very last possible family ID seems appropriate.

Q: My Pentium (Xeon) III/Celeron serial number is not displayed!
A: The serial number may be disabled by the BIOS. See the mainboard manual for information on how to enable it.

Q: How can I turn off the serial number of my Pentium (Xeon) III?
A: The serial number can be disabled by the BIOS in some cases. Check the mainboard manual for information on whether this feature is available. If not, Intel has introduced an utility that disables it.

Q: The BIOS/other programs say my CPU is an AMD Athlon, Sandra says it's a AMD Duron!
A: If the L2 cache size is less than 256kB, you have a Duron, otherwise it is an Athlon. Some AMD Duron CPUs report themselves incorrectly as AMD Athlon which causes this issue. Not all programs have the work-around to make sense of the data.

Q: My AMD Duron is detected as AMD Athlon!
A: As per CPU's errata list, this is a CPU bug: the market name may not correspond with the name reported by the CPU itself. Updating the BIOS should resolve this issue. Sandra 7.50 or later also have a work-around.

Q: I've changed the L2 Multiplier with a program but Sandra does not see it.
A: Sandra displays the hardware cache multiplier, not the current multiplier.

Q: My VIA C3 is shown to have 16MB or more L2 cache!
A: As per CPU's errata list, this is a CPU bug.

Q: My Pentium II(I) is detected as a Celeron!
A: Make sure the L2 cache is enabled (see CPU information). If it is not, go to BIOS Options and turn it on. If you have a PII 266 or faster, turn L2 ECC on as well. A PII with no cache is essentially a Celeron.

Q: My Pentium II(I) Xeon is detected as a PII(I)!
A: This may happen with old Xeon processors when the Sandra device driver is not working.

Q: The micro-code versions of the CPUs in my SMP systems are different (but steppings the same)!
Q: There is no micro-code for my AP CPU(s) but there is for my BSP! Why?
A: Check for a newer BIOS (the BIOS may load microcode for the BSP only) and that you have installed the latest service pack for Windows. If the CPU steppings are different the microcodes will be different.