P4 Prescott and SP2 not compatible!!

[TheRedSunRiseth]

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

Hello,

I'm using a P4 Prescott and a Asus P4p800s (Prescott compatible)
motherboard.

I've been using XP Pro with all updates done for over six months and it
worked like magic.

But when I installed SP2 yesterday - the computer gets stuck at the startup
screen. I can't even access safemode. I get a access is denied error message
when I try to get to My Document folders in "cmd" mode.

 

[Star Fleet Admiral Q]

In case you forgot to research before installing - this is a known issue -
it requires you to flash your motherboard BIOS with the latest version or in
some cases, you'll need to wait until your BIOS manufacturer releases a BIOS
update for SP2 - till then you need to run SP1.
There is a KB article which states how to fix, by booting to safemode and
removing SP2, but again you say you can't get to safemode, so I don't have
an answer, if the BIOS update option is not available to you.

 

[Service Pack]

The Admiral is correct. It's not the Prescott CPU that's causing the
problem. I just received a Dell GX270 yesterday with 3Ghz P4 3.0E. I
installed SP2 right away to see if it will die. So far so good. Did
another one this morning and it was also OK.

 

[Greg Lirette [MSFT]]

To start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, you must configure the
basic input/output system (BIOS) of the computer to start from your CD-ROM
drive.



Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the
computer.


After the BIOS startup sequence finishes and immediately prior to Windows XP
attempting to boot the following text will appear if the system is booting
from the Windows XP CD.



Press any key to boot from cd



Press any key (for example spacebar) at this time


When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery
Console.

Select the installation of Windows XP that is currently not booting

When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator
password is blank, just press ENTER.

At the command prompt type the following commands and press enter or the
return key

cd system32

cd drivers

ren update.sys update.ren

To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit at the
command prompt, and then press ENTER.

This will allow the system to boot

Navigate to the control panel and remove SP2 using add/remove programs


The system vendor should be contacted as required using that vendor's
escalation procedure.


The system may need a newer BIOS that supplies at least the minimum
production level microcode update as shown in the table below.



Family 15 (0xF), model 3, stepping 4: Must have a microcode update signature
of at least 8. Latest microcode update signature is E.

Family 15 (0xF), model 3, stepping 3: Must have a microcode update signature
of at least 7. Latest microcode update signature is B.

Family 15 (0xF), model 3, stepping 2: Must have a microcode update signature
of at least 7. Latest microcode update signature is A.



It is possible to check the processor details using a utility from Intel:



http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/



The field reported as "Revision" is the microcode update signature.



After installing a correct BIOS on the system, the system should function as
expected with Windows XP SP2.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Greg Lirette [MSFT]]

The following steps is the best method to follow if you hit this issue

To start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, you must configure the
basic input/output system (BIOS) of the computer to start from your CD-ROM
drive.



Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the
computer.


After the BIOS startup sequence finishes and immediately prior to Windows XP
attempting to boot the following text will appear if the system is booting
from the Windows XP CD.



Press any key to boot from cd



Press any key (for example spacebar) at this time


When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery
Console.



Select the installation of Windows XP that is currently not booting

When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator
password is blank, just press ENTER.

At the command prompt type the following commands and press enter or the
return key

cd system32

cd drivers

ren update.sys update.ren

To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit at the
command prompt, and then press ENTER.

This will allow the system to boot

The system vendor should be contacted as required using that vendor's
escalation procedure.

 

[Greg R]

Possible temporay fix.

The problem of SP2 not installing on Prescott (Celerons) and Extreme
Edition CPUs has been identified. The problem appears to be due to the
machine's BIOS not installing a production level microcode update.

To check whether the BlOS is at the correct level, download the Intel
Processor Frequency ID utility from this page:
http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/

The microcode version is identified by this utility as "CPU Revision".
So for this CPU:

* CPU Family = 15

* CPU Model = 3

* CPU Stepping = 4

The microcode revision should be at least 8 (if it is zero, then no
microcode update was installed at all):

* CPU Revision = 8

If the microcode revision is not 8, then boot into Safe Mode. Rename
the file %windir%\system32\drivers\update.sys so that it does not
load. Apply the SP2 upgrade file and the machine should boot properly.

Frequently check the website of your motherboard manufacturer for BIOS
updates as the above is a temporary workaround and may cause
instability.

CQuirke have you tried this?

Greg R

To start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, you must configure the
basic input/output system (BIOS) of the computer to start from your CD-ROM
drive.



Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the
computer.


After the BIOS startup sequence finishes and immediately prior to Windows XP
attempting to boot the following text will appear if the system is booting
from the Windows XP CD.



Press any key to boot from cd



Press any key (for example spacebar) at this time


When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery
Console.

Select the installation of Windows XP that is currently not booting

When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator
password is blank, just press ENTER.

At the command prompt type the following commands and press enter or the
return key

cd system32

cd drivers

ren update.sys update.ren

To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit at the
command prompt, and then press ENTER.

This will allow the system to boot

Navigate to the control panel and remove SP2 using add/remove programs


The system vendor should be contacted as required using that vendor's
escalation procedure.


The system may need a newer BIOS that supplies at least the minimum
production level microcode update as shown in the table below.



Family 15 (0xF), model 3, stepping 4: Must have a microcode update signature
of at least 8. Latest microcode update signature is E.

Family 15 (0xF), model 3, stepping 3: Must have a microcode update signature
of at least 7. Latest microcode update signature is B.

Family 15 (0xF), model 3, stepping 2: Must have a microcode update signature
of at least 7. Latest microcode update signature is A.



It is possible to check the processor details using a utility from Intel:



http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/



The field reported as "Revision" is the microcode update signature.



After installing a correct BIOS on the system, the system should function as
expected with Windows XP SP2.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

http://www.angelfire.com/in4/computertips/

 

[Manda Luyong]

I have a Prescott 3.0E on a Dell GX270 running good with SP2. CPUID below:

Intel(R) Processor Frequency ID Utility
Version: 7.1.20040716
Time Stamp: 2004/08/27 23:52:39
Number of processors in system: 1
Current processor: #1
Processor Name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00E GHz
Type: 0
Family: F
Model: 3
Stepping: 4
Revision: E
L1 Trace Cache: 12 Kµops
L1 Data Cache: 16 KB
L2 Cache: 1 MB
Packaging: FC-PGA2
Platform Compatibility Guide: 04A
MMX(TM): Yes
SIMD: Yes
SIMD2: Yes
SIMD3: Yes
NetBurst(TM) Microarchitecture: Yes
Expected Processor Frequency: 3.0 GHz
Reported Processor Frequency: 3.0 GHz
Expected System Bus Frequency: 800 MHz
Reported System Bus Frequency: 800 MHz
*************************************************************

 

[Greg Lirette [MSFT]]

Greg R the steps I posted allow the system to boot, when you are in this
state you cannot boot to safe mode.


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Greg Lirette [MSFT]]

Manda,

Your system would work fine as you have the latest microcode update
signature which is is E.



This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Greg R]

Greg Lirette,

I was talking about before installing sp2. If someone still wanted xp
sp2 that has a Prescott cpu revision less than 8. There is a
temporary workaround for those that don’t want to flash the bios.


Reposted here again

Possible temporay fix.

The problem of SP2 not installing on Prescott (Celerons) and Extreme
Edition CPUs has been identified. The problem appears to be due to the
machine's BIOS not installing a production level microcode update.

To check whether the BlOS is at the correct level, download the Intel
Processor Frequency ID utility from this page:
http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/

The microcode version is identified by this utility as "CPU Revision".
So for this CPU:

* CPU Family = 15

* CPU Model = 3

* CPU Stepping = 4

The microcode revision should be at least 8 (if it is zero, then no
microcode update was installed at all):

* CPU Revision = 8

If the microcode revision is not 8, then boot into Safe Mode. Rename
the file %windir%\system32\drivers\update.sys so that it does not
load. Apply the SP2 upgrade file and the machine should boot properly.

Frequently check the website of your motherboard manufacturer for BIOS
updates as the above is a temporary workaround and may cause
instability.


Greg R



http://www.angelfire.com/in4/computertips/