microcode update

[Andrew]

With increasing frequency my computer will simply stop
working ( the screen simply goes black ) and then a few
seconds later it will restart itself. This happens at
all times whether I am logged in as the administrater or
a non priveledged user. There doesn't seem to be any
rhyme or reason for this behviour and it will sometimes
do it even when there is no user activity.

At other times when logging in only as the administrator,
just after the desktop has come up I get an error message
which says:
Windows has recovered from a serious error, a log of the
error has been created plese tell microsoft about this
error etc. When I look at the error signature I get
variations on a smiliar theme as follows.

Error signature
BCCode:10000050 BCP1:8C8D50FF BCP2:00000000
BCP3:8C8D50FF
BCP4:00000000 OSVer:5_1_2600 SP:2_0
Product:768_1

Error signature
BCCode:1000007f BCP1:00000008 BCP2:F87C5D70
BCP3:00000000
BCP4:00000000 OSVer:5_1_2600 SP:2_0
Product:768_1

Error signature
BCCode:1000007f BCP1:00000008 BCP2:80042000
BCP3:00000000
BCP4:00000000 OSVer:5_1_2600 SP:2_0
Product:768_1

Error signature
BCCode:1000008e BCP1:80000004 BCP2:00000000
BCP3:F3DAD854
BCP4:00000000 OSVer:5_1_2600 SP:2_0
Product:768_1

windows continues to function after receiving this
message (except for the random resatarting as described
in the first paragrah ) and I have told Microsoft about
the problem as suggested in the message.
On one occaision I followed through the error on your
website and came up with KB 842465 which suggests
updating the microcode for the cpu if the cpu revision is
less than 24 ( when I run the cpuid facility the cpu
revision on my computer is 21).
But where do I go and how do I update the microcode? I
have been to the gigabyte and intel website and I have
been back to the place where I bought my computer from
with no luck. The people that I bought the computer from
said I should reload windows.

For the record my hardware is
gigabyte 8ipe 1000 pro2 motherboard
intel pentium 4 2.8 Ghz processor
512 Megabytes ram (2 x 256 modules dual channel)

I hope you can help with this or at least point me in the
right direction.

 

[Chris Priede]

But where do I go and how do I update the microcode?

Microcode updates may be loaded by the BIOS or the operating system (the
updates are volatile and have to be reloaded after a hard reset). Intel
does not supply the updates to end users.

You *may* get newer microcode by updating your motherboard's BIOS, but not
all motherboard manufacturers are equally good about keeping the
BIOS-supplied microcode up to date.

Windows XP also loads an update at boot time, if deemed necessary:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;288302

Any updates for that would come as updates for the device driver, from
Windows Update.