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XP SP3 Crashes Some AMD Machines

Stony Stevenson alerts us to new information on the XP SP3-induced crashes that we discussed a few days back. Jesper Johansson, a former program manager for security policy at Microsoft, is maintaining an ongoing log and support site for users affected by any of several problems triggered by XP3. Machines using AMD hardware, particularly HP desktops, seem to have several modes of failure; others affect Intel machines.

34 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Typical Microsoft by mrbluze · · Score: 4, Funny

    I suppose now we have to wait until "Windows XP Service Pack 3" Service Pack 1 comes out before it becomes usable.

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    1. Re:Typical Microsoft by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Funny

      i still don't see where slashdot covered how feisty fawn fucked hp tablet owners That wasn't a bug, that was a feature!
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      Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
    2. Re:Typical Microsoft by truthsearch · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wow, you're right. With the Linux HP tablet market being about the same size as the Windows desktop + laptop market I'm surprised it didn't get more press.

    3. Re:Typical Microsoft by Sancho · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Linux is free. Windows users paid to have their machines screwed up.

  2. Ulterior motive by Facetious · · Score: 4, Funny

    You see, SP3 is actually a tool to make users believe they should upgrade to Vista. Relax, I'm just being Facetious.

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    Let us not become the evil that we deplore.
    1. Re:Ulterior motive by WaroDaBeast · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, no, and no again. SP3 is meant to prepare XP users to an unstable environment.

      --
      "The body may heal, but the mind is not always so resilient." -- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
  3. Re:Frist Pr0st by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bah, you beat me to it. I was trying to get it, but I have SP3 installed on my computer and it crashed >.

  4. Re:Only one crash by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Only had one problem on my Acer Laptop (TravelMate 8210) with SP3, it forgot that I had a wireless card, restarted and been fine since then (almost a week) so I'd say no problems for me

    Wow! Your anecdote (in which you don't even mention if you're using intel or AMD) has totally changed my mind about the reliability of SP3!

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  5. Rename the topic to say INTEL drivers on AMD systm by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Rename the topic to say INTEL drivers on HP AMD systems is the cause.
    The topic you have makes AMD look bad.

    Why is HP useing the same basic image for there amd and intel systems?

    What other driver bloat is in OEM systems?

    Is INTEL coding there drivers to mess up AMD systems?

    AMD legal should take a look at this.

    I have SP3 running on my AMD right now and it's works 100%

  6. BAD_POOL_POINTER, HID problem, standyby problem by PerfectSmurf · · Score: 5, Informative

    I installed SP3 Sunday and three problems immediately cropped up that I haven't seen in the years since I first installed XP. First is a stop, BAD_POOL_POINTER 0x00000019 (0x00000020,0x8a231120, 0x8a231158, 0x1a070000). Second is a problem with the HID service not starting. Third is that PaintShop Pro (V7) now cancels all attempt to enter standby mode. Sigh...

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  7. Re:Hey, wait a minute! by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently it's mostly AMD machines that had some Intel-specific drivers installed.

    Easiest way to fix the problem, before installing SP3, open a CMD window, and type "sc config intelppm start= disabled".

  8. Wintel Conspiracy by chunk08 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Too bad my submission from monday didn't make it, it would have made for some interesting conspiracy theories. AMD and Intel have made the briefs in their anti-trust case public (With heavy censorship^Wediting). One of AMD's contentions is that Intel's compiler is actually written to reduce speed and stability of programs it compiles when said programs are run on AMD processors.

    <conspiracy>Maybe Microsoft has a deal with Intel to do the same with SP3 (and other Windows versions/SPs?) or they use Intel's compiler.</conspiracy>

    Worth considering.

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    1. Re:Wintel Conspiracy by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      more like intel payed HP to put there drivers on to all systems in way that MS says they do not support. HP needs to step up and pay for peoples down time and the cost of having a tech come out and fix it. This may even need to come down to a class action law suit.

      make the head line say HP systems useing a unsupported by MS driver setup / image load crash under SP3.

    2. Re:Wintel Conspiracy by harryjohnston · · Score: 5, Informative

      It may also be worth pointing out that (according to TFA) folks had this exact same issue when service pack 2 came out, so it isn't as if HP's configuration wasn't already known to cause problems.

  9. Ancedote time... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 4, Funny

    I imaged my whole Windows partition, in preparation for the horrible instability that would be SP3. I then took a deep breath, and started the download, figuring it would take several hours.

    It went reasonably quickly, had exactly one reboot (which brought me fully up to date; no "critical updates" after that), and then ran solidly while I played Portal for another five or six hours.

    I was almost disappointed.

    It was an Intel machine, though.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  10. Limited impact by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 5, Funny

    As I understand it, this only impacts Windows XP users who are running computers with AMD or Intel processors. There is no evidence of SP3 introducing problems on XP machines with alternative architectures.

  11. Re:Only one crash by BlueCollarCamel · · Score: 5, Funny

    My machine works fine with SP3, not a single problem. How's two anecdotes for ya, bitch?

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  12. Re:Rename the topic to say INTEL drivers on AMD sy by Khyber · · Score: 4, Interesting

    HP should NOT be using the same image for their Intel and AMD-based systems. There's always one for the Intel systems and one for AMD systems of each type (So, a DV2000 laptop has two generic system images, one for Intel-based and one for AMD-based. It's almost ALWAYS been this way.)

    By the way, this appears to be Microsoft's problem, since HP maintains and is responsible for their own recovery images (all customized for each model and revision of laptop) and their own drivers.

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  13. Re:Only one crash by PacoCheezdom · · Score: 5, Funny
  14. misleading headline by timmarhy · · Score: 4, Insightful
    wow what a porker. sp3 crashes AMD based systems, then when you read on it's intel drivers installed on AMD systems that causes the problems.

    not exactly a cut and dry SP3 problem and certainly not an AMD or INTEL issue at all.

    people who write this crap need to all be thrown in a cage and be made to rip each other apart.

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  15. Re:Rename the topic to say INTEL drivers on AMD sy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah because it's definitively Microsoft's fault that HP is packing Intel drivers on their AMD machines. Typical baseless Microsoft Hatred.

  16. Im waiting.. by rossdee · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm waiting for Service Pack 3.11

  17. Microsoft: by Weaselmancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    The World is our Beta Tester.

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    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  18. Blue screen after first reboot... by Trollificus · · Score: 4, Informative

    I got hit by this bug when the patch went live last week on Windowsupdate. As the article states, the solution in was to disable intelppm.sys from safemode. It's a lot quicker if you do it using autoruns. It's too bad this article wasn't posted last week. It would have saved me a lot of trouble shooting time.

    --

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  19. There is only one problem with this theory by zappepcs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Quite simply, if MS wanted to keep customers they would create a product with zero problems (or as close as they can get) and push it out at a VERY competitive price. That is how the marketplace is supposed to work. When your namebrand is trashed, you have to compete extra hard. MS seems unwilling to do this, or at least has failed to show that they are trying to do so.

    That might just be bad business decisions on their part, but whether it was malicious or stupidity does not matter. In either case the end result is that MS loses more customers. Nobody wanted to hear that MS was losing or soon to be dead a year ago when predictions were rife, but here it is, in your face. MS is consistently failing to either impress or produce quality product. The dragon^H^H^H^H^Hcathedral is near death... is it time for the penny market to celebrate?

    Not on your life, it will be time to celebrate when the dried bones of the dragon are used up as party favors. Until then, it is time to keep competing aggressively, and nothing short of that will do. Competition, not patents, drives innovation. Innovation will bring us secure computing at home. A kind of secure that behaves friendly to the end user.

    Now, am I bashing MS for pleasure? No, it is because MS products are in their deathbed and nothing short of a complete restart will get them out of it. It does not appear that MS will do that. There is nothing in current or near future activity that shows MS will do anything different from what got them in the death bed to start with. The beast is dieing. There is nothing more to say.

    Call that a troll if you will, but the truth hurts sometimes. Do I want it to die? NO! Emphatically NO!!!! Without competition, quality dies. Would I like to see MS slide into a comfortable second place? Yes.... and the reasons are simple, just ask any Linux fanboi for them.

    SP3 failed utterly in the face of the current market that MS faces. There is NO excuse for that in business. If you believe the art of war extends to business, MS deserves to be beheaded ungracefully. That is how business goes, so don't bother telling me that I'm a troll.

    1. Re:There is only one problem with this theory by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 4, Interesting

      SP3 failed utterly in the face of the current market that MS faces.

      While I agree with most of what you said, I'm not sure how SP3 "fails utterly". There have been far fewer problems with SP3 than previous service packs. Why, SP2, which is generally regarded as a Very Good Thing (and with good reason) broke a lot more software and machines than SP3 seems to be doing.

      I'm usually the first to bash Microsoft when they deserve it, which is 99.9% of the time, but I cannot agree with the assessment that SP3 "fails".

      Microsoft in general is "failing utterly" in the current market, but as far as I'm concerned, XP is doing just fine.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    2. Re:There is only one problem with this theory by crunchy_one · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As a web developer, I routinely install browser betas so that I can catch any problems before they develop. I'm a business and that's called being proactive.

      What I also do is run a zoo of Windows / Explorer combos in virtual machines. It's fun to do side by side comparisons. My summary: Vista is much slower at everything.

  20. Re:Hey, wait a minute! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You see, that's why Windows will never be ready for the desktop: Until you get rid of all that command line gibberish, I'll never be able to install it on my grandmother's computer.

  21. Stop code 0x0000007E is not a new problem by fragMasterFlash · · Score: 5, Informative

    Anyone who build Windows XP images that are rolled out onto both AMD and Intel machines should have long ago learned about the stop code 0x0000007E perils that come from the intelppm driver. The root of all evil here is that processors are not plug and play devices as far as XP is concerned and their associated drivers are hardcoded to start at boot time. Why the hell Microsoft has not taken the time to update intelppm.sys to check for a GenuineIntel x86 Family XX Model YY Stepping ZZ ID before touching HW specific registers is a mystery to me (I hope the conspiricy theorists amongst you will regale me with much food for thought).

  22. Screen rotation by Wayne247 · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's not the only issue with SP3. One of my monitors is rotated 90 degrees (widescreen that I use upright), thanks to the ATI driver's rotate function.

    After rebooting following SP3 install, all my monitors went completely berzerk. They fell back to 4 bits colors (I didn't even know there WAS a 4 bit mode), with some weird effects. Also, rotation was not possible.

    It took me about an hour to find a way to bring back monitors to decent resolution and colors. I still couldn't get rotation to work, no matter how hard I tried (Combination of card, drivers, update from ATI, etc)

    Then finally I google a bit and found a few forums with user complaints of the same type of problem. So I uninstalled SP3, rebooted, and voilà, everything back to normal.

    Needless to say, I promply logged back into WSUS and removed SP3 from the approved for installed list.

  23. Re:Frist Pr0st by dotgain · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sorry I'm late. I was playing an mp3, drove the latency right up.

  24. Re:Rename the topic to say INTEL drivers on AMD sy by IntlHarvester · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guess I don't understand your POV. Just because you had to sit on it for work doesn't mean that's the right way to proceed. All these things have vendor strings and PCI IDs, Windows should be smart enough to ignore irrelevant drivers. Linux boots on all this stuff with a single kernel after all.

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  25. Re:Hey, wait a minute! by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    On his blog
    http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archive/2008/05/08/does-your-amd-based-computer-boot-after-installing-xp-sp3.aspx
    Johansson (partly) blames HP and other OEMs for using the same disk image for Intel and AMD PCs. He also gives some directions on fixing the problems.

    --
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  26. Microsoft knowingly released unfinished software? by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 4, Informative

    Rewrite: "Over time, Microsoft Windows XP tends to mysteriously ... decrease stability and performance (in every way imaginable".

    I've experienced that, many times. Windows is unstable. The instability helps Microsoft sell new versions of its operating system.

    Summary of the Slashdot article about Windows XP SP3 crashes:

    Microsoft has known about one of the underlying problems for a long time. See KB888372. It would have been easy to prevent the crashes merely by having SP3 installation do the work mentioned in the KB888372 article. However, apparently because of work avoidance, or an attempt to discourage people from using Windows XP, Microsoft did not do the necessary work.