Core 2 Duo Owners beware, Intel Flaw'd

[Black_V!per]

Slashdot reads:

According to this article in The Inquirer and this Microsoft Knowledge Base article, a fix for some significant problems in many of Intel's most recent processors has been quietly released — by whom is not clear. Patches are available on Microsoft's site. Affected processors include Core 2 Duo E4000/E6000, Core 2 Quad Q6600, Core 2 Xtreme X6800, XC6700, and XC6800. Details on just what has been fixed are scanty (it's called a 'reliability update'), however, it's probably more important than either Intel or Microsoft is openly admitting.

Source: Click


Any owners wana share some light on issues they may or may not be having? I was preping a Intel Purchase, but if this is a bad flaw i may go AMD.

*No AMD/Intel Wars!*

[MagnaCentipede]

Does not apply to Windows 2000 apparenty. I win again. µ usually likes to attack MS with all claws, yet here they're telling people to update and they don't even know why. That's a red flag in my eyes. It's probably something small and silly like the original Pentium's floating point division "instability," but still...the golden rule is if you don't have a problem with a computer, don't try to fix it. So if you're not experiencing "system instability," which is normally something the user has a keen eye toward spotting, why should everyone run like the sky were falling and install this mystery patch?

[OneByOne]

haha glad i own an amd

*not trying to start a war*

might upgrade to a C2D here in the future though..

[stickyjeans69]

im an E6600 owner and this patch is skeptical to me

[loyalguard]

I have an E6600 and have had zero problems, I am with sticky. I like the Inquirer but I will wait to see what the mainstream says before taking any action

[PanzerHans]

That Apple users are not affected makes close to no sense to me. If there is a flaw in the CPU it should affect any operating system running with the CPU. The microcode fix is supposed to fix something along the lines of "atomic operation sequence".

I have actually had strange errors of drop down menus closing on me when they shouldn't(most likely related to the two cores handling work out of sequence). I hope this patch fixes that(I have applied it)

[loyalguard]

Originally Posted by PanzerHans

That Apple users are not affected makes close to no sense to me...

Excellent point Hans. To me that says that it is a problem with the OS not properly interfacing with the CPU, probably bad machine code. Let us know how the patch goes!

[Apophis]

Originally Posted by loyalguard

Excellent point Hans. To me that says that it is a problem with the OS not properly interfacing with the CPU, probably bad machine code. Let us know how the patch goes!

That's what I was going to say too. If it's only affecting Windows machines it's more likely an OS/Software issue than a hardware issue.

[Acreo Aeneas]

Hmm, sounds like MS is trying to cover up a *possibly* big problem with XP and Vista...

[Dick Blonov]

Originally Posted by Apophis

That's what I was going to say too. If it's only affecting Windows machines it's more likely an OS/Software issue than a hardware issue.

More info here.

If your BIOS was released after April 10th, you might something about a microcode update in the release notes.

DB

[Black_V!per]

Originally Posted by Dick Blonov

More info here.

If your BIOS was released after April 10th, you might something about a microcode update in the release notes.

DB

Nice find, that explains a lot...


Lol @ "Kernel Panic for Linux". I envisioned pop corn kernels running around... :-p

[ScratchMonkey]

From the rage3d thread:

This Intel microcode update addresses an improper Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) invalidation that may result in unpredictable system behavior such as system hangs or incorrect data.

Back around 1983 or so, I worked with a group developing a mainframe (the "Mars") and we had a really nasty MMU bug that took quite some time to track down, and it sounds a lot like this. So I'm quite sympathetic to Intel.

For those curious about the mainframe, here's the story as told by Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_Concepts

[Black_V!per]

I wonder what this means:

http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=118296441702631

[MagnaCentipede]

It's a list of known errors in the design.

I kept my barcodes; if they want to send me a newer beter stronger harder C2D in a few months, I'll take it. But likely it'll just be a run of lemons that is soon forgotten. The only way for there to be a re-issue is for Everyone to file a complaint, and if the problems are rare and avoidable enough that won't happen.

Again, as an 2000 user, either I'm immune because I don't use any of these features that are improperly implemented, or I'm just not supported for a fix since I don't keep giving MS my money. Thus, the MS patch doesn't interest me much, but it could trigger a new wave of BIOS patching, which would be intriguing.

[What Is Schwa?]

I recently bought the e6600 and built a new box around it.

In the first month I had two random crashes (one web browsing with firefox, the other in game) and nothing since.

However, the potential for further crashes looms over my head. It puts a little fear into what I thought was a perfect build.

My legit copy of Windows XP has been deemed not "authentic" so I cannot install this patch. I would, just because it addresses a specific piece of hardware I have, and I have experienced two mystery crashes.

I almost want to buy Vista. However, having paid full retail for XP a few years ago and getting treated like a criminal rubs me raw.

-Aaron

(sorry for the slight tangent)