AMD's New Phenom Chip Causes x64-Windows to Disappear
For years, I've run their processors in all of my home machines. Their stock has shown up in my portfolio several times over the last decade. I've loved the David and Goliath tale of the small, upstart company taking on evil Intel…
This is why it breaks my heart to tell you now to sell AMD's stock short.
The story begins about three weeks ago, when I decided to build a new system for the purpose of testing Windows 2008's vitalization technology. Although still in beta, HyperV promises to make Windows a mainstream for vitalization. The catch with it, however, is that it must run on a 64-bit operating system. I made the decision to build my test lab on AMD's new Phenom processor line.
I built my lab server using the Phenom 9600 quad-core chip, running at 2.3 GHz with 8GB of RAM, and eagerly installed Windows 2008 Enterprise, 64-bit edition, on it. Everything went smoothly until I attempted to enable the Terminal Services role. When I did, it blue-screened on me with the message: "a clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allotted time." My heart sank.
I rebooted the server, went back into Server Manager, and this time successfully installed the Terminal Services role. I thought maybe I was going to be okay after all. My hopes were short-lived. As I attempted to install the HyperV role, it blue-screened again with the same message.
Having BSOD’d twice within 30 minutes, I decided to spend some time Googling the error, and came up with several hits concerning TLB erratum within the Phenom processor. Supposedly, this erratum could be mitigated by a bios upgrade. I verified that my motherboard manufacturer had an update for the TLB erratum, upgraded my bios, enabled the TLB erratum setting, and tried again. Oh, the agony I felt when, yet again, I crashed with the same error! I tried under-clocking my CPU as well, but to no avail.
Further Googling pointed me toward the strong possibility that I had a bad chip. According to the rumor mill, the three-core chips AMD is now selling are actually refurbished, four-core chips containing a bad core that has been disabled via microcode. I contacted my supplier and eagerly awaited the replacement CPU.
It arrived yesterday evening and I installed it this morning. Once again, I received the clock-interrupt error. This time I contacted AMD technical support directly. I was no more than two sentences into my explanation when the engineer interrupted me and said that it was a known issue with Vista’s 64-bit edition. (Note that Windows 2008 Server is built on the Vista code base.) He also told me that they were not sure if it was a Microsoft problem or an issue with the processor. He then told me they would contact me as soon as they had any more information.
Bottom line: this processor should have never been released for the 64-bit environment. Even a cursory level of quality assurance on Windows Vista’s 64-bit edition would have demonstrated the problem. AMD has lost a serious amount of credibility with me, and perhaps with the IT community at large. They should halt sales of this processor until the issue is resolved, or at least issue strong disclaimers concerning problems with 64-bit systems.
I'm really sad to see this happening with what has been one of my favorite companies.
Uhm, I think you have the idea horribly wrong - AMD never stated to me (who own a 9600 BE processor with a 790FX chipset), that the processor will not work with 64 bit Vista OS. In fact, the processor will work perfectly fine in Vista 64 bit (whether it is ultimate, server, or whatever other version you want to install) - the problem is rooted at the combination of any 790FX board, a Phenom 9600/9600 BE _and_ Vista 64 bit. Most likely this is not a processor problem but either a Vista 64 bit problem or the 790FX driver problem. However, being how you can run XP 64 bit just fine on any on these systems (like I was able to), this leads me to believe that rather than having a problem with the processor, or the motherboard, this is most likely rooted at flaky support from Vista.
So, I think you need to sell your Microsoft stock.
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Hello Joe,
I knew I should've sold my Microsoft stock when it hit $33 a share!
I am indeed using the 790 FX chipset. I intend to contact AMD again for some additional information on this issue. Even if it does prove to be a Vista/Windows 2008 issue AMD still stands far more to lose from the transaction does Microsoft. To my knowledge this is not been an issue with any of the Intel chips.
Another interesting side discussion on this is that I'm now running the 32-bit version of Windows 2008 Enterprise Edition on the lab server and have installed Virtual Server 2005 SP 2. When virtualization is enabled in BIOS and I intend to install a new machine it's blue screens during the install process and shortly thereafter the host server also blue screens. I'm not sure if this is more of the same problem I was encountering before or if hardware aware of virtualization, at least on this chipset and CPU, aren't quite ready for prime time.
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BTW - I forgot to mention (I think... as I cannot see my previous entry just yet) - if you try and run a Phenom on any other chipset, nVidia, other AMD 7xx series chipsets aside from the 790FX - you will be able to install Vista 64 bit or Server 2008 just fine without a hitch... soo....
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I am running a 9600 Phenom with a 790FX motherboard chipset, with windows ultamate 64 bit edition. After I installed the newest bios version I have not had any problems with freezing or blue screens. So maybe you should update your bios, insted of bashing AMD.
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Thanks for the suggestion Mike. The first thing I attempted was updating BIOS before I placed my orginal call to AMD. I'll check to see if a new one has been released.
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I have a Giga-byte ga-m57sli-s4 WITH VISTA ULTIMATE 64, i HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET THE PHENOM TO WORK WITH OUT BSOD, I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING, AND HAD SUPPORT FROM GIGA-BYTE AND AMD......FOR FUN I TRIED LOADING XP 32 AND POOF ALL OF A SUDDEN IT WORKS FINE....HUMMM
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I have Phenom Black Edition ASUS Crosshair with Vista Ultimate 64. BSOD everytime I even attempt to install any software. AMD what on earth is going on?
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I've got exactly the same problem. I have MSI K9A2 Platinum 790FX Mainboard and I'm experiencing BSOD on startup and randomly later any time I try to OC my Phenom even by 50 MHz. On XP it runs fine @2,7GHz. My OS is Vista 64 Ultimate.
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I had the same problems you guys are explaining. There is one catch though. When you install The new Vista x64 you have to actually enable the other 3 cores after the first loading of windows. If you do not enable this it will try to load the OS with 1 core instead of the needed 4 cores causing the crashes. Microsoft forgot to include this in their instructions...I had found it to be a real pain until all 4 cores of the processor were enabled in windows.
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I have a phenom 9600 be and tried to run win vista 64 it bsod the first time i started it within 5 mins. Continuous bsods all day i ordered a new power supply, not the problem. It sure is win vista ultimate 64 or 790 fx chipset doing it I proved that all day . I am now running on vista ultimate 32 and it works great. I can overclock run then processor maxed do whatever no bsods. Please write if anyone finds a fix to this problem im wasting my 8 gbs of RAM! no xp 64 for me dont like directx 9.
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That was inspiring,
Thanks for sharing,
Keep up the good work
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