Disabling L1 L2 Cache

  • Thread starter Thread starter John M. Hunt
  • Start date Start date
J

John M. Hunt

How does one disable the L1 and L2 cache in the bios setup program for a
P4P800SE? The cache settings certainly don't jump right out at you, or
maybe i am blind.
 
John said:
How does one disable the L1 and L2 cache in the bios setup program
for a P4P800SE? The cache settings certainly don't jump right out at
you, or maybe i am blind.
Click to expand...

I can't be of any help, but I am curious as to why you'd want to disable the
cache...

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"\"Outback\" Jon" said:
I can't be of any help, but I am curious as to why you'd want to disable the
cache...
Click to expand...

He is trying to escape the clutches of the WinXP SP2 update.

Methinks he is screwed. In my research so far today, I've uncovered
a number of things missing from the AMI BIOS, and this just adds
another one to the list. I don't see an L1/L2 disable function.
(If there was a hot key to throw the BIOS into some kind of debug
mode, that is the only extreme hypothesis I can think of...)

I tried an experiment just now, using a recipe that worked in the
past with Award BIOS, where you could use a microcode from another
BIOS. The program CTMC accesses a built in microcode function that
seems to be implemented in the Award BIOS - it allows programmatic
loading of one 2KB microcode segment, and would have been a perfect
way to get out of this jam. I tried it on my P4C800-E Deluxe
with the original factory 1014 BIOS on it. My Northwood is at
revision 17, and I got a revision 21 microcode to try and update
it. Unfortunately, CTMC says the microcode update function is not
supported, and because that function was specified at a particular
interrupt number and function code (D042) by Intel, my theory was
both the AMI and the Award BIOSes would work. Alas, such is not
to be.

John will have to flash up to 1005 or 1005.003, reinstall Windows,
or move the disk to another computer and rename the update.sys file
so it cannot load.

This is my previous test of P4P800SE BIOS.
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul said:
He is trying to escape the clutches of the WinXP SP2 update.

Methinks he is screwed. In my research so far today, I've uncovered
a number of things missing from the AMI BIOS, and this just adds
another one to the list. I don't see an L1/L2 disable function.
(If there was a hot key to throw the BIOS into some kind of debug
mode, that is the only extreme hypothesis I can think of...)

I tried an experiment just now, using a recipe that worked in the
past with Award BIOS, where you could use a microcode from another
BIOS. The program CTMC accesses a built in microcode function that
seems to be implemented in the Award BIOS - it allows programmatic
loading of one 2KB microcode segment, and would have been a perfect
way to get out of this jam. I tried it on my P4C800-E Deluxe
with the original factory 1014 BIOS on it. My Northwood is at
revision 17, and I got a revision 21 microcode to try and update
it. Unfortunately, CTMC says the microcode update function is not
supported, and because that function was specified at a particular
interrupt number and function code (D042) by Intel, my theory was
both the AMI and the Award BIOSes would work. Alas, such is not
to be.

John will have to flash up to 1005 or 1005.003, reinstall Windows,
or move the disk to another computer and rename the update.sys file
so it cannot load.

This is my previous test of P4P800SE BIOS.
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

HTH,
Paul
Click to expand...

Many thanks Paul for your very informative message. I am not yet in trouble
as I have been cautiously following the SP2/Prescott stories
but have not actually tried SP2

Your suggestion to put the hard drive with the SP2 modification into another
computer to remove the update file is an excellent one if I get onto
trouble.
Unfortunately, none of my other motherboards have SATA connectors, although
in a pinch I could install a spare ribbon IDE drive in the P4P800SE, install
XP from scratch, then put the
SP2 inoperable boot SATA disk in as a non boot drive long enough to access
and remove the offending file..



Off the top of your head, does the removal of the update fdile (which
presumably prevents any microcode corrections or updates from installing)
result in
less satisfactory performance of the Prescott? It would appear that, at
least in certain circumstances, the updates have some merit..

Also do you have any feeling regarding the likelihood of being able to use
the TrueImage restore mechanism to restore the old C image (pre-SP2) if the
computer is in the hung state which is the subject of all the Prescott/SP2
problems
 
"John M. said:
Many thanks Paul for your very informative message. I am not yet in trouble
as I have been cautiously following the SP2/Prescott stories
but have not actually tried SP2

Your suggestion to put the hard drive with the SP2 modification into another
computer to remove the update file is an excellent one if I get onto
trouble.
Unfortunately, none of my other motherboards have SATA connectors, although
in a pinch I could install a spare ribbon IDE drive in the P4P800SE, install
XP from scratch, then put the
SP2 inoperable boot SATA disk in as a non boot drive long enough to access
and remove the offending file..



Off the top of your head, does the removal of the update fdile (which
presumably prevents any microcode corrections or updates from installing)
result in
less satisfactory performance of the Prescott? It would appear that, at
least in certain circumstances, the updates have some merit..

Also do you have any feeling regarding the likelihood of being able to use
the TrueImage restore mechanism to restore the old C image (pre-SP2) if the
computer is in the hung state which is the subject of all the Prescott/SP2
problems
Click to expand...

To be honest with you, I haven't been following the SP2 story that
closely, except for when it "splashes" into this newsgroup. To my
way of thinking, Microsoft is loading a bad version of microcode with
their update.sys file, and that is the problem. If the motherboard
has a recent enough version of microcode, then the update.sys file
checks the version and won't install the bad one. That is my guess.
(We won't know the full story until one of the parties in this
confesses :-) As to what is a sufficient microcode - if the version
number returned by the Intel utility is like 7 or so, and you
remove update.sys, I wouldn't expect any trouble. Microcode is used
to fix bugs found in the processor, after it enters production, and
a portion of the bugs are theoretical rather than practical.

As for TrueImage, if that is a DOS based restore mechanism, it
shouldn't care what is currently on the disk. If TrueImage relies
on the Windows on the disk, it would be a different story, but it
would make a pretty crappy imaging program if that is the way it
worked :-)

It is a real annoyance that the BIOS doesn't have a disable for
L1/L2. I have a P4C800-E and I have the same problem.

HTH,
Paul
 
He is trying to escape the clutches of the WinXP SP2 update.

Methinks he is screwed. In my research so far today, I've uncovered
a number of things missing from the AMI BIOS, and this just adds
another one to the list. I don't see an L1/L2 disable function.
(If there was a hot key to throw the BIOS into some kind of debug
mode, that is the only extreme hypothesis I can think of...)

I tried an experiment just now, using a recipe that worked in the
past with Award BIOS, where you could use a microcode from another
BIOS. The program CTMC accesses a built in microcode function that
seems to be implemented in the Award BIOS - it allows programmatic
loading of one 2KB microcode segment, and would have been a perfect
way to get out of this jam. I tried it on my P4C800-E Deluxe
with the original factory 1014 BIOS on it. My Northwood is at
revision 17, and I got a revision 21 microcode to try and update
it. Unfortunately, CTMC says the microcode update function is not
supported, and because that function was specified at a particular
interrupt number and function code (D042) by Intel, my theory was
both the AMI and the Award BIOSes would work. Alas, such is not
to be.

John will have to flash up to 1005 or 1005.003, reinstall Windows,
or move the disk to another computer and rename the update.sys file
so it cannot load.
Click to expand...

Paul,
Why couldn't he leave the drive in his computer and rename update.sys
from the Repair Console, as Microsoft suggests?


Ron
 
Milleron said:
Paul,
Why couldn't he leave the drive in his computer and rename update.sys
from the Repair Console, as Microsoft suggests?


Ron
Click to expand...

Yes, that is a possibility if the uppity Repair Console will cooperate. If
the necessity arises ( I am not yet in trouble) I will try that first as it
is an excellent suggestion

John M. Hunt
 
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