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Core Duo Power Sapping Bug is Microsoft Issue

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the explore-all-possibilities dept.

illusoryphoenix writes "A few weeks ago, Tom's Hardware noted a significant reduction in battery life of the Core Duo processors it tested when USB devices were inserted. Intel claimed that Microsoft had a bug in their USB drivers, while Tom's Hardware was unable to reproduce the same result for any of the other Pentium M microarchitecures. This issue has finally been publicly confirmed by Microsoft to be a USB driver problem which keeps the processor from entering advanced sleep states."

18 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Oh My God! by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's a driver glitch with brand new hardware!!! It's already been two weeks and they haven't fixed it yet!! What does this mean for the computing landscape? Is this Wintel's downfall? Will Apple return to their days of prominence? The implications could be enormous!

    --
    Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    1. Re:Oh My God! by evilgrug · · Score: 5, Informative

      "There's a driver glitch with brand new hardware!!! "

      Actually it affects Pentium Ms as well, according to Anandtech.

      "It's already been two weeks and they haven't fixed it yet!!"

      Microsoft first identified the issue and published a Knowledgebase article July 12, 2005. That's a little more than 2 weeks.

      In fact, the regedit quickfix they're recommending was also published on that date ... meaning they still haven't resolved it 7 months later.

    2. Re:Oh My God! by tpgp · · Score: 5, Informative
      I know that you're joking, but I have to reply to the serious parts of your post.

      There's a driver glitch with brand new hardware!!!

      From the TFA
      When a peripheral device was connected to a USB (universal serial bus) 2.0 port, the notebook's battery life plunged at a greater rate than would normally be expected from the use of a peripheral such as a mouse or storage key.
      Nope, not new hardware. USB is not new. The core duos just made the problem more obvious.

      It's already been two weeks and they haven't fixed it yet!!
      From the TFA
      Microsoft published a Knowledge Base article on the subject in July 2005, but made that information available only to PC vendors and partners, a company representative said in a statement.
      So, its actually been over six months and they haven't fixed it yet.

      As usual, Microsoft waits for an issue to become public before bothering to fix it.
      --
      My pics.
    3. Re:Oh My God! by cloudmaster · · Score: 5, Funny

      From the TFA

      Don't you mean "From the TFA article", or maybe "from the friggin' TFA article"? :)

      FYI information, this post is courtesy of Windows XP, based on NT technology, and transimtted using NIC card features to get the message posted as ASAP as possible.

      just becuase I've nothing more to contribute (except that Tom's Hardware sucks)

    4. Re:Oh My God! by MysteriousPreacher · · Score: 4, Funny
      There's a driver glitch with brand new hardware!!! It's already been two weeks and they haven't fixed it yet!! What does this mean for the computing landscape? Is this Wintel's downfall? Will Apple return to their days of prominence? The implications could be enormous!


      John Dvorak, is that you?
      --
      -- Using the preview button since 2005
  2. anandtech test by Dionysus · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to some testing over at anandtech, problem was in the way Windows XP polls USB2 devices.

    --
    Je ne parle pas francais.
  3. This is good news by nurb432 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That means its fixable with a minor software patch. Much better then having broken hardware.

    At least we know someones QA is still working.. ( and that wouldnt be microsoft in this case )

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:This is good news by FireFury03 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A good code review can often (not always) find problems before they show up at runtime.

      In my experience, code reviews only pick up the reasonably obvious problems - your example was an obvious problem that could be spotted a mile off. Code reviews generally don't tend to pick up problems in intricate algorithms.

      Infact, looking at the user agent string _at all_ is a bug, nomatter what string you're looking for. It is the reason that browsers have to fake their UA strings (IE claims to be Mozilla, Opera often claims to be IE, etc) - if you check UA strings then you have to update the site every time a new browser is released. On the other hand, presumably your UA test was to serve up some specific code needed to work around browser bugs - that makes detecting a later version of the browser and serving up the same code to be an invalid thing to do since that later version which hasn't yet been released may not have the same bugs so you're suddenly serving up workarounds that aren't needed and may potentially break.

      That said, as other people pointed out, whilest MS didn't originally spot this bug (whcih may or may not be a problem with their QA procedures), they _did_ spot it over 6 months ago and didn't bother to fix it - that's the bigger problem. I wouldn't complain too much since under existing hardware this didn't affect people much - the real problem is that they also take this attitude with security bugs, and that's more worrying (only fix the bug when it has public attention... usually coz it's being exploited in the wild)

      --
      http://blog.nexusuk.org
  4. Tom's was wrong by jamesl · · Score: 5, Informative
    AnandTech has an in depth analysis. Like most things, the answer can't be found in a headline.
    http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=269 3/

    We've spent almost the past two weeks performing non-stop battery life testing on five notebooks with up to 4 different USB devices, testing theories, trying to pinpoint exactly what causes this problem and testing Microsoft's fix. What follows is the process that we went through in our labs when faced with this strange bug.

  5. Where's the new logo ? by Potatomasher · · Score: 5, Funny

    Intel with a dropped e ? That's so like 1970 to end of 2005.
    Get with the times Slashdot.

    --
    A million monkeys and this is the best sig they could come up with...
  6. BIOS Fix? by slashnik · · Score: 3, Insightful
    From TFA

    Microsoft outlined a fix that involved modifying the registry key for USB 2.0. However, since then the company has realized that this is an impractical fix for most users, and is working on a new fix that could involve a BIOS update patch


    What! Microsift to patch the BIOS
    Not on my notebook
    1. Re:BIOS Fix? by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Microsoft outlined a fix that involved modifying the registry key for USB 2.0. However, since then the company has realized that this is an impractical fix for most users, and is working on a new fix that could involve a BIOS update patch

      What! Microsift to patch the BIOS
      Not on my notebook

      Indeed. Microsoft can easily patch their own friggin' registry monstrosity.

      Patching the BIOS of the machine is an outrageously bad suggestion, and a bad precedent.

      How long before MS patches everyone's BIOS into oblivion or DRM hell?
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  7. So predictable. by twitter · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Good thing no one made the Critical error of speciously faulting Apple or Linux without testing, that would look like FUD when faced with a typical Microsoft problem.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  8. power sapping bug by revery · · Score: 4, Funny

    Core Duo Power Sapping Bug

    [Starscream holds a press conference]
    Ummmm, yes... we were hoping no one would notice, but it's the fricking Insecticons gathering Energon for Megatron... Again. Microsoft only got involved because they own the North American rights to all acts of evil.

  9. It's not just Microsoft... by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can't get into a deep sleep when someone jabs a USB plug into one of my ports, either. Apparently I'm hot, I'm pluggable, but I'm not hot-pluggable.

    --
    You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
    1. Re:It's not just Microsoft... by Odin's+Raven · · Score: 5, Funny
      Inexperienced hot-pluggers often feel this way. First, and most importantly - there's absolutely nothing wrong with you - you are hot-pluggable. Don't let a bad initial experience convince you otherwise.

      The realy problem here is with technique - jabbing is never recommended. You want to firmly grasp the peripheral near its end, then gently slide it into the port. Okay, try that a few times - firm grasp - good! - and gennnntly slide it in. Now withdraw the device, and gennnntly reinsert. In and out, in and out, over and over and over again. Excellent, now you're getting the hang of it.

      Although it's sometimes normal to encounter resistance inserting a peripheral into a brand-new port, this friction should disappear with use. Be extra-gentle in these circumstances, and resist the urge to just jab a device into the slot. Again, slow and easy, gently sliding in and out. Yes...yessssss! Getting frustrated and randomly jabbing with your peripheral is unlikely to result in a successful connection, and can damage your peripheral unit or the slot. Overly forceful insertions have even caused the tip of a device to snap clean off - don't let this happen to you!

      Deep sleep is a separate issue. It's normal not to sleep immediately after a peripheral is inserted - the unit is in active use, and sleeping would be undesirable. Wait until interactions with the device have ceased before entering sleep.

      Hopefully this has cleared up some of your concerns. Remember that hot-plugging is a perfectly normal activity, one which anyone can learn to enjoy with a little practice.

      --
      A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
  10. All a bunch of whiners.... by jnadke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Jesus... if Microsoft fixed every little bug to come along, then who would upgrade to Vista?!?!?

  11. Re:Here's the fix... by akac · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you read the article, you'd also see that this "fix" also caused stability issues and didn't work after coming out of sleep.