hi all,
i have mandriva one 2009 and vista dual boot
i want to upgrade my processor from core2duo to core2quad i know this can go wrong in vista but will it in linux and if so how do i fix it?

I wouldn't think it should be an issue.. but depending on the applications you are running the question is will you actually benefit from the CPU switch ?

the E8400 Core 2 Duo at 3.0 Ghz will run Games and single threaded applications faster then the Q9100 2.26 Ghz Quad Core CPU.
The Quad core would be faster for rendering graphics and encoding video, or maybe something like a busy SQL server.

Personally I don't do any work on my PC where I would benefit from a Quad core, but maybe you do..

Just thought I'd mention it before you spend the cash

farslayer already said it, but I want to be sure you understood. Most things that ordinary users run on a computer only use one thread, so they can only use one core. All the background processing combined usually isn't enough to make equal use of the second core. A third core or more is typically pure waste.

What goes wrong in Vista? Is it the license checking logic after any hardware upgrade, that tries to guess whether you just repaired something or whether you have made a pirate copy onto a different computer?

There is no technical reason for any problems, so I think it must be a licensing reason.

I assume mandriva doesn't attempt to enforce any licensing restrictions, so it won't have any licensing problems when you change hardware.