Intel and Microsoft release final Spectre Patches up to and including Sandy Bridge

It seems like this is what should be applicable to 1607: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4091664
Is that what you have installed?

 

No I don't seem to have that installed. Thanks for the link, I'll give it a try.

Just installed it and now I am fully protected. Thanks again.

 

Just checked cinebench and ouch....well shouldn't effect my games too much but it just kinda sucks that we have to take a hit like this to stay secure.

 

That is correct. A BIOS update means the microcode is copied to the CPU by the BIOS during initialization. It's done on every boot, since you can't permanently put the microcode on the CPU.

But copying the microcode to the CPU is not something that only the BIOS can do. You can do it at any time you want. Windows does it when it starts up. It already does it for many CPUs, because microcode updates fix CPU bugs in general, even if they're not security vulnerabilities. In other words, Windows is already updating the microcode of your CPU even without this latest patch (if your BIOS didn't already offer the needed microcode version.) This patch just updates the microcode that ships with Windows to the latest version that contains the spectre fixes.

Unfortunately, Microsoft seems to have decided to make their microcode updating system a black box that is not accessible by users, and thus you can't update the microcode yourself. On Linux for example, the OS reads the microcode from a special system directory, and you can just copy a newer version of the microcode there and overwrite the old one. On Windows, they don't allow that and you need to wait for Microsoft to update it.

 

Yeah there's no problem here but thanks for the additional input. I've installed the windows patch and ran inpectre and everything is all good. Didn't need the new bios. No complaints except my 4.6ghz OC is running at stock performance. Honestly I think I'm gonna uninstall the patch until hackers actually figure out how to use it against us. No sense taking such a hit for nothing.

 

@KBDE If I use InSpectre to disabled Spectre protection;

"FeatureSettingsOverride" = 1
"FeatureSettingsOverrideMask" = 3

If enabled Spectre protection;

"FeatureSettingsOverride" = 0
"FeatureSettingsOverrideMask" = 3

so which one is correct? Anyone care to clarified?

 

I just updated with my UEFI Bios Updater on my ASROCK MB. Love ASROCK for the way they still support even my Haswell. With Windows 7, this was my only option I guess. We will see how it will affect my system performance and stability.

 

Valken, do you experience one cpu core max out when copying file from a network drive into internal HDD after applying the microcode update?

 

Ouch! my old 2500K@ 4.5ghz

Hope they will release the newer patch for sandy bridge.

 

Next to my 386SX, which is my oldest system so far and still the first I sat in front of, there is a 486DX with 33MHz standard and 40 MHz turbo. I cannot run some games on 40 MHz because the game is over before I have a chance to move / shoot / anything.
But STILL, I love my 386SX more.

(Btw.: Intel BIO modding is almost impossible and I know win-raid and I am regged there and at MDL forums, but thanks!)

My 486DX and my 386SX both have serious problems running anything above Win95, so I cannot test. Otherwise I already would have. :-D

Idea:
How about a slogan to get Intel to work on the microcode patches? Something like:

"Patch the bridge to fill the gap" (leaned towards Sandy Bridge)

... or something like that. Any ideas?

 

High end gear you have there! Not many citizens could afford 486DX back then. I saw these several times in offices.

 

It had two HDDs, one with 120MB (this one died two years ago after about 30 years!!!), another one with 200MB (still running!). My father bought me one of the first 4x CD burners, it costed a liver, an eye and one of your kidneys, in addition to the media to burn on. I was allowed to burn ONE CD per MONTH! (It was soooo expensive!).

 

Good morning gentlemen!

I have some news for you all!:
https://blog.frizk.net/2018/03/total-meltdown.html

So a user gets access to memory space which should be available to the kernel only.
So the Meltdown patch on Win7 is worse than Meltdown itself. F*ck yeah!

MS knows how to do it right! Why wait for hackers to pwn machines by Meltdown when you could easily pwn 'em yourself?
BAD BOY Microsoft, BAD BOY. SIT!

EDIT:
OK, to calm your nerves: Patch your systems to patch level 03-2018:

 

it is just predefined text. I've run my set of tests and while it is slower from principle. Difference is really not detectable. Not on application level, nor on storage access level.
Meltdown patch proved to be OK.

 

My first PC after switching from Apple was a 486 DX2-66mhz. If i recall correctly, it had 16mb of RAM. Later I bought a Diamond Stealth video card which actually had upgradeable VRAM. when I upgraded to an AMD Athlon (thunderbird) system, i got a pair of Monster Voodoo II cards in SLI.

 

I saw 3dfx video accelerator only one time. I helped to configure or troubleshoot a rig and after we finished guy let me to play Unreal. I was blown away by the speed and quality of the graphics.

 

So... Get the 2018-03 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 for x64/x86-based Systems (KB4088875)
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=security+monthly+quality+rollup
And you will be secure again from the Microsoft Meltdown Mistake? Got it. I can only imagine they're aware of the issue though, so they might pull the initial patch from the Update Catalog and revisit it. I hope.

EDIT2: Its fixed: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=kb4100480

 

Hi John,

I don't have another PC on the network to do a file copy but I did notice that when STEAM was updating and downloading files, the client itself would go dark (looks like it hangs) and peg 1 thread pretty hard. It can jump between the cores via task manager and the cpu usage gadget on my desktop.

I am unsure if it did this exact thing before as Steam was starting to act up for another reason with missing mods but it never hung until after the bios update. Currently 1.8 bios I believe.

Edit... I just forced STEAM to download an update and it maxed out my internet bandwidth ~ 30Mbits off the Killer Nic. No hanging. Very low CPU so my issues are not bandwidth related but probably STEAM regional server issues.

 

KBs are updated
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4090007/intel-microcode-updates
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4091663/kb4091663-intel-microcode-updates
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4091664/kb4091664-intel-microcode-updates
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4091666/kb4091666-intel-microcode-updates