Meltdown / Spectre questions - Computer Technical Help

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Meltdown / Spectre questions

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01-04-2018 , 09:13 AM

thunderbolts

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 3,596

Regulars here will probably have heard about the "Meltdown" and "Spectre" issues affecting Intel and Intel/AMD/ARM chips respectively, and the patches that are likely to be pushed out for Linux and Windows over the next few days.

I thought it might be worth having a thread here for the questions that might be asked. It seems that for some computer use cases, including postgreSQL, there might be some pretty hefty performance hits (even if average consumers don't see much of them).

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01-05-2018 , 12:18 AM

headtrauma

grinder

Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 506

The link below seems to be pretty decent information, though I'd use set-executionpolicy remotesigned to allow running the check tool rather than bypass as in the article.
My Thinkpad Yoga running is running 1709 build and got the 1801 patch today. Lenovo also already has a BIOS/Firmware update ready for my machine, so it's definitely worth checking if you system manufacturer has a BIOS update pushed out, which likely has CPU microcode fixes included.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/new...tre-cpu-flaws/
also:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...erabilities-in

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01-05-2018 , 11:33 AM

thunderbolts

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 3,596

Thanks. This is pretty helpful background reading too.

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01-07-2018 , 02:34 PM

Loki

binary duo

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 12,772

I forget where I read it but some AV still wasn’t compatible with the available fixes.

edit

looks like my AV did an upgrade. Got my windows patched & BIOS flashed. All good to go.

Last edited by Loki; 01-07-2018 at 02:58 PM.

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01-08-2018 , 11:51 PM

DCJ001

veteran

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,843

Microsoft accidentally bricks AMD PCs with Spectre patch

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18/...-spectre-patch

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01-26-2018 , 12:18 AM

headtrauma

grinder

Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 506

Most vendors should have pulled the BIOS/firmware updates already, but there are serious flaws with the first round of updates for Haswell and Broadwell that Intel pushed out. I had already taken the update on my laptop and have had at least a half dozen BSODs after taking the FW update. So if you have a Core I 4xxx or 5xxx processor, don't update the BIOS/FW until a new spin comes out and even then, I would probably give it 2 weeks or a month to soak.
https://www.pcper.com/news/Processor...ltdown-Patches

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