The recently released Service Pack 3 has created problems on AMD machines according to Jesper Johansson, former program manager for security policy at Microsoft. The problems occurred on HP machines after their users had installed the patch. Johansson thinks the issue appeared because HP puts images of Windows onto its machines using the same copy for both Intel and AMD.
"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," explained Johansson.
Some other OEMs reported to use the same practice as HP, and they could encounter the same problems. This is not the first time when AMD had problems with Windows patches. Back in 2000 AMD computers running over 350 MHz crashed and burned after a new service pack was released. Anyway, it seems that SP3 wasn't tested in every detail.
via Tom's Hardware
Comment Preview