The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Intel Kaby Lake and Skylake flaw

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by 7leagueboot, Jun 27, 2017.

  1. 7leagueboot

    7leagueboot Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    15
    Messages:
    240
    Likes Received:
    48
    Trophy Points:
    41
    7leagueboot, Jun 27, 2017
    #1
    hmscott likes this.
  2. eadgar

    eadgar Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    6
    Messages:
    135
    Likes Received:
    28
    Trophy Points:
    41
    I guess we need to wait for a new BIOS from Dell?
     
    eadgar, Jun 27, 2017
    #2
    hmscott likes this.
  3. 7leagueboot

    7leagueboot Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    15
    Messages:
    240
    Likes Received:
    48
    Trophy Points:
    41
    As one of the commenters said after the article, it is possible for MS to solve this with a microcode update via Windows Update. They already did it 2 years ago.

    Someone mentioned that it is only gaming that is likely to make this flaw appear however, someone else said quite the contrary. My R4 is only 3 weeks old and has already given 1 BSOD, and crashed in 2 games. I have to admit I wasn't expecting that from a supposedly stable O/S so clearly I'm looking for possible causes.

    If we were to disable hyperthreading would it make a major difference in game play?
     
    7leagueboot, Jun 27, 2017
    #3
    Vasudev and hmscott like this.
  4. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    7,110
    Messages:
    20,384
    Likes Received:
    25,139
    Trophy Points:
    931
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2017
    hmscott, Jun 27, 2017
    #4
    Vasudev likes this.
  5. Vasudev

    Vasudev Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    12,050
    Messages:
    11,278
    Likes Received:
    8,815
    Trophy Points:
    931
    For those with 15 r2 or 17 r3, our best way would be to install that microcode via Ubuntu's repositories( in ubuntu 17 repos). I'm waiting for some days if Dell issues patches for older devices.
     
    Vasudev, Jun 27, 2017
    #5
    hmscott likes this.
  6. Wormwood

    Wormwood Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    57
    Messages:
    500
    Likes Received:
    256
    Trophy Points:
    76
    It's really unclear how much of a problem this is and how much Windows will affected.
     
    Wormwood, Jun 28, 2017
    #6
    hmscott likes this.
  7. 6.|THE|1|BOSS|.9

    6.|THE|1|BOSS|.9 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    915
    Messages:
    498
    Likes Received:
    970
    Trophy Points:
    106
    6.|THE|1|BOSS|.9, Jun 29, 2017
    #7
    hmscott likes this.
  8. ThatOldGuy

    ThatOldGuy Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,310
    Messages:
    2,454
    Likes Received:
    2,588
    Trophy Points:
    181
    It isn't a problem. If you haven't seen an issue by now, you probably never will. Very specific circumstances cause errors. Got a better chance of getting hit by lightning then having a critical failure error with this. That said, you should be backing up your critical data anyways. Should push Dell for a fix though. A bug is a bug; and we shouldn't have to go though the trouble of fixing it for them.
     
    ThatOldGuy, Jun 29, 2017
    #8
    Vasudev, Wormwood and hmscott like this.
  9. shadowyani

    shadowyani Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    214
    Messages:
    791
    Likes Received:
    137
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Anyone have steps to reproducing the bug? My curiosity wants to see it.
     
    shadowyani, Jul 1, 2017
    #9