Text 9414, 56 rader
Skriven 2006-01-28 11:18:52 av Mike '/m' (1:379/45)
Ärende: Microsoft driver bug saps Core Duo power
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From: Mike '/m' <mike@barkto.com>


http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/01/28/toms_hardware_uncovers_power_drain_issue/

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Munich (Germany) and Westlake Village (CA) - Connect any USB 2.0 device to your
notebook and lose more than one hour of battery time: Tom's Hardware Guide's
tests of a Windows-based Intel Core Duo mobile processor platform revealed a
serious power consumption issue that, according to Intel, is caused by a
Microsoft driver bug - a bug that has been known by Microsoft for some time,
but kept from the public eye until today.

In Tom's Hardware Guide's review early last week of a Core Duo-based notebook
with Intel's 945 PM chipset and ATI's dedicated X1600 GPU, our test engineers
reported stumbling across a mysterious power consumption issue. The unit tested
showed abnormally high power consumption, which at first, they believed could
be attributable to the Core Duo processor itself, with the high-performance
graphics system being an alternate candidate.

But engineers with whom we consulted later in the week indicated that the issue
may lie with the chipset of Intel's new dual-core platform, which previously
was code-named "Napa." We spoke with representatives of major notebook computer
manufacturers, all of whom asked us not to reveal their names, but all of whom
said this particular issue has prevented their systems from achieving the goal
of four to five hours of battery life which Intel had led them to expect. After
a series of extensive tests involving battery benchmarks, Tom's Hardware
Guide's Munich Labs engineers were able to observe the precise power
consumption problem involving the Core Duo 945 GM chipset.

Our assessment and observations, coupled with extensive consultation with
engineers familiar with Intel dual-core architecture, plus information we
received today from Microsoft, have led us to conclude that an anomaly in the
way the currently available version of the ICH7-M Southbridge communicates with
Microsoft's ACPI driver, is at the heart of the power drain issue.

TG Daily and Tom's Hardware Guide have been in communication with Intel
representatives throughout this week about our findings described in this
article. Late Friday, Microsoft acknowledged to TG Daily - via the hands of
Intel - that they believe the problem our engineers observed to have been
caused by a misbehaving driver included in Windows XP SP2 - specifically, the
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) driver, which is part of the
operating system's power management scheme for USB 2.0.

The delicate issue about this bug, provided to Microsoft partners under
confidentiality guidelines as Knowledge Base article KB899179, is the fact that
it has been known to be a "problem" at least since 12 July 2005. It is unclear
at this time why Microsoft has not issued a patch or an advisory the public to
fix or explain this bug. So far, Microsoft has not responded to our inquiries
and we are still waiting for a comment on this power drain issue....
===

 /m

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