KVR Audio

fluffy_little_something · Wed Jan 17, 2018 8:59 pm

There is a "Bridge Bios" update for my motherboard now, is that about those vulnerabilities? There is no description what it does...
There is also a new AGESA update for upcoming AMD processors, but it says I have to install the Bridge Bios update first.

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:22 am

fluffy_little_something wrote:There is a "Bridge Bios" update for my motherboard now, is that about those vulnerabilities? There is no description what it does...
There is also a new AGESA update for upcoming AMD processors, but it says I have to install the Bridge Bios update first.

What is your motherboard brand? I ask because I just fitted mine (Asus b350) and don't know if I want to install all that cd comes with it.

Does Windows 10 update itself about this? Or do I need to do it myself?

Nice thread btw

Kaine · Post by **Kaine** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 1:48 pm

EnGee wrote: What is your motherboard brand? I ask because I just fitted mine (Asus b350) and don't know if I want to install all that cd comes with it.

The BIOS won't be on the CD, it's only for drivers and tools. BIOS updates only come from whoever made the mainboard.

Does Windows 10 update itself about this? Or do I need to do it myself?

It does, and you should update past it manually as Windows update is the bare minimum for getting things up and running. Windows forces the last drivers that they validated, but often these end up being many revisions out of date, due to how sporadically most firms will send them new drivers to validate.

Use the cd to get the machine online (if it won't do so out of the box, most will) and then get the latest drivers you can. From the board manufacturer site is better than nothing and be far newer than the disk, but often those will be out of date too. Normally at the very least get the chipset from AMD or Intel (depending...), the network(s) from whoever made those and the GPU driver from whoever makes that chipset.

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:03 pm

Thank you Kaine for the detailed answer

fluffy_little_something · Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:10 pm

EnGee wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:There is a "Bridge Bios" update for my motherboard now, is that about those vulnerabilities? There is no description what it does...
There is also a new AGESA update for upcoming AMD processors, but it says I have to install the Bridge Bios update first.
What is your motherboard brand? I ask because I just fitted mine (Asus b350) and don't know if I want to install all that cd comes with it.

Does Windows 10 update itself about this? Or do I need to do it myself?

Nice thread btw

Mine is an ASrock, I only installed some of the stuff from the CD, which was up to date by the way. The version numbers on the site were the same.

AMD^s driver utility pops up from time to time, but it doesn^t suggest any update, not sure what the point is...
I never liked AMD drivers, they seem chaotic.

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:52 pm

fluffy_little_something wrote:
EnGee wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:There is a "Bridge Bios" update for my motherboard now, is that about those vulnerabilities? There is no description what it does...
There is also a new AGESA update for upcoming AMD processors, but it says I have to install the Bridge Bios update first.
What is your motherboard brand? I ask because I just fitted mine (Asus b350) and don't know if I want to install all that cd comes with it.

Does Windows 10 update itself about this? Or do I need to do it myself?

Nice thread btw
Mine is an ASrock, I only installed some of the stuff from the CD, which was up to date by the way. The version numbers on the site were the same.

AMD^s driver utility pops up from time to time, but it doesn^t suggest any update, not sure what the point is...
I never liked AMD drivers, they seem chaotic.

Thanks FLS

There is a bug about Windows update that keeps informing for update and reinstall/restart:
"2017-12 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1709 for x64-based Systems (KB4054517)"

I don't know if you mean this ^ above. I read about it and it says Microsoft is still making a fix for it.

On the other hand, I did installed the drivers first (it depends on the brand) then I installed only the utility that comes with the CD (which informs me of CPU temp and usage and fans info, ...etc.). For this model, I think Asus did a nice job by doing it all in one utility and separated it from other 'junk' software (like the 60 days trial for Norton).

There is no update for the BIOS for now. Let's see Microsoft then.

PurpleSunray · Post by **PurpleSunray** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 6:03 pm

Not directly realted to the current discussion, but related to topic and .. "Linus in

mode" is always a funny read

An ex-intel guy (Woodhouse) has submitted the next bunch of weird patches for Linux kernel to address the SPECRTE mess .. oh wait .. It's not "weird" at all. It's very much part of the whole "this is complete garbage" issue.

http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kern ... 04628.html

Seems like Intel is still trying to patch arround without a real plan about what they actually want to patch

fluffy_little_something · Thu Jan 25, 2018 6:33 pm

On my computer KB4054517 was successfully installed in December.
Unfortunately, KB4056892 is now listed in Windows Update, and I can't really prevent it from installing

PS: Seems I was lucky, that infamous patch has not sped my computer down, it actually shows a slightly lower CPU load now for the DAW project I used for comparison. Maybe they have optimized the patch during those weeks it has been available. They did not offer it to my computer earlier because it is an AMD computer, so maybe they fixed whatever was wrong with the original patch.

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 9:13 pm

I also have AMD cpu that installed yesterday. Unfortunately, still the KB4054517 in a loop mode it seems. I don’t know though after which patch my cpu will slow down in performance.

How about the games consoles? Xbox and PS? They have also AMD CPUs! Are they safe?

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 9:21 pm

To date there has been no reliable demonstration of the general flaws "spectre", only the Intel flaw.

The AMD chips aren't vulnerable to the more serious flaw. Also it doesn't make sense to look at it from a user security perspective per se but rather from a copy protection or cryptographic key perspective these are important issues.

So in that respect you're just installing patches that could be named "improved DRM".

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:10 pm

Oh ok! Thanks for the info and opinion.

I found a solution to the update problem in my case by running this utility (as administrator by clicking 'advanced' in the screen):
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... bleshooter

There is also another one, but didn't try it. It is mentioned in this thread:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... db2?auth=1

Update:
Ok, it returns with 'false' error every time and then. After some searching and trying different methods, I found one that worked for me (don't know till when!):
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 3ab7be7fea

Sorry! Nothing works! I will just wait for official 'fix' and ignore the error messages!

Zombie Queen · Post by **Zombie Queen** » Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:59 pm

It's getting even more funny...

Best course of action, turn off all updates for at least half a year.

fluffy_little_something · Fri Jan 26, 2018 5:34 pm

How much more embarrassing can it get?

PurpleSunray · Post by **PurpleSunray** » Fri Jan 26, 2018 5:44 pm

I think Linus is right on his asumption about the backgrounds of all this .. LOL

patching
Legal considerations.. they will continue to patch arround and do weird things on OS kernels, to make sure they have a 'solution' if someone wants a refund. But applying the 'solution' is not recomended, because those patches are garbage.. it's just there so Intel does not need to refund [n] mio of broken CPUs.

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Fri Jan 26, 2018 9:38 pm

Zombie Queen wrote:It's getting even more funny...
Best course of action, turn off all updates for at least half a year.

What messy! I'm glad that I assembled an AMD build few days ago instead of intel! I didn't update anything in my old i5 system, so I think it is fine!

So, any chance that we'll use Nintendo Switch for computing?! Maybe it is the only one not affected

Update:
Damn! I have just read this now:
https://segmentnext.com/2018/01/05/spec ... -consoles/

'Kernel memory leaking' Intel processor -- a serious cpu bug!?!