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Win95 bug could spread to other CPU platforms than AMD

Intel and Cyrix are unsure

A software problem with Windows 95 that prevented AMD K6-2s from working properly may have the same effects on Intel processors. And even Cyrix CPUs may be affected. The software bug in Windows 95, which Microsoft claims it has fixed, means that K6-2 processors can crash at start-up. But the software problem is not just confined to AMD processors, according to a senior software engineer. He told The Register there is no conceivable reason why the Win95 bug should just affect AMD chips. Microsoft has refused to make the $35 patch freely available, insisting that users have to go through official channels to obtain it. The technologist said: "The bug seems to be with Win95 (not the K6-2 CPU), and will happen with Pentium II CPUs as well, once these get faster. By the way, this is not the first time timing bugs has occurred. Early versions of programs written with Borland's Turbo Pascal DOS compiler will crash on fast CPUs." Fast, he said, included Pentium-class CPUs. An Intel representative said: "So far there is no issue. I've had no information on this problem occurring with the Pentium II family." And a Cyrix representative said: "We've had no information about this at all." Meanwhile, a large VAR in the US, said that it had the IOS problem on a K6-2 350MHz and could not find the patch on Microsoft's site. He said: "We couldn't find the patch so we called Microsoft and to get the patch they were telling us that we would have to set up a phone support service account which would cost us $US35. We thought this quite ridiculous." And another end user told The Register that the patch Microsoft employs is only for OSR2.0 and refuses to install on the original version of Windows 95 which he has. He said: "So do I upgrade to Win98 at some cost or to OSR2, which is illegal because Microsoft doesn't sell OSR2?" Microsoft has still not responded to the questions we asked it three days ago. ® Related Stories

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