Prescott and XP SP2 Update

It seems there are plenty of people out there running Prescott processors without the latest BIOS code. Seems that a number of vendors were putting out boards with pre production microcode versions. And XP needs to see version 8 or later 

So go get the latest BIOS update. Unless your mobo manufacturer hasn't yet released one (which is the case for a couple of them) In that case a workaround is available here

Published Friday, August 27, 2004 12:30 AM by Mark Dormer
Filed under:

Comments

Saturday, October 02, 2004 6:35 PM by Mark Dormer

# re: Prescott and XP SP2 Update

Why does version 8 need to be seen?

In the MS KB article addressing this issue, they write:

On the CPUID Data tab, review the specifications for your computer. Computers that are affected by this issue have the following specifications:
CPU Family value of F.
CPU Model value of 3.
CPU Stepping value of 3.
CPU Revision value of 3, 2, 1, or 0.

So, based on that, REvision 4 and higher should be fine. Where does this number 8 keep coming from? And, I ask because I have a Prescott CPU waiting to load SP2 to WinXP that shows a Revision 7 based on the free Intel CPU ID Utility.
Monday, October 04, 2004 8:09 PM by Mark Dormer

# re: Prescott and XP SP2 Update

The information is based upon data I received from a microsoft employee that was passed on from Intel.

Here is the response from the Intel rep:

This may again be the problem where the machine’s BIOS is not installing a production level microcode update….  We have seen some cases where the user (or vendor building up a system) has installed new processors for which the BIOS on the motherboard had no knowledge when the board was built.  Thus there is no microcode update installed at all.  We have also seen a few cases where the motherboard/machine was shipped with pre-production microcode update versions.
 
For family 15 (0xF), model 3, stepping 4 (F34) processors the first production microcode update had a signature of 8.  Anything before that (or no microcode update applied), has the problem that update.sys cannot install a newer microcode update successfully (and hangs the machine).
 
The quick test is to boot into a safe build and rename %windir%\system32\drivers\update.sys so that it does not load.  This should allow the machine to boot up with whatever microcode update the BIOS has supplied.  Then if a kernel debugger is attached a !cpuinfo or a !cpuid and a “rdmsr 8b” will tell you the processor family/model/stepping and microcode update id. 

Hope that helps.