problem with smp in kernel 2.4.23 and 2.4.24

Hello !

My system runs on a dual 2.4 Intel Xeon system with Debian Woody rc1 and
use SMP support.
I have used kernel 2.4.20 with no problem. The load average were good.
After the security holes I have changed to 2.4.24.
In the kernel configuration I set to support 4 CPU but with this setting
the kernel didn't see the hiper threads. When I set the number to 8 then I
saw 4 CPU again with the cat /proc/cpuinfo command. But with this setting
about a half day the load average grown up to 4-5 and in the top I saw the
following.

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
    3 root      19  19     0    0    0 R 18.2  0.0  57:54.36 ksoftirqd_CPU0
  344 root       9   0  1412 1412  492 S  2.0  0.1  25:17.76 nacctd
31772 identd     9   0   708  708  580 S  1.0  0.1   0:00.03 identd
  250 root      10   0  8208 8208 1844 S  0.7  0.8   1:13.39 named
31766 mail      12   0  1156 1156 1060 S  0.7  0.1   0:00.02 exim
  111 root      10   0     0    0    0 S  0.3  0.0   2:11.51 kjournald
  246 root       9   0  8208 8208 1844 S  0.3  0.8   0:36.45 named
  247 root       9   0  8208 8208 1844 S  0.3  0.8   0:36.21 named
24482 root       9   0  6720  600  484 S  0.3  0.1   0:00.76 kavdaemon
31764 root      10   0  1012 1012  764 R  0.3  0.1   0:00.04 top
    1 root       8   0   488  488  424 S  0.0  0.0   0:07.45 init
    2 root       9   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 keventd
    4 root      19  19     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.03 ksoftirqd_CPU1
    5 root      19  19     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.01 ksoftirqd_CPU2
    6 root      19  19     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.02 ksoftirqd_CPU3
    7 root       9   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:24.36 kswapd


In the kernel 2.4.20 the CPU Time was equal by all ksoftirqd_CPUx and the
load average wasn't so high. I can send dmesg or any reqired information
if needed.

please help me.
Szabolcs Toth