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Windows XP Starter Edition Snubs P4, Athlon

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the for-starters-only dept.

Apu writes "CNET is reporting that Microsoft's Windows XP Starter Edition operating system specifically checks the result of the CPUID instruction on bootup and fails to continue if a Pentium 4 or Athlon processor is detected."

4 of 705 comments (clear)

  1. Low-cost and entry-level by fembots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    it is designed for low-cost, entry-level desktop PCs running value-based processors

    This is fine as long as MS provides a patch when P4 or AMD64 is considered low-cost and entry-level.

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
  2. Perhaps a strange suggestion, but... by Ieshan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    On your second point, I think that Microsoft ought to have an option for screens to go black on errors.

    Microsoft Operating Systems are used daily in environments where it really isn't useful to display large blue screens with technical error information. Printing that information to a file crit_error.dat and displaying a black screen will be much less obtrusive and obvious in what you call "high traffic areas", and probably wont add much tech time.

    Just a thought I had upon reading your post. It doesn't really *solve* the problem, it just makes it more "friendly" to these sorts of microsoft displays.

    1. Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but... by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, this reminds me of an old trick we developed to use on the Amiga on a public-access cable channel. The software was under development and crashed occasionally, so rather than having a flashing "guru meditation" up on a local TV channel until it was rebooted the next day, we came up with a plan, that would probably work on a Windows machine as well (or just about any other system)

      The idea was that while the software application was running, it drove a continuous 1khz tone out the audio port that kept a relay energized (that kept the signal on-air). When the system crashed, the audio output stopped, which meant the relay was no longer energized = video signal switched back to a stock SMPTE bars signal from a test generator.

      Something similar could probably be developed fairly easily for other machines - if the system freezes/BSODs, the audio stops (hopefully not looping ala a video game crash), and a relay could trip the reset switch on the front of the computer and auto-reboot it, could power it down, or any number of other applications.

      It was a very, very simple hardware project to engineer and worked flawlessly (unlike my software at the time) ;P

      N.

      --
      "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
  3. Not arbitrary. Calculated. by team99parody · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I think Microsoft is well aware of what it's doing.

    It's the same as having MSDE being a crippled SQLServer that limits the nubmer of threads it can run. Surely the CPU could handle more threads; but they cripple it so that more people buy the bigger one.

    This Pentium4/Athlon decision makes perfect sense - if someone can afford the higher-end processor, they can afford the higher priced OS.