0x000009C with Powernow: Any opt solution for KB924441 in Win2003

[Guest Dario]

Hello.

 

Problem:

For dual core Opterons it sure seems like Win2003 SP2 does not support ACPI

processor performance states (AMD PowerNow!)?

 

Symptom:

If using AMD's Powernow CPU Driver for power managent on a dual core Opteron

in a Win2003 SP2 (Enterprise Edition) setup, the system will eventually stop

with error

 

Description:

I am look for a solution to using the powermanagment drivers from AMD with a

dual core opteron on a Win2003 SP2 system. The system will eventually crash

with a stop error if I simply install the drivers. Up till that point, AMD

Power Monitor however can verify that the cores in the CPU are under power

management from the AMD Powernow driver I installed. If I uninstall the AMD

Powernow driver for the CPU, the stop error stops occuring.

 

 

MS Solution for Win2003 SP1:

(can not use that since I am running SP2 and the patch wont install here

because it has a lower build number than SP2 kernel)

KB924441 (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/924441) offered an

optional patch (not in Windows update) for Win2003 SP1 to corret a problem

similar to this.

 

So where is the MS Solution for Win2003 SP2?

With SP2 the build number on the version of the kernel dll is of course

higher, so one should think that SP2 incorporated the patched coded offered

AMD Powernow driver problem for SP1. However, remember that the SP1 patch was

optional - not a standard Windows Update ... special kernel code to adjust

for AMD Powernow driver?

 

So it seems like SP2 did not incoporate this correcton ... and acutally lack

it for AMDs opteron dual core. The Win2003 SP2 will definitely crach if we

use the driver and will not crash if we uninstall it. Additionally, AMD Power

Monitor can help us verify that when AMD Powernow driver is installed the

cores are powermanagement (we tried setup it up for minimal powermanagement,

which will run the cores at lower powers giving us them enviromental "green

bars" for both cores. If Powernow is uninstalled Powermonitor shows red bars.

 

So does anybody know what to do here ... does Microsoft have a similar

optional patch to correct the kernel module in SP2 ... so it will not crash

with AMD Powernow?