diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 8a03efa9f25d7705ec1133f14165a4365822c334..fe91b8a7c8814812b51636a93505ae9da9ce23df 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ documents those changes that are of interest to users and admins.
 =============================
  -- Fix for select/cons_res state preservation over slurmctld restart,
     patch.1.2.0-pre7.061130.cr_state from Dan Palermo.
+ -- Validate product of socket*core*thread count on node registration rather 
+    than individual values. Correct values will need to be specified in slurm.conf 
+    with FastSchedule=1 for correct multi-core scheduling behavior.
 
 * Changes in SLURM 1.2.0-pre8
 =============================
diff --git a/src/slurmctld/node_mgr.c b/src/slurmctld/node_mgr.c
index d8c1cc8961a49abb76fe4d3b46b9b229f4fb86d4..9bda8135ce71d5289d1feb5d07cd35fb36bdbc40 100644
--- a/src/slurmctld/node_mgr.c
+++ b/src/slurmctld/node_mgr.c
@@ -1170,6 +1170,10 @@ validate_node_specs (char *node_name, uint16_t cpus,
 	config_ptr = node_ptr->config_ptr;
 	error_code = 0;
 
+#if 0
+	/* Testing the socket, core, and thread count here can produce 
+	 * an error if the user did not specify the values on slurm.conf
+	 * for a multi-core system */
 	if ((slurmctld_conf.fast_schedule != 2)
 	&&  (sockets < config_ptr->sockets)) {
 		error("Node %s has low socket count %u", node_name, sockets);
@@ -1193,6 +1197,23 @@ validate_node_specs (char *node_name, uint16_t cpus,
 		reason_down = "Low thread count";
 	}
 	node_ptr->threads = threads;
+#else
+	if (slurmctld_conf.fast_schedule != 2) {
+		int tot1, tot2;
+		tot1 = sockets * cores * threads;
+		tot2 = config_ptr->sockets * config_ptr->cores *
+			config_ptr->threads;
+		if (tot1 < tot2) {
+			error("Node %s has low socket*core*thread count %u",
+				node_name, tot1);
+			error_code = EINVAL;
+			reason_down = "Low socket*core*thread count";
+		}
+	}
+	node_ptr->sockets = sockets;
+	node_ptr->cores   = cores;
+	node_ptr->threads = threads;
+#endif
 
 	if ((slurmctld_conf.fast_schedule != 2)
 	&&  (cpus < config_ptr->cpus)) {