[Infowarrior] - XP Service Pack 3 Kills AMD Machines

[Richard Forno]

XP Service Pack 3 Kills AMD Machines
2:40 PM - May 9, 2008 by Bestofmedia Team
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: Windows, XP, SP3
Categories: AMD/ATI

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-XP-SP3,5334.html


Windows XP Service Pack 3 finally arrived to our computers this week…  
And is now killing AMD machines, according to Jesper Johansson, former  
program manager for security policy at Microsoft.

The problem relates to machines with SP3 installed rebooting and then  
not allowing users to get so much as Safe Mode. The problem is mainly  
affecting AMD users who bought their machines from HP. Johansson  
attributes the problem to the way that HP puts images of Windows onto  
its machines, using the same copy for both Intel and AMD boxes.

"Because the image for both Intel and AMD is the same all have the  
intelppm.sys driver installed and running. That driver provides power  
management on Intel-based computers. On an AMD-based computer,  
amdk8.sys provides the same functionality," says Johansson.

Some other OEM’s beside HP have the same practice, and presumably  
their users will be seeing the same issue.

There is another problem with SP3 that has not yet been tracked down  
to anything so specific that is causing random hangs and system  
crashes, though at least one can get into Windows itself (unlike the  
lucky AMD users.)

Windows service packs causing mayhem and havoc is not a new phenomenon  
– indeed, AMD machines got hit with a similar bug back in 2000 when  
any machine running over 350 MHz crashed and burned after a new  
service pack was released – and we may wait a few weeks for all of the  
kinks to get sorted out.