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A former Microsoft security manager has published a tool designed to detect and fix PCs that may be susceptible to "endless reboots" if updated to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3).
Jesper Johansson, once a program manager for security policy at Microsoft and currently an MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) who works at Amazon.com, posted a link to the tool on his blog Wednesday, beating his former employer and Hewlett-Packard Co. to the draw. Neither company has yet come up with a fix or patch for the week-long snafu.
Johansson's small, 16K VBScript (Visual Basic Scripting Edition) file checks whether the PC is running a processor from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and if so, examines the Windows registry to see if a device driver meant for Intel-based machines is set to load.
"If it is, it will offer you an option to disable it," said Johansson in an update to a blog post where he has been summarizing reports of Windows XP SP3 problems and offering solutions.
Users can run the script from the command line to check multiple machines on a network, Johansson added. The command is:
removeIntelPPMonAMD.vbs ...
"The only caveat is that the tool will prompt you several times for each computer," Johansson added.
The free-of-charge VBScript file is available for download.
The tool is the latest in the week-long problem some users have encountered after upgrading Windows XP to the new service pack. Last week, just a day after Microsoft added XP SP3 to Windows Update, reports accumulated of "endless reboots" crippling machines running AMD CPUs. Many of the users said that the out-of-control PCs were from HP.
According to users, Johansson and most recently, Microsoft itself, the problem can be traced to the disk image that HP used to factory-install Windows XP on AMD-based machines. HP, said everyone concerned, used an image created on an Intel-powered PC to install XP on AMD systems; Microsoft had advised computer makers against doing that as long ago as 2004.
Microsoft was not immediately available for comment on Johansson's detection tool, but traditionally the company has taken a dim view of unsanctioned, unofficial fixes to its software.
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Comments (18)
Dim View?By Anonymous on May 16, 2008, 6:36 pmI would thing they send him a thank you note if it works.... HRM
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ASdBy Anonymous on May 17, 2008, 3:25 pmASd
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Why not to check sth else?By Anonymous on May 18, 2008, 9:47 amWhy not to check other systems like Ubuntu Linux? Check what it offers at www.ubuntustory.com
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Dim view indeedBy Anonymous on May 18, 2008, 11:38 amNot that unusual. Microsoft's PR department has been speculating out loud that no one else in the world can program to the quality standard of Microsoft Engineers....
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Re: Dim View IndeedBy Anonymous on May 18, 2008, 11:56 amAnonymous #1 Quoted Microsoft: "No one else in the world can program to the quality standard of Microsoft Engineers". Actually completely true. Problem is Microsoft's...
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This one was a clusterBy Anonymous on May 18, 2008, 12:46 pmMicrosoft really blew it here. It's tinme to get a MAC
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