Oops... look like Apple has made a little boo-boo with the sleep mode of it's iPod portable MP3 player.
News source: CNet News
View: Apple iPod Alert (complete with download instructions)
- Apple has identified a bug that can cause a small percentage of iPods to temporarily not wake from sleep when the battery reaches a low charge level. Apple has developed an iPod firmware update that fixes this bug.
Apple strongly recommends that all iPod customers download and install the iPod firmware update version 1.0.2. This iPod firmware update also provides additional quality enhancements and support for additional languages, including Italian, Dutch and Spanish.
News source: CNet News View: Apple iPod Alert (complete with download instructions)
So what does it do? It closes the RX55 memory register in BIOS. The RX55 register's official name and function is Memory Write Queue (MWQ) timer. The MWQ timer is actually a timing device included in the memory host controller to prevent write data being held in the memory queue too long. After the data has been in the queue too long it times out. This timed out data is then given a higher write request priority. Now that might sound nice – a bit of extra performance BUT the procedure fails when overloaded. 3D games and Win XP put too much load on the memory queuing timer procedure. The nVidia new driver exaggerates the problem even more as the driver enables nVidia cards to use even more memory than previous driver versions.
So in a nutshell it’s a memory timing problem that only happens when the RX55 register is opened. Some motherboard manufacturers have already released new BIOS that have the register closed. In other instances, this patch is needed.
One thing I have noticed is that I think some people in are confusing one issue with the issue that I am referring to here. Symptoms I am talking about are the infinite loop error, dropping to desktop in 3D games or spontaneous reboot in 3D games. What I strongly suggest is that you try these trouble shooting suggestions before trying the patch:
- Load optimized defaults in your BIOS and do not modify memory settings
- set your memory settings in the BIOS less aggressively and test
- make sure you have an adequate power supply
- update your BIOS and test
- disable or enable AGP fast write and test (this has worked for some people)
The reason that I make these suggestions is that I think some people are confusing general instability because their systems are being pushed to the max, with this error. For example, if you have a 250watt power supply, 128mb RAM and have all your memory settings at max then you may be asking for trouble – the symptoms may be similar to this issue but it’s not the same. If you still get the issue after gong through these suggestions then try the beta patch (if you want to – remember it is BETA).
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VIA Arena Team
Web Media Liaison
VIA Technologies, Inc.
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