HP promises patch for Windows XP SP3 endless reboot troubles

by Gregg Keizer

May 16, 2008 —

HP Thursday confirmed that some users of its AMD-based desktops have had problems
after installing Windows
XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), and said it would issue a patch this week to prevent
machines from spiraling into endless reboots. HP also told users to delay installing
XP SP3 until that patch was released.

Microsoft, meanwhile, acknowledged Thursday that it's working on a hotfix of
its own.

The confirmations were the latest additions to the weeklong
saga of problems some users have encountered after upgrading Windows XP
to SP3. Last week, reports began showing up on Microsoft's
support forum of "endless reboots" crippling machines running Advanced
Micro Devices (AMD) processors. Many of the users said that the out-of-control
PCs were from HP.

Users, led by Jesper Johansson, a former program manager for security policy
at Microsoft and currently an MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) who
works at Amazon.com, identified
several causes, including one limited to HP-branded systems. According to
Johansson -- and later, Microsoft itself -- HP used a disk image created on
an Intel-powered machine to factory-install Windows XP on AMD-based PCs. Microsoft
had advised computer makers against doing that as long ago as 2004.

An errant reference in Windows Registry for an unnecessary device driver --
"intelppm.sys," a power-management driver designed only for Intel-based
PCs -- causes the XP SP3 upgrade to install that driver to AMD systems, said
Johansson. That causes the PC to fail to reboot when it restarts after the update.
Because most XP machines are set by default to reboot on a failure, the PC reboots
repeatedly; some users have had trouble interrupting the endless reboots and
regaining control of their computers.

HP did not explicitly admit the problem was its fault, but confirmed some details
of Johansson's analysis. "The affected HP systems do not have an Intel
driver loaded onto them, but there is a services registry entry that SP3 appears
to be recognizing as an instruction to load the Intel driver, subsequently causing
the failure," HP said in an e-mailed statement Thursday.

"HP is working diligently with Microsoft on a software update and will
be proactively distributing a patch this week through HP Update that will prevent
this error from occurring," the company continued. "HP recommends
consumers with AMD-based desktops wait until after HP's or Microsoft's updates
have been deployed on their systems to install Service Pack 3." The patch
will be posted to this
page of HP's support site when it's available.

"Microsoft is also developing a prerequisite fix that must be downloaded
before SP3 will automatically install prior to its proactive distribution of
SP3," HP statement added.

The Microsoft update that HP referenced is in the works, a Microsoft spokeswoman
confirmed Thursday. "Microsoft is developing a hotfix for this issue, and
will be available after it has been rigorously tested and meets our quality
bar for release," she said in an e-mail Thursday afternoon.

Neither HP or Microsoft provided any details on what the Microsoft hotfix would
do, but the "prerequisite fix" phrasing likely indicates the patch
would be applied to either selective PCs or all XP machines before they are
allowed to receive SP3 in the coming weeks when Microsoft flips the switch for
automatic downloading and installing via Windows Update.

Microsoft has had to release several similar prerequisite updates or filters
this year to prevent some users from obtaining service packs through Windows
Update (WU). Last month, for instance, it delayed
XP SP3 from reaching WU until it could craft a filter to exclude machines
running its retail point-of-sale software. Microsoft also blocked significant
numbers of users from receiving Windows
Vista SP1 from WU beginning in late March.

Users impatient with HP's or Microsoft's patch plans can instead download
a free tool crafted by Johansson that detects and fixed PCs that may be
susceptible to the endless reboot issue.

Computerworld