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Yesterday we’ve been seeing potential issues with the microcode updates and they were expired off of WSUS servers last night… https://www.reddit.co
[See the full post at: Patch Lady – what’s up with the Microcode updates]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
susan
there’s an unrelated problem with KB4100347 microcode update and those using Trend Micro WFBS mentioned here:
https://borncity.com/win/2018/08/27/trend-micro-wfbs-issues-with-update-kb4100347/
Seems that we are digging in the same claim – I just published an article with similar observations.
Will Microsoft pulls July/August 2018 Microcode updates?
Susan, I’ve linked your post as an addendum to my post, due it contains some reddit.com links I’m not aware until now – thx for the eagle eye (I got lost in this Microcode update chaos).
Ex Microsoft Windows (Insider) MVP, Microsoft Answers Community Moderator, Blogger, Book author
https://www.borncity.com/win/
susan there’s an unrelated problem with KB4100347 microcode update and those using Trend Micro WFBS mentioned here: https://borncity.com/win/2018/08/27/trend-micro-wfbs-issues-with-update-kb4100347/
There are more issues. See my other post below above, where I’ve linked other articles from my blog. Overall it seems again a big mess.
@EP: Thx for your comment within my blog – that brought me pronto to this thread :-).
Ex Microsoft Windows (Insider) MVP, Microsoft Answers Community Moderator, Blogger, Book author
https://www.borncity.com/win/
Admit it, who thought August was turning out too good to be true ;)?!
The 06-4f-01 (406F1) is the only current Intel Meltdown / Spectre microcode which has caveats. This microcode is for Xeon E5/E7 v4 and Core i7-69xx/68xx CPUs.
From Intel’s releasenote about the new microcodes, here is what is described about any microcode with caveats, in terms of application within Linux:
“– intel-ucode-with-caveats/ —
This directory holds microcode that might need special handling. BDX-ML microcode is provided in directory, because it need special commits in the Linux kernel, otherwise, updating it might result in unexpected system behavior.
OS vendors must ensure that the late loader patches (provided in linux-kernel-patches\) are included in the distribution before packaging the BDX-ML microcode for late-loading.”
The upshot is that Microsoft must do something similar in the Windows kernel before performing late-loading of this 06-4f-01 microcode in Windows, yet Microsoft obviously isn’t. This is why Win10 computers with Xeon E5/E7 v4 and Core i7-69xx/68xx CPUs are being rendered unbootable. Microsoft should have tested any microcode with caveats before including them in KB4100347.
I recall that someone here posted where Microsoft stores the microcode.dat file in Windows 10?
Two possible candidates, at present…
The microcode is contained within %windir%\system32\mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll or %windir%\system32\mcupdate_AuthenticAMD.dll. The former is the file that gets updated by the microcode update KBs.
Yep. In August versus July, Intel updated the microcode for 24 platforms, and added new microcode for 5 additional platforms. One would think that Microsoft’s programmers would be talking to Intel and that they would have known about Intel’s August microcode updates, before Microsoft rolled out KB4100347.
Just for grins, I am running Intel’s latest version 25 of the 306C3 Meltdown and Spectre microcode on my Win7 x64 machines which have I5 Haswell CPUs, and I am doing so without having to flash the BIOS on my motherboards. Ain’t that slick? I have been running this microcode for three days with no issues so far. I am working on a final version for all of you Win7 and Win8x users to try, so that you all can see what performance impacts you will have when using Intel’s latest microcode for Meltdown and Spectre. Note that I will not include any microcode which has caveats. I will explain more later and in a separate thread.
Steve Gibson’s InSpectre utility needs to be updated so that it checks what microcode is actually currently loaded and running in the CPU cores, instead of what microcode is present in the computer’s BIOS.
Unsure what’s up…
Well, that’s the Microsoft transperency philosophy for you…
I think there is/was metadata detection issues and they were offered up and installed on machines they shouldn’t have been installed.
Bad AI, bad! 😀
But seriously… if I ever released such code to my customers, I would long be fired. But then again, we’re not really customers, are we?
So glad I’m long out of IT management. This is a (bad and not funny at all) joke.
I just succeeded in repairing one workstation that couldn’t boot anymore into Windows. This was what I did:
•Boot into WinRE (press F9 before Windows starts)
•Choose Advanced Options and go to the command line option
•You have to find out now which letter the Windows partition got; start diskpart and type ‘list disk’. Select the one which matches your OS drive. Type ‘list volumes’. It’ll spew out a list. The biggest one should be Windows. Two small ones of around 500MB should be there, ignore those.
•Close diskpart by typing ‘exit’
•Now type ‘dism /image:<driveletter here> /get-packages’. This should result in a list of packages. Find KB4100347. It’s name is quite long, but you can copy it by selecting it and right clicking
•Now type ‘dism /image:<driveletter here> /remove-package /PackageName:<The really long name of the KB4100347>’
•Now type ‘dism /image:<driveletter here> /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions’ as to undo the damage doneWhen done, reboot the system and Windows works again. Be sure to kill Windows Update right after booting. It will again try to install it causing a kind Groundhog Day starring you.
Nothing beats nursing and playing with one’s OS, does it?
And what else would you have spent your time with?
Sigh.
Microsoft is (was) loading Meltdown Spectre microcode in Win10, yet that just got pulled. MS is supposedly testing the same in Win7 32-bit? I need to confirm this.
In a day or so I will have a utility to essentially do the same as the above for Win7 64-bit and all Win8 versions. Heck, it will even work for Win XP!
Did you read Patch Lady – Microcode confusion
Unless you are a nation state, have a key asset in a cloud server, or are running for a government office, I think we are spending way way more time worrying about this than we should…
etc.
Interesting article about the latest impact of Intel Microcodes on Linux in Phoronix:
Benchmarks Of Intel’s Latest Linux Microcode Update
Here’s their conclusions:
In the benchmarks run over the weekend, the latest Intel microcode files for August (taking Xeon Scalable CPUs to 0x200004d appeared to have only minimal impact on the system performance… Mostly in I/O cases were there some slight differences in performance, but nothing overly shocking and not as bad as the L1TF Linux kernel mitigation itself — see those benchmarks for all the details. Going into this microcode comparison I was expecting much more volatile results given their short-lived benchmark restriction, but it looks like it may have just been an overzealous Intel lawyer who thought it would be a good idea to forbid benchmarking and further lock-down their microcode license…
Nothing beats nursing and playing with one’s OS, does it? And what else would you have spent your time with? Sigh.
Uh, like actually getting some work done, instead of having to deal with yet another in-the-gutter Microsoft Windows Update? This is Nadella’s new Customer Experience. Ain’t it a riot of fun? It is like watching a stupidly hilarious circus act while riding a really scary roller coaster at the same time.
Heh heh.
It takes a braver man than I to do serious work based on an OS that gets completely installed twice a year and with a patching/updating history as seen so far.
Recently there was a link here with new features in 1809 and I had to scroll very long down to find a feature that wasn’t for fun and play. And didn’t find anything that couldn’t be delivered through app store or update.
Guess most (?) maintains a list of settings to check after each new version and/or updates. Can’t be sure something hasn’t been switched on or off, can you?
So yes, I can only see the OS as something to nurse and have fun playing with. Rolling back, uninstalling updates, reinstall, spending hours at AskWoody, etc. etc…
For serious work, I boot up my good old trusted and hardened Windows 7. Just had a look and lastest glitch is on date exactly one year ago. The then known error, where MSE failed to install new definitions.
Work = Windows 7.
Play and funny experience = Windows “10”.
Hey you all,
I forgot to mention that all operating systems (Windows and Linux flavors) will be killing hyperthreading in all Intel CPUs which are affected by Meltdown and Spectre. It is what it is, yet I agree with the reasoning to do so. Also consider that hyperthreading in some Intel CPUs has already been found, due to bugs, to cause both data corruption and unexpected reboots. This info predates Meltdown and Spectre. In fact, I had to kill hyperthreading in BIOS on two cheap Win10 desktops at the office, due to unexpected reboots and data corruption. The remarkable thing is that I had forbade any Win10 computers at the office, yet the IT guy ignored me.
Best regards,
–GTP
These aren’t microcode updates (so this should have been posted in the Win8.1 patches forum…).
KB 3019978 is a security update from Jan/2015 (pre the patching changes of October 2016), with no known issues showing
KB 3021674 is another Jan/2015 security update, and searching online brings up original problems found in installation
KB 3023266, again a Jan/2015 security update
KB 3045755 was issued Apr/2015, and is another security update
RE: Intel microcode updates
OK duly warned not to run any CPU benchmarks following the INTEL threat re: their spectre patch on pure Intel box using IvyBridge I-5 CPU @ 3400Mhz using PassMark Bench – run 3 times:
using WIN10 ver 1709 w/out CPU patch – CPU Mark 6600
then WIN10 ver 1803 w/ CPU patch – 7200
GO FIGURE?
be well, breathe and honor wabi sabi
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