Quad core running on one

I had another break down yesterday while swapping out an under voltage PSU for one that was up to scratch. Now in doing so I have put enough pressure on the large Arctic Freezer 13 Pro cooler to break what I found to be a VERY flimsy retaining bracket.
This allowed the Intel Q9650 to run away and I didn't notice it for some time as the cooler tower looked to be in place and it wasn't until things started to go ape that I knew something was up.

Now i have it up and running again reinstalled the OS and find it is running very slowly have redone the compound twice now but the temp is still reaching 70C during say a MBAM scan plus Core Temp is now reporting only one core.

So not having this problem before can a quad core run on one only?

Mt other query is that I use this machine to test other softwares before using them on my man machines and if I have to would this set up be ok for just general use?
I intend using the case although I cannot access the backside of the motherboard for a back plate for instance the PSU is ok and I have a stack of DDR3 RAM I can use
With a budget in mind the parts in question are $280 all up

Intel Pentium G2130
ASUS H61M-A-USB3 Motherboard
CoolerMaster Hyper T4 CPU Cooler
ASUS GeForce GT 620 1GB or Gigabyte GeForce GT 610 Silent 1GB (I could possibly do without this so $600 less)

I don't know if it will run on one core, never tried. Take a look at this on your computer. If it could it would be so slow you would hate it.

Layback Bear said:

I don't know if it will run on one core, never tried. Take a look at this on your computer. If it could it would be so slow you would hate it.

Yes mate it is dreadfully slow painful in fact is that the name of the program?? I have Core Temp running and it only shows one core as does the Boot tab in msconfig.

Strange thing is when I reinstalled it - it was ok for a while then there cores just dropped out of sight??

Please notice no check marks in Boot Advance Options.

Could you possibly have a board with Core Unlocker ? if do you might have accidently locked some of the cores down

I 'm not sure with Intel but this is a AMD feature to unlock a extra core on Tricore Athlons

Ok I will trythat because I just ticked max memory out of interest and it showed me with 253KB installed!! when it has 4GB but I'll do as you say.

Jack you are a genius I just unticked everything and so far it has fired up in no time and Core Temp is now showing me four cores

Genius NOT. Just been there and done that.
Happy computing.

Genius Jack as is beauty is in the eye of the beholder:)