Pentium 4 CPU runs hotter after installing Update Rollup 1

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jordan Russell
  • Start date Start date
J

Jordan Russell

Hi,

Almost immediately after installing Update Rollup 1 a week ago, I
noticed something rather alarming: The 2.8GHz HyperThreaded Pentium 4
CPU in my desktop PC was running at ~50 degrees C all the time,
regardless of whether the CPU was completely idle or at 100%
utilization. Previously, the temperature varied between ~35 and ~50
depending on the load.

Today, to test my theory that Update Rollup 1 was the cause of this
change in temperature, I tried uninstalling it. After rebooting, sure
enough, the CPU was back to idling in the 30's. I then reinstalled
Update Rollup 1. After rebooting, the CPU was again running at 50 C when
idle.

It appears that the culprit is the new HAL.DLL file installed by Update
Rollup 1. If I copy the "old" HAL.DLL file from
C:\WINNT\$NtUpdateRollupPackUninstall$ to C:\WINNT\system32 and reboot,
the CPU idles in the 30's. If I restore the "new" HAL.DLL file and
reboot, the CPU idles at 50. This is 100% reproducible.

So evidently, Update Rollup 1 has introduced some kind of bug that
prevents Pentium 4 CPUs from entering a power-saving state when idle. Or
maybe, for whatever reason, power-saving functionality is now disabled
by default, and I need to re-enable it somehow (registry tweak?).

Has anyone else seen this? Is Microsoft aware of the problem?

Thanks for any help,
Jordan Russell
 
Hi,

I have found the same problem and I've been testing a bit more on othe
systems. The only system I've found with the same problem is a P4 wit
HT (3.0GHz). A P4, Pentium M or PIII does not have the same problem.

Thanks to your research on the hal.dll I've looked further in th
properties of th hal.dll, I found out that the original filename of th
hal.dll on the p4 with HT was halmacpi.dll (multiprocessor). Th
original filename on the hal.dll of the other systems was halaacpi.dll


I'm now reinstalling the P4 HT machine with the HT feature disabled i
the bios. I'l let you know the results.

I also tried replacing the hal.dll from the P4 HT machine with th
halaacpi.dll, after disabling HT in the bios, which is not a good ide
(machine hangs starting windows 2000).


Phili


-
fl1pp3
 
hi,
i've also installed Update Rollup 1 on my machine. can you please tell
me how to check my CPU temperature or any tool which can help me
here?'cause my machine is also an MACPI n P4. i'm using hmonitor but
it's not showing CPU temperature.

Thanks,
Ruth.
 
Ruth said:
i've also installed Update Rollup 1 on my machine. can you please tell
me how to check my CPU temperature or any tool which can help me
here?'cause my machine is also an MACPI n P4. i'm using hmonitor but
it's not showing CPU temperature.
Click to expand...

I use Intel Active Monitor -
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm

This tool only supports Intel motherboards, however. (I have a D875PBZ.)

Not sure what options are available for other motherboards, as I've
never tried anything else.

Jordan Russell
 
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