Re: Wrong CPU being shown by the BIOS

On 2 Oct, 18:57, jaster <jas...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:56:15 -0700, ipleb thoughfully wrote:
On 2 Oct, 11:58, Paul <nos...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
ipleb wrote:

Hi Paul - thanks for your comments - I have also tried a small app
called CPUID - this gave the following data:

it tells me I am running an Intel Xeon 5110 - a socket 771 lga
package - weird as my mobo is obviously a socket 775

The core speed is at 1600 with a multiplyer of x8.0 bus speed at
200mhz and a rated FSB of 800mhz

I have two ddr2 533 pc2 4300 1gig chips and two ddr2 533 pc2 4300
512mb chips to give a total of 3gigs
The DRAM freq is at 266/7 and the max bandwidth of each chip is
pc2-4300 (266Mhz)

Does that shed any light?

It is definately the right bios update, and I can't remember whether
the problem started post bios update or post ram install

Finally - if the PC boots ok and run ok and all seems good - in real
terms does it actually make a difference that it is showing as an
XEON cpu and not a Core 2Duo ???

Thanks
Simon

I agree with your basic idea, that this is irrelevant. For the most
part it is. But there is still the issue of the "Revision" listed for
the processor.

Microcode patches are issued by Intel, to correct errors in the
processor. Every processor has a list of around a hundred minor to
serious problems. Usually they don't affect the processor that much,
and maybe you'd survive the boot sequence even if the microcode patch
was not installed. When the processor is released, Intel should have a
microcode patch from day one, for the problems they've discovered since
the masks were generated.

There are two opportunities to patch the microcode. The BIOS has a file
inside it, with a name like CPUCODE.EXE, that contains eight or more
microcode patches. Each patch has a checksum that the processor can
verify, and the BIOS code can tell when a "patch" "takes". The patch is
stored in a small RAM inside the processor. One of the fields in the
patch, contains the revision number of the patch, which is how people
keep track of what is installed.

When an OS like WinXP or Vista boots, there is a "microcode loader"
available as a driver for the OS. The "microcode loader" can check to
see if a patch has been loaded, and load a later one if available. (How
Microsoft gets the patches to the end user is unclear. Windows Update?)

Now, if we go back to the Intel Processor Identification Utility again,
it has a "revision" field. That field is extracted from the microcode
patch that was loaded into the processor. Either the BIOS loads one or
the OS loads one.

Now, what happens if neither the BIOS nor the OS, are savvy about your
processor ? If that happens, the "Revision" field will be 00. That is
how you'd know the processor was unpatched.

If microcode is not loading, it would be because the processor is a
"stranger". Now, why it is a stranger isn't clear to me. A "busted"
processor seems a little inconvenient, because the odds of just a few
gates being broken in the processor are pretty slim. Especially when
the gates are "visible". When Intel was testing, the tester machine
would have tested and noticed if the identity info was wrong. (There
can be broken gates which are "hidden" from a test pattern, but in this
case, we know your problem is perfectly visible to the tester machine.
It should have been caught.)

So check the revision field. If it is a value other than "00" or "0",
you're safe and can carry on. If the value is zero, then it means your
processor is unpatched. Whether the machine could crash because of
that, only Intel knows for sure.

This is the info on my Intel machine.

    Processor Name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80C GHz Type: 0
    Family: F
    Model: 2
    Stepping: 9
    Revision: 17 <---- Non zero, so has been patched OK.

Other than that detail, it wouldn't matter.

Could you verify again, what board you're using ? Is it P5N-D ?

    Paul

Hi Paul

I am using a P5N-E SLI

All of the RAM is DDR2 533 PC2-4300 - Is there is blip when the CPUID
software is telling me that the DRAM frequenc is 266Mhz?

:S

Simon

Seems like a nice m/b.   I still think its a bios update error but if
you're 100% sure you correctly updated the correct bios for your
motherboard then I suggest :

#1 reset the bios to factory default (use RTC jumper) to see if that
fixes
#2 remove the extra memory to see if it fixes
#3 restore the original bios to see if it fixes

I've a few boards fail, a few video cards fail, a few hard drives fail,
some incompatible memory or failures,  but I can only recall 1 cpu (a  
Cyrus 200mhz) failing back in 1998.

I used the supplied ASUS biod updater software to update the bios

Im on nights at the mo but will keep looking into it :D

Simon
.

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