XP Service Pack Slows Programs 464
AEton writes "Vnunet and others are reporting that Windows XP's Service Pack 1 has introduced a flaw into the operating system. Changes to memory handling code result in programs which often allocate memory (which is many of them) can take up to ten times longer than normal to start. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem in Q815411, and while a patch is available by request from Microsoft Product Services, it will not be widely released until Service Pack 2."
In the meantime (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In the meantime (Score:2, Funny)
On a second tought, perhaps that's what M$ programs are already doing...
640K is enough (Score:5, Funny)
Re:640K is enough (Score:4, Informative)
Jeez, learn to read (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Jeez, learn to read (Score:5, Funny)
(This is rhetorical and not meant as a troll.)
Mein Gott!
The poster criticized a Microsoft competitor and didn't get modded into oblivion? The poster deigned to utter a discouraging word on /. about an open-source product and got away with it? What is this world COMING TO?!? C'mon, libc is perfect in every way and when a fully-functioning HURD kernel is released in 2060 or so, it's gunna be awesome!
HAHA (Score:5, Funny)
Re:HAHA (Score:5, Funny)
"I sat and ran my key generator for up to 20 minutes before I was able to get a valid key! Then I had to reactive Windows and change the key to install SP1," said one anonymous source. "But if errors like this are the results of all the effort I put into providing slipstreamed SP1 installs on eMule and USENET, Microsoft has definitely lost another customer."
Efforts are underway to convert pirated Windows installations to free alternatives in order to reduce costs and save time. "I don't have to download BlueKey to upgrade a few RPMS. Once XP's SP2 beta leaks onto the net, you can bet I won't be so forgiving next time when I crack it."
Re:HAHA (Score:3, Informative)
Typical Slashdot FUD (Score:5, Funny)
Programmers can easily work around this bug by returning right after printf("Hello World") finishes.
Re:Typical Slashdot FUD (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Typical Slashdot FUD (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Typical Slashdot FUD (Score:5, Funny)
That's interesting. Who gets the money?
Of course fprintf() will be illegal soon since nobody can make any money off of it.
So - Using printf() supports terrorism (Score:5, Funny)
I never did quite trust printf(), a little on the seedy side it always seemed to me. How can it just keep taking arguments? That's just not natural.
At last! The re-birth of tail-recursion!! (Score:5, Funny)
No longer! Now, arise my tail-recursive brethren and let a new day of shallow-stack programming commence!!
Wait - stack growth is not the same as memory allocation? My bad. Back, I say, supporters of the One Recursion! The time is not yet right.
"Service" Pack (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Service" Pack (Score:4, Funny)
never installed sp1! (Score:2)
(actually, it's because I'm using XP with that pirated serial number that SP1 kindly "de-activates" for you)
Re:never installed sp1! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:never installed sp1! (Score:2, Funny)
Now honestly... do you not think that admitting to piracy (even on Slashdot) is not a rather stupid thing to do?
No wait... actually what I meant to say was, don't you think admitting to using Windows on Slashdot is a stupid thing to do?
Re:never installed sp1! (Score:5, Funny)
IN5T4-LLM3T-0CR4P-UPURW-1ND0Z
Works as per SP1 specifications.
The fix will cost you (Score:5, Informative)
Avoid Service Pack 1, or better yet, avoid Windows.
Re:The fix will cost you (Score:5, Insightful)
Welcome to Microsoft's new "Captive Audience" pricing plan.
Remember kids, this is why monopolies that abuse their powers are bad.
Re:The fix will cost you (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft at least releases the fixes free.
Re:The fix will cost you (Score:2)
The title of this thread suggests otherwise, but even if we ignore this you're forgetting the cost of mandatory upgrades. I somehow doubt Microsoft would blatently refuse to support NT 4 before its end-of-life if it had to worry about competitors.
Re:The fix will cost you (Score:3, Insightful)
They also helped me for free when I couldn't get Visual Studio
Knock MS all you want, PSS is pretty effective.
Re:The fix will cost you (Score:2, Troll)
And you're obviously and MCSE.
WinZip format....when will you paper engineers ever learn?
Re:The fix will cost you (Score:3, Informative)
Honestly, how is this flamebait insightful? Parent was more insightful despite the possible (or probable) typo regarding the format of the file.
This place is going to hell, I swear. If we're going to quibble about minor mistakes instead of focusing on the thrust of the arguments, then I could waste another three lines pointing out the ones you made in your post.
Re:The fix will cost you (Score:3, Funny)
RTFriendlyKBA (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The fix will cost you (Score:3, Insightful)
THE FIX DOES NOT COST ANYTHING -- DOWNLOAD LINKS (Score:5, Informative)
But I have already done this for you.. And I didn't forget you alpha users!
http://www.paricom.com/matt/xphotfix [paricom.com]
Re:THE FIX DOES NOT COST ANYTHING -- DOWNLOAD LINK (Score:2)
Re:THE FIX DOES NOT COST ANYTHING -- DOWNLOAD LINK (Score:5, Informative)
hmmm (Score:2)
Of course the other option is for 3rd party tools to come out that fix the bug in windows with an active patch (ie, patch the memory while it's running) and charge 49.95 for it... those memory doublers and optimizers from the windows 3.1 days come to mind....
w2k is effected as well (Score:5, Interesting)
When I open openoffice is just sits there doing nothing for like 20 seconds and then launched. No excess cpu overhead or anything. It just stalls and then runs. Its just annoying and I wonder if its a conspiracy theory.
Has anyone else noticed this?
Re:w2k is effected as well (Score:3, Funny)
Re:w2k is effected as well (Score:5, Funny)
Re:w2k is effected as well (Score:5, Informative)
After installing SP1 I immediately noticed longer load times. The load times are all, consistently, still the same, and noticeably longer than XP (pro, BTW) before SP1, which I used for almost a year (more?). I really started to take for granted sub-1s ie load times. Sigh. Anyway, here are the data:
ie: 1 MS max, every time. with SP1: 3-4 MS, depending on what else is up
adobe premiere 6.5: 7-9 MS, with SP1: 18-25 MS
excel xp with a 16MB spreadsheet (loaded from a shortcut to the sheet file): 20-25 MS. with SP1: 60-90 MS.
DVArchive (replay tv simulator, all in JAVA 1.4.1, a very slow-loading monkey): 30-35 MS. with SP1: 90-100 or tired of counting MS.
This sucks. Especially now that I know why, for the following reason. Before, I simply attributed the slow down to the mysterious hardware and software gremlins (and I'm an ASIC designer -- we know better than most just how real these critters really are -- ask me about typical chip testing coverage (90-98%), or to compare the MS bugs we cry about to the insane, random bugs in million-dollar EDA software from Cadence and Synopsys), but now I know that an upgrade that ostensibly should have improved system performance has instead worsened it, I'm bummed. Worse, there were some hassles with my (legit) corp key for XP with SP1, causing me quite a bit of hassle getting the thing installed to begin with.
OK, maybe SP1 made it more secure, or less crash-prone (wasn't bad before though, and doesn't seem better now), or something. Yes, I'll tell myself that -- something improved. I'm just not sure exactly what it is.
quality (Score:5, Funny)
Re:quality (Score:4, Insightful)
Service Packs are suppose to be stable, extensively tested set of updates unlike hotfixes, and the bug description makes it sound like it could be a programming logic error, not a programming bug. I mean, they must've noticed *something* if certain programs take up to 10 times as long...
Re:quality (Score:2, Insightful)
"a" flaw? (Score:5, Funny)
Drat, just when we all thought windows had achieved perfection. Back to the Visio board...
Bloated (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bloated (Score:3, Insightful)
No, no... They stopped fixing it. That's different, y'see. :-)
Where you can find this patch... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Where you can find this patch... (Score:2, Informative)
I'm sure no one is interested but... (Score:4, Informative)
http://home.t-online.de/home/520092137223-0001/
Show me the mirror! (Score:2)
Re:Show me the mirror! (Score:3, Informative)
Have seen this (Score:5, Informative)
And please, before somebody gets started with a flame war, WinHeap is not open source (although there is a source code license available), but it is free for non-profit use.
Reminds Me of Python-Esque Humor (Score:5, Funny)
(Read along in a mock British-imitating-French accent, ala the castle scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail)
Microsoft Engineer: We've got a problem here, chaps!
MS Users (All, Amongst Selves): Well, how about a patch then?
Microsoft Engineer: Uh, we've already got one, you see.
MS User 1: Are you sure he's got one?
MS User 2: He says they've already got one!
Microsoft Engineer: Oh, yes. It's very nice-a.
MS Engineers: [chuckling]
MS Users: Well, u-- um, can we come up and have a look?
MS Engineer: Of course not! You are clueless types-a!
MS Users: If you will not show us the patch, we shall switch all our systems to Linux!
MS Engineer: You don't frighten us, clueless pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Linux King, you and all your silly open source k-nnnnniggets. Thpppppt! Thppt! Thppt!
MS User 1: What a strange person.
MS User 2: Now look here, my good man--
MS Engineer: I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
MS Users: Is there someone else up there we could talk to?
MS Engineer: No. Now, go away, or I shall taunt you a second time-a! [sniff]
(With aplogies to Monty Python)
Script here [mwscomp.com].
Re:Reminds Me of Python-Esque Humor (Score:4, Funny)
Memory Management??? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, so the new Microsoft standard malloc() and takes 10 times as long to load as the old version. But with this increase in time, the customer can be sure that the memory allocations are being done more securly, and in a way that's good for them.
Also as a bonus, no more pesky free()'s. When that memory gets allocated, it STAYS allocated untill you (have to) reboot your system.
More /. FUD. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:More /. FUD. (Score:2)
Linux may be slower initially, but at least it doesn't do that windows thing where your box gets slower by the day. I'll take consistancy, thank you very much.
Re:More /. FUD. (Score:2)
* Disclaimer: this is based on my experience RH8. I'm currently downloading the Mandrake 9.1 ISO's
If you really want to see KDE startup fly try gentoo. Compile aggressively, on my laptop I have:
CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O3 -ffast-math -fomit-frame-pointer -mfpmath=sse -m3dnow -foptimize-sibling-calls -fstrength-reduce -fcse-follow-jumps -fcse-skip-blocks -frerun-cse-after-loop -frerun-loop-op
Re:More /. FUD. (Score:5, Informative)
1.
It's being reported in other places than
I first read about it in the newspaper...
2.
It's being reported on Microsofts own website.
So maybe it's microsoft FUD? =)
3.
The problem actually exists. (Thus is not FUD)
It doesn't appear on *every* XP computer with SP1, but some actually load programs at 1/10 the speed that they did without SP1.
Even on
I knew it. (Score:5, Funny)
So I suppose SP1 is to XP as beer is to me: a tool to slow your reaction time. Too bad it doesn't make XP more attractive...
win 2000 flaw (Score:2)
before the update: about 10 secs.
after the update: over one minute.
I solved this issue in FuzQ0000001
use the powerswitch to shut down the computer.
More mirrors for Patch (Score:5, Informative)
Q815411_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe [rene-hennig.de]
Q815411_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe [t-online.de]
Re:More mirrors for Patch (Score:3, Interesting)
I would need a Swedish version. =)
(I can't belive that MS hasn't stopped using different binaries for different languages yet. It's idiotic. They even *rename* systemfiles and folders between languages, making some poorly made programs incompatible with other languages than English...)
That explains it (Score:2, Informative)
I'm such a whore (Score:3, Interesting)
Downloads/Patches Right Here -- i386/Alpha (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.paricom.com/matt/xphotfix/ [paricom.com]
Re:Downloads/Patches Right Here -- i386/Alpha (Score:4, Funny)
You , sir, are one of two things:
1.- You are an evil cracker who is tempting people into downloading your latest Trojan Badger^WHorse code so you can r007 them and be a 1337 h4x0r. Except they'd actually have to be for NT4 to run at all, you fucking lamer.
2. - You are a Microsoft engineer who has XP running on the Alpha processor. Which means Microsoft still supports the Alpha internaly, and Compaq needn't of killed it. I could have had an EV8!!!
In either case, you can expect your next of kin to recieve a very large bill for beer,
HAND.
Soko
(Still mourning the Alpha)
Re:Downloads/Patches Right Here -- i386/Alpha (Score:2)
Re:Downloads/Patches Right Here -- i386/Alpha (Score:3, Funny)
Ready for prime-time my ass.
I'll stick with my SunBlade & PA-RISC workstation, thanks
Now off to get a nice shiny AlphaStation
what so unusiual (Score:3, Funny)
Historically speaking this makes it an upgrade
Ah, Finally!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Sure, it has some side effects, but don't all fixes?
Not so fast! (Score:2)
All worms? I think not! The dreaded FORTRAN worm, with it's one time memory alocation, pass by reference only and spritish math library will make mince meat of all the usual holes. Ha!
Mirror of the Patch (Score:2)
Enjoy!
http://home.centurytel.net/mraymer/Q815411_WXP_SP2 _x86_ENU.exe [centurytel.net]
XP SP1 Slowdown (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally I prefer speed over security.
One other major problem (Score:5, Informative)
This would have been the first post ... (Score:5, Funny)
-/-
Mikey-San
Has anyone actually witness this slow down? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Has anyone actually witness this slow down? (Score:3, Insightful)
XP took longer to boot. Some applications also took longer, like AOL, and some games.
I downloaded the patch, and everything ran faster. I'm playing C&C Generals at the moment, and the game did run a lot faster after installing the patch.
It really makes a difference (Score:3, Interesting)
Release candidates (Score:5, Interesting)
IMO, Microsoft would benefit by issuing public release candidates for new OS versions and patches. It would greatly reduce the impact of problems with patches and new releases.
-Thomas
Re:Release candidates (Score:3, Funny)
Huh? I thought that's what alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc.ms-beta [newzbin.com] was for. Isn't it official?!?
<looks shocked>
Re:Release candidates (Score:3, Funny)
Oh wait, yes I do. The OS.
This is not really news (Score:2, Insightful)
"The War Room" (Score:2)
I would have paid to see their expressions.
phase I (Score:2)
Chill out (Score:3, Insightful)
FYI: It's not a big deal. I've been using SP1 for months, and haven't noticed anything. Obviously, so have a whole lot of other people.
It's nothing to get so worked up about.
(Posted AC because this will be flamebait to some people).
DHCP Problems persist as well (Score:4, Informative)
Wait (Score:3, Funny)
of 1ms on my brand new p4 with stripe raid ?
*going to shoot myself in the head*
Huzzah for retro-gamers! (Score:3, Funny)
:-D
M$ New Slogan (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Here's a thought... (Score:2, Insightful)
Linux is cool, I have a dual-boot set up myself, but- I cannot reliably run 99% of the Windows games and many other programs i've spent hundreds of dollars on under Linux. Hence, I and many others like me can't just switch over to an all-Linux box, just because the Man at Microsoft might be slipping nasty stuff in that there's no evidence of.
Re:Here's a thought... (Score:2)
Re:So that's why Mozilla's been slow... (Score:2)
Re:So that's why Mozilla's been slow... (Score:4, Funny)
Memory leaks were very common in older systems that used 'bubble memory' and lots of pointers.
Other things you can try are entering the BIOS and turning off the "memory hole". This is unnecessary for everything but OS/2 anyway. If you do need to keep the memory hole, you can try using the "finger" utility to plug the hole. This method is popular with Netherlands programmers.
HTH.
way to install sp1 when your serial key isnt legit (Score:2)
http://www.petri.co.il/change_xp_serial.htm
then do a google search for a program called "xp key recoverer and discoverer 5.12"
enjoy your product activation free xp
Re:Well, I am not installing XP SP1 anyway... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:wasn't xp by itself already bad enough. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The only thing that slows me down in XP... (Score:2)
Prolly either a bad install, or bad ram/chipset. or a shitty motherboard (soyo what?)
Re:I haven't noticed any problems so far (Score:2)
If I kill it, it's fine, but i can't prevent the issue
Re:Does anyone have the patch? (Score:3, Informative)
Even more accurately. [iebeta.net]
Re:As a programmer (Score:4, Interesting)
Until more detail is offered as to the applications involved, there is no way to reproduce the bug, unless one develops psychic abilities, and can read the minds of every person using XP.