So far, only HP desktops with AMD processors are affected, but a spokesperson for the chip maker says Microsoft is working on fixing the problems.
A rebooting problem related to the release of the Microsoft
Windows XP Service Pack 3 is continuing to cause problems with certain
Hewlett-Packard desktops that use AMD
processors, although a new patch is expected in a few days.
The problem with SP3 first began appearing a few days after Microsoft
released SP3 for its XP operating system. In a blog post, Jesper Johansson, a
former Microsoft employee, has been detailing since May 8 problems caused
by the service pack.
So far, it seems that only HP desktops using processors from Advanced Micro
Devices have had problems. In his posting, Johansson wrote that the problem
relates back to HP, and possibly other OEMs, using the same images for AMD-based
machines that were used with Intel-based hardware. The result when the SP3
service pack is applied is a number of problems, including endless rebooting.
On May 8, Microsoft spokespeople said they were aware of the problem and
were investigating further. On May 12, Jake Whitman, an AMD
spokesperson, confirmed that the issues with the HP desktops are related to the
images that were used and that HP and Microsoft are working to issue a patch to
users within a few days that will fix any issues to SP3.
Whitman added, "The number of systems that this had affected were
minimal."
The comments from AMD confirm the
problems that Johansson described in his posting.
"Because the image for both Intel and AMD
is the same all have the intelppm.sys driver installed and running,"
Johansson wrote. "That driver provides power management on Intel-based
computers. On an AMD-based computer,
amdk8.sys provides the same functionality. Microsoft points out in a Knowledge
Base article that installing both drivers on the same computer is an
unsupported configuration, putting the blame on the OEM that deploys the
image."
Johansson added: "Ordinarily, having intelppm.sys running on an AMD-based
computer appears to cause no problems. However, on the first reboot after a
service pack installation, it causes a big problem. The computer either fails
to boot, as in my case, or crashes with a STOP error code of 0x0000007e."
In his blog, Johansson offers a number of fixes for users
who have installed SP3 on affected AMD-based
HP desktops.
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