Prescott and XP SP2

[NBK]

I heard that there were problems with Intel Prescott CPU's and Windows
XP Service Pack 2. Is this true? I am thinking about buying a 3.2GHz
Prescott CPU for my P4P800 Deluxe.

Thanks
NBK

 

[Cari]

http://forum.aumha.org/viewtopic.php?t=7447

 

[Ken]

I heard that there were problems with Intel Prescott CPU's
and Windows XP Service Pack 2. Is this true? I am thinking
about buying a 3.2GHz Prescott CPU for my P4P800 Deluxe.

Northwood 3.2 GHz are better.

 

[Barry Watzman]

As best I can ascertain, there is apparently a potential issue between
XP SP2 and some Prescott systems if the BIOS does not incorporate
relatively recent code changes recommended by Intel.

This is dependent on the Motherboard and the BIOS. The real-world
situation is that most Prescott motherboards probably still have a BIOS
which will cause a problem, but, also, in most cases, an updated bios
that resolves the problem is already available (and, for the remaining
cases, hopefully will be soon, but there can be no guarantees
across-the-board).

Clearly, the first advice is to reflash the bios to the latest available
prior to the installation of SP2.

If you get into a situation in which the computer won't boot with SP2
installed, go into BIOS setup and disable cache (all levels that you are
able to disable). The system will slow dramatically, but will probably
boot and run, allowing you to download and reflash the bios, after
which, hopefully, cache can be turned back on and all will be right with
the world.

Analysis of the situation is still a bit sketchy, but this is the best
picture that I have been able to piece together from various reports
that I have read. The "problem" is not with SP2, it's with early
Prescott BIOS', again, as best as I can determine.

 

[Castle]

I can vouch for that incompatibility problem. Its so serious that I
lost data and couldn't get it back.

Prior to the XP Pro SP2 upgrade, my system was going perfectly. No
blue screens, it ran very fast and smooth.

My system is a Intel P4 Prescott 3.0, Asus P4P800S motherboard, 1G
RAM, etc..

After I installed the SP2 and rebooted the whole system hanged and I
couldn't get anywhere. I did not have access to the internet and none
of my tech friends had any solutions, so I tried to repair it etc..
now I can't even access my data stored on a seperate paritition.

This article, which I found 15 mins ago, describes 100%. Turns out I
wasn't hacked, nor did I have a corrupt download, I had a Prescott.

http://cquirke.mvps.org/sp2intel.htm

 

[Ron Reaugh]

-snip

Analysis of the situation is still a bit sketchy, but this is the best
picture that I have been able to piece together from various reports
that I have read. The "problem" is not with SP2, it's with early
Prescott BIOS', again, as best as I can determine.

Apparently that's not entirely true. Even with the older or non-existent
microcode update(CPU revision = 0) from the mobo's BIOS, SP2 installs and
works IF the SP2 update.sys is RENAMED or replaced with SP1 update.sys. One
poster in this NG has hypothesized that the Prescott microcode in SP2's
update.sys is flat out SP2 incompatible. If the mobo's BIOS's Prescott
microcode is 8(some hints the value might be 7) or greater then SP2's
update.sys does NOT install anything and all is well. If that hypothesis is
correct then MS really DID screw up as the issue was reported at least 40
days before RTM.

If the hypothesis is correct then wouldn't it be quick and easy for MS to
release a hotfix update.sys and take the heat off all the mobo vendors'
BIOSs. There seems to be great pressure from MS's innards that it's a mobo
BIOS problem BUT there's significant evidence otherwise. The original
investigators of this issue soon determined that Intel is the only one in
the mobo industry keeping their microcode updates current. The other mobo
mfgs seem to be of the opinion that any early "production microcode" version
for a CPU is all that's EVER needed. Many folks say that CPU microcode
updates are the OS's responsibility to install. What the hell is update.sys
for if not that anyway?

How is this issue handled by other OSs? Whose responsibility is CPU
microcode updates in non-MS OSs?

In any case this has all demonstrated that there is a major HOLE in
something somewhere regarding CPU microcode revisions. Who is minding the
CPU microcode store?

 

[TheRedSunRiseth]

In any case this has all demonstrated that there is a major HOLE in
something somewhere regarding CPU microcode revisions. Who is minding the
CPU microcode store?

Totally agree with you there Ron. The least Microsoft could have done is to
place a big warning sign for prescott users. SP2 has literally wiped out my
entire system and I had to rebuild from scratch. I only learnt about other
alternative repairs from other non-MS sites much later on.

 

[Ron Reaugh]

Totally agree with you there Ron. The least Microsoft could have done is to
place a big warning sign for prescott users. SP2 has literally wiped out my
entire system and I had to rebuild from scratch. I only learnt about other
alternative repairs from other non-MS sites much later on.

Right, the issue was known to MS at least 40 days before RTM.