Pentium 4 and Windows XP do not work well together..

[joepic]

MICROSOFT HAS WARNED PEOPLE using its top of the range Eye Candy software Windows XP that if they're using a Pentium 4 processor and have installed Windows XP Service Pack 1 they might experience some, er, degradation of function.

Presumably this Newspeak phrase means a PC will slow right down .

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;815227

If you install Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) on an Intel Pentium 4 computer that has more than one logical processor.

A program that uses large mapped file views to share information between two processes may experience a significant performance decrease. The performance degradation occurs in the UnmapViewOfFile function.

[lagerlout]

But how many people use a multiple processor system? Generally only a server problem surely, and all mine are NT4.

[joepic]

how many people use a multiple processor system?

You might be surprised how many people who visit this forum have multiple processor systems either AMD or Intel which are not servers and used for multi media work.

[mkelley]

Actually, I *would* be surprised at the number of people using XP Pro with multiple processors on this forum that are affected by this -- since the apps that are affected by this have to be multi-threading AND share large maps between them.

This is a very rare occurance in programming -- Photoshop is multi-threaded but doesn't share maps, and most video apps that *are* multi-threaded don't share maps due to timing issues. If you are aware of even *one* I'd be curious to hear about it.

In short, this is a very rare error that probably affects 1 out of 100,000 users -- and there is a fix available. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Oliver]

Yet another reason why I'm sticking with W2K Pro. Many people who run the latest P4 processors with HyperThreading are indeed running a multi-CPU system, logically speaking. Intel's HyperThreading technology allows multiple threads to run simultaneously on a single CPU, and with the proper BIOS and chipset support, these systems appear to the OS to have 2 CPUs. So this admission by Microsoft affects quite a lot of users, and they should remedy the problem immediately.

[mkelley]

No, once again -- this problem only affects those multiple threads that share large map file views. That's a very rare programming technique (one I was taught to avoid quite a few years ago) and I doubt whether this affects hardly anyone at all (but if you're using a program that does this, please let us know so we can warn others).

Let me amend this -- this is a rare technique when it comes to graphices/video. Business apps using SQL may indeed do this, but I was strictly speaking from a forum perspective here (but we were still taught not to do this in class :>)

[Metaluna]

Considering that there is already a fix available (it's right on the page that joepic linked to), and it only applies to HT or multi-processor systems, and only if they use a specific, relatively uncommon feature, I'm not losing any sleep over this.

[txpharoah]

Again, XP is not friendly towards multimedia, no matter how much Microsoft wants us to believe it. I too stick with 2K and other choice OS'es.

[pixel8or]

Again, XP is not friendly towards multimedia, no matter how much Microsoft wants us to believe it.

That's not my experience. I'm running WinXP Pro SP1 on a 2.4 gig P4 overclocked at 3 gig. Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti4200 running as a SoftQuadro 780 XGL overclocked under RivaTuner.

I can capture 720x480 29.97 till my 60 gig hard drive is stuffed; run Virtualdub, Photoshop 7, and Vegas 4 at the same time with no problem.

I've surfed the web on multiple instances of IE while virtualdub renders away in the background without a hitch.

Try looking at some of the tweaking site around the web for WinXP and do a little optimization. Wintel and XP Pro kicks ass!

[THE RIPPER]

I run dual amd on w2k,i tried xp but didn't care for it to much.

[troyvcd1]

All I know is I tried to install the canopus dv converter and the canopus codec on my pIII with WXP sp1. I tried to convert an avi file and bam. My hard drive was totally corrupted. I couldnt fragment it and I could not open the directories with my avi files. Only choice reformat. Not gonna use canopus software on my system anymore.