Computer talk OS Windows Linux MAC

[boredjedi]

I stopped being lazy and took a screenshot of my bios Dram still set to 1.4v.

That XMP option (top left corner) that's highlighted in red for being active
is supposed to be doing that but nooooooooo

[chuft]

A Tomahawk. I almost got one of those back, B450 or something, in 2019 to use the newest AMD Ryzen architecture but there were problems. The mobos were updated or something to be able to use the latest AMD CPU, and there were old ones in circulation in the stores as well as new ones coming with the update, but they were pretty old mobos. A new one was coming that was native built for Ryzen 3 or whatever it was, X370 or something, but there was a delay, or some problem or other. In the end I decided to go with Intel instead and got this Gigabyte Aorus Pro. If I had been building my comp six months later, would probably have gone with the new MSI model on the way after the Tomahawk B450.

[boredjedi]

Tomahawks are nice with lots of features. It was from reading up on the gear at the time of upgrading I got this one. Future proof for a few years.

[boredjedi]

I had read and heard that some Motherboard manufacturers don't like to put
the proper higher values for fear of their automatic system bricking the Motherboard
so they keep the auto values under the recommended higher values to ensure
stability. MSI is one of them.

[boredjedi]

Blue screen?

Blue screens smilin' at me
Nothin' but blue screens do I see
Blue birds singin' a song
Nothin' but blue screens from now on

[boredjedi]

After 4 hours (since last reboot for bios check) of uptime and playing GTA V.
Well not so much playing as trying to remember
how to assign this Flight Stick for flying. I just
simply don't remember and whatever I used
before as a tutorial is no longer around. Hmmm
Wish I had written it all down.

The numbers all good and computer is still stable.
Chkdsk and sfc /scannow return no errors.
No blue screen and such. For now.

[boredjedi]

Forgot to mention this CPU has a max temp of 90°c. So all the temps are good.

[chuft]

I wonder if they fixed all the security problems with Intel CPUs or whether they are still selling vulnerable ones.

[boredjedi]

I wonder if they fixed all the security problems with Intel CPUs or whether they are still selling vulnerable ones.

Not sure on that. Nothings come my way about it.

Looks like they did

Intel CPUs see slight performance loss with new security fixes — E-cores and Atom chips not hugely affected by RFDS vulnerability

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-comp...-vulnerability

Oh there is this one a couple of months after that article was posted.

New Side-Channel Attack Targets Intel 13th and 14th Gen

https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/bl...h-and-14th-gen


From October

Intel confirms 13th/14th Gen Core instability has been fixed, no more updates

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-confirms-13th-14th-gen-core-instability-has-been-fixed-no-more-updates

And in February " Intel CPU Microcode Updated For Five New Security Issues"

So looks like they've been busy plugging up a bunch of issues.

[chuft]

I wonder how they do these CPU updates. I've never heard of such a thing.

[boredjedi]

I wonder how they do these CPU updates. I've never heard of such a thing.

Seems the Intel CPUs do have internal updatable firmware. AMD CPUs as well named AMD Platform Security Processor (PSP).

FIT Microcode Update


The Firmware Interface Table (FIT) is a data structure located in the platform BIOS SPI flash that may contain pointers to one or more microcode updates. Loading a microcode update from the FIT is the preferred way to load a microcode update in Intel platforms, because it helps ensure all the update components¹ are loaded at the earliest point in the boot process. Before executing the first instruction of the BIOS firmware at the Intel® architecture (IA) reset vector, the CPU processes the FIT to locate a microcode update suitable for that particular CPU. If a suitable update is found, the CPU loads the update before the first instruction of the BIOS firmware is fetched. After loading an update from the FIT, the bootstrap processor (BSP) begins fetching and executing the BIOS firmware from the IA reset vector, while the application processors (APs) enter into the Wait-for-SIPI state.

On some processors, a microcode update is loaded from the FIT only on the BSP core, while on other processors, it may be loaded on all cores.

• For products based on the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge microarchitectures, a microcode update is loaded from the FIT only on the BSP core if Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT) is enabled.
• For server products based on the Skylake microarchitecture (including Cascade Lake and Cooper Lake microarchitectures, except Xeon E3), a microcode update is loaded from the FIT on the BSP core only.
• For products based on the Haswell and Broadwell microarchitectures, client products based on the Skylake microarchitecture (including Xeon E3), Atom family products starting with the Goldmont microarchitecture, and all later microarchitectures, a microcode update is loaded from the FIT on all cores.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...-guidance.html

[boredjedi]

Which they keep secret on how it's done. But it is all done during the boot process.

Intel/AMD don't really publish specifics on how it works, they only provide an update mechanism. Obviously somehow it is copying a ROM microcode to some sort of CPU internal memory. But there is some microcode there when the CPU starts. Some recent Intel and possibly AMD CPUs won't work reliably after boot without a microcode update done by the BIOS but evidently they will function well enough to perform an initial microcode update.

https://superuser.com/questions/9352...d-to-processor

[chuft]

Screw it I'm not messing with that. These are expensive games to play, messing with hardware.

[boredjedi]

Screw it I'm not messing with that. These are expensive games to play, messing with hardware.

I think it's embedded in the Bios update. It's not a separate install. I don't think. I'm not finding anything
for a stand alone microcode update for this AMD chip. I think that's what those bios security updates are for.

[chuft]

BIOS updates are risky too. But I guess I should do the latest one before trying all this UEFI/TMP stuff.

[boredjedi]

Unless you have a power outage, you should be fine.

I forgot to mention one more thing with this OS install
I had the Steam installed but hadn't connected the second
hard disk with the game installs on. When I did connect
it back up to system, booted up and loaded up the steam, I was
dreading having to reinstall and download all those gigs. For some
reason Steam only had the C: drive as an install disk when I tried
installing GTA V. So I had to manually tell Steam to add the D: drive.
To my surprised, Steam detected all the installs and that was it.
All I had to do was install the Rockstar Launcher and just like that,
the game was good to go. As with all my other Steam games.

I do have to reinstall the few older games that I have the physical media for.
Klingon Academy, Silen Hunter, Stalker and Gothic 2.

And that's it. The Adobe suite and games and few other things installed and the computer
is like brand new and good to go.

[chuft]

Why hadn't you connected the second hard disk?

I have my games on the D drive. Hopefully it won't be affected by anything I do with C including upgrading to Win11.

If I do an upgrade in place I assume I won't need to install any games again. But if I wiped C and installed Win11 clean I assume it would wipe out the registry entries and I would have to install them all again even though they are already on D.

I don't understand what you are saying about installing a launcher. I use Steam and I either have the game installed or not, not sure what you are talking about with installing a launcher.

Since you wiped your C drive I don't understand why you don't have to install the games again. Aren't the registry entries gone.