IBM ThinkPad A31 Reference manual

InterVideo®WinDVD™Incompatibility Issue with Intel® CPU’s
September 20, 2002, document version 1.2
Introduction
InterVideo®WinDVD™is the preferredDVD movie playerfor use on the IBM ThinkPad. Due to an
incompatibility issue with the previous release of the InterVideo WinDVD application and Intel’s latest
CPU revision, some users may find that the WinDVD application is unable to play DVD movies, and may
cause a system crash whenthey attempt to play a movie.
InterVideo has designed the WinDVD application to be portable and useable by many different system
manufacturers. The cause of this failure is due to a legacy CPU detection method in the WinDVD player
which will cause the DVD player to incorrectly identify the Intel® CPU as an AMD® CPU. This failure is
only exposed on the latestrevision of Intel CPU’s.
Beginning 4Q 2002 Intel will begin shipping new revisions of the Mobile Intel® Pentium®4 Processor-
Mand the Mobile Intel® Celeron® Processor.The revision changeshave been designed to have no
impact to end-users. However, a legacy CPU detection scheme utilized in previous release of the
InterVideo WinDVD playerwill incorrectly identify the newrevision of the Intel CPU as an AMD
processor. This incorrect detection will cause a general protectionfault when the WinDVD application is
used.
This document describes the failure condition, ThinkPad systems affected by the change, and the impact of
the failing scenario.
Scope
IBM ThinkPad Models Affected
Intel Corporation has released new revisionsfor the Mobile Intel® Pentium®4 Processor-Mand the
Mobile Intel® Celeron® Processor. Pentium 4 Processor-M revisions are affected on the 1.6GHz,
1.7GHz, 1.8GHz, 1.9GHz, and 2.0GHz speeds. Intel Celeron Processor revisions are affected on the
1.4GHz and 1.5GHz speeds. These processors will be shifted from the current step level of B0 to the new
step level of C1.
The CPU revision changes will be rolled intothe following ThinkPad systems starting October, 2002:
A-series: A31 systems with model number: 2652-xxx, 2653-xxx, 2654-xxx
R-series: R32 systems with model number: 2658-xxx, 2659-xxx, 2677-xxx
T-series: T30 systems with model number: 2366-xxx, 2367-xxx
No other ThinkPad systems are affected by the change.
To determine if you have a C1 revision CPU, you can obtain one of the CPU information utilities available
from www.intel.com.
A Windows based utility is available at:http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/
A DOS based utility is available at:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-
df/Detail_Desc.asp?strState=LIVE&ProductID=49&DwnldID=3088
See Appendix A. for installation information concerning the Intel CPU information utilities.

Detailed Failure Description
InterVideo WinDVD has been designed to take advantage of the hardware acceleration capabilities in both
the Intel Pentium processor and the AMD processor family. Both the Intel and the AMD processors use
unique instruction sets for hardware acceleration. Each application that wishes to take advantage of these
features must detect the CPU’s manufacturer and capabilities to properly utilize the acceleration tools
provided.
The problem is introduced by a change in the Intel CPU identification method when used in conjunction
with a legacy identification technique utilized by InterVideo. Older versionsof WinDVD attempted to
detect the hardware support information by directly accessing a control register on the CPU. Historically,
the control bit which was polled was only used by AMD for detection of AMD’s 3DNow!™acceleration.
Since Intel did not use this control register, it was safe touse this register todetect 3DNow! support. Based
on the results of that polling, the WinDVD application would load either the Intel or the AMD instruction
set.
With the latestrevision of the Intel CPU, (C1 step) Intel has begun using this control register for their own
purposes. When WinDVD attempts to use this register to detect for 3DNow! support the register will be
active and the program will incorrectly assume the processor is an AMD CPU. With the incorrect detection
WinDVD will load the AMD instruction set. When the application passes the AMD instructions to the Intel
CPU, the processor will be unable to process the unknown commands,the application will be halted, and
the operating system may crash.
Impact
Applications Affected in IBM Preload
The only application affected is InterVideo WinDVD. Only versions3.2-41.142 and earlier are affected.
The application will successfully load, but when a DVD movie isplayed the application will cause a
General Protection Fault (crash). The user will be unable to play any DVD movies using the InterVideo
player until they upgrade to version3.2-41.148 or later. Note: A31, T30, and X30 systems will need to
upgrade to version 3.2-B041.148 or later. R32 systems will need upgrade to version 3.2-41.148 or later.
The fix version of the WinDVD player is available on the webfor A31, T30, and X30 systems. The
updated player can be downloaded from: http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR-42309.html (26MB). An
updated player for use with the R32 system will be available on the web at a future date. When the
download becomes available, this document will be updated with the download location.
If you already have an older version of the InterVideo WinDVD player installed, a patch versionis
available at: http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR-44474.html.
Please refer to Appendix B. for information regarding how to determine what version you have installed.

Solutions
Description
The C1 step has not beenshown to cause any other erroneous behavior aside from the InterVideo failure
noted above. The failure is caused by a legacy CPU detection algorithm in older versionsof the InterVideo
application.
For a user who has a system already loaded withInterVideo 3.2-41.142 or earlier, an upgrade patch version
is available at: http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR-44474.html.NOTE: any system manufactured
after October, 2002 will be loaded with an updated preload which contains the new InterVideo player. (See
appendix C. for a list of changes to the preload).
End-user:
If you have a systemwith the Intel C1 step CPU, have InterVideo 3.2-41.142 or earlier installed, and are
unable to download the update from the web, please contact the IBM Helpdesk at 1-800-772-2227.
Enterprise:
Beginning September, 2002 some ThinkPad systems will begin shipping with the new C1 stepping CPU.
For customers who have a DVD or DVD/CD-RW combo drive and use the InterVideo WinDVD player,
the system image will needto be updated to incorporate WinDVD version 3.2-41.148, 3.2-B041.148 or
later.
The fix version WinDVD player is available on the web for A31, T30, and X30 systems. The updated
player can be downloaded from: http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR-42309.html (26MB). Anupdated
player for use with the R32 system will be available on the web at a future date. When the download
becomes available, this document will be updated with the download location.
Conclusion
Limited exposure
For customers using the IBM Preload, only those customers who have purchased one of the affected model
types, have a DVD or CD-RW/DVD combo drive, and use an old version of the InterVideo WinDVD
player to view DVD movies will notice any impact. No other preloaded applications oroperating system
component will be affected.
All ThinkPad systems shipped from IBM with the C1 step CPU will have a fixed version of the WinDVD
application loaded in the preload. No adverse behavior will be noted on this system when used in
conjunction with the latest release of the WinDVD player.
All other users who have an impact to their WinDVD player can download a fixed version of the WinDVD
player from: http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR-42309.html.

Appendix A.–Installing the Intel CPU information utilities
Installing the Windows based utility
To determine what revision Intel CPU is currently installed, refer to the following process:
1) Download the FrequencyID utility from:
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/
2) Launch the downloaded installation file, fidenu21.exe
3) Click “Next” to begin installation.
4) Review the Software License Agreement, and click “Yes” to proceed.
5) After choosing the installation directory, click “Next” to continue.
6) Enter the name of the Program Group you would like to add the Frequency ID utility to (Start
Menu group), and click “Next” to continue.
7) Setup will copy files to your computer, and which finished you be offered the opportunity to
launch the utility, or view the file readme.txt. Make sure the checkbox is marked next to “Launch
the Intel® Frequency ID Utility now”, and click “Finish”.
8) Once the utility launches, click “Accept” on the Software License Agreement to start the
application.
9) Once the application loads, you will see the following screen:

10) After you see the above screen, click on the “CPUID Data” tab to view the CPU information. You
will see a screen similar to:
11) From this screen you can determine your processor stepping information. If you have one of the
affected model types listed above, you can identifyyour CPU by referring to the CPU Model and
CPU Stepping values. ACPU Model value of 2 and a CPU Stepping value of 7 correspond to a
C1 CPU. ACPU Model value of 2 and a CPU Stepping value of 4 correspond to a B1 CPU.

Installing the DOS based utility
To determine what revision Intel CPU is currently installed using only a DOS boot diskette, refer to the
following process:
1) Download the DOS utility from the following location:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-
df/Detail_Desc.asp?strState=LIVE&ProductID=49&DwnldID=3088
2) Save the self-extracting zip file bfid_e16.exe from the above link to a temp directory on your hard
drive. (e.g., C:\TEMP)
3) After the file has finished downloading, insert a blank 1.44MB floppy into your FDD drive.
Important: the floppy disk must contain no other files
4) Launch the bfid_e16.exe to extract the contents. The files contained within this file will all be
extracted to the current directory. If you launched the file from C:\TEMP, all of the files contained
within this archive will be extracted to C:\TEMP.
5) Launch the newly extracted file, SETUP.BAT. This will copy 4 files to your floppy disk, and
make the diskette bootable.
6) Remove the diskette from your host system, and place the diskette into the bootable FDD drive of
the system you would like to check the CPU revision information.
7) At boot time, the diskette will automatically launch the information utility. After accepting the
license agreement, you will see output similar to the following:
_CPUID Data___________________________________________________________
µ
Model: 2
Stepping: 7 µ
8) From this screen you can determine your processor stepping information. If you have one of the
affected model types listed above, you can identify your CPU by referring to the CPU Model and
CPU Stepping values. ACPU Model value of 2 and a CPU Stepping value of 7 correspond to a
C1 CPU. ACPU Model value of 2 and a CPU Stepping value of 4 correspond to a B1 CPU.
Appendix B. –Determining InterVideo WinDVD version
To determine what version of InterVideo WinDVD currently installed, refer to the following process:
1) Click Start, select Programs, select InterVideo WinDVD, and then click InterVideo WinDVD.
The DVD player should open at this time.
2) Right click in the mainDVD Player Panel, and click About. An information window will open at
this time.

3) You can determine the version from the following screen:
4) The numbers displayed after the textWinDVD version represents the major version. In the above
graphic, this is version 3.2. The numbers displayed below the Copyright notice represent the minor
version. In the above graphic, the minorversion is B041.148C14.000.000. Taking a portion of the
minor version, and then combining this with the major version numberwill provide the full
version information. Inthe above graphic the reported full version is 3.2-B041.148.
Appendix C. –Changes in ThinkPad preload
T30 –Preload updates
The following list details the changes that will be introduced on ThinkPadT30 model(s) 2366 shipping
after September, 2002.
Updated drivers:All drivers have been updated to the latest level available on the web. Drivers can be
downloaded from the following location: http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/TPAD-MATRIX.html
Updated applications:The following list details applications that were already installed in the previous
version of the preload, but have been updated to a more recent version.
Note: Optional components infer that this component is not a mandatory update to continue proper
functionality of the system. Mandatory components must be updated to ensure a stable operating
environment.
Updated Applications: Mandatory/Optional
ThinkPad Software Installer Optional
Access ThinkPad Optional
IBM Enhanced Diagnostics Optional
Access Support Connected Client Optional
Naviant Registration Optional
Acrobat Reader Optional
ConfigSafe Optional
ThinkPad Utility Features Optional
Intervideo WinDVD Mandatory
Verital Record Now Optional

New components: The following list details preload components which were not included in the previous
version of the preload, but have been added to the most recent version.
Note: Optional components infer that this component is not a mandatory update to continue proper
functionality of the system. Mandatory components must be updated to ensure a stable operating
environment.
New Components:Mandatory/Optional
Repair Diskettes –Windows 2000 Optional
Rapid Restore PC Optional
IBM Rapid Restore PC Applet Optional
Service Partition Enabler Optional
WinXP QFE –Q318773 (USB Devices fix) Optional
Win2K QFE –Q206455 (Can’t record audio) Optional
WinXP QFE –Q311455 (Cold swap fix) Optional
Win 98 QFE –Q189591 (USB Device resume fix) Optional
Win 98 QFE –Q305037 (Pwr mgmt update) Optional
R32 – Preload updates
The following list details the changes that will be introduced on ThinkPad R32 model(s) 2658, 2659, and
2677 shipping after September, 2002.
Updated drivers:All drivers have been updated to the latest level available on the web. Drivers can be
downloaded from the following location: http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/TPAD-MATRIX.html
Updated applications:The following list details applications that were already installed in the previous
version of the preload, but have been updated to a more recent version.
Note: Optional components infer that this component is not a mandatory update to continue proper
functionality of the system. Mandatory components must be updated to ensure a stable operating
environment.
Updated Applications: Mandatory/Optional
Intervideo WinDVD Mandatory
Veritas Record Now Optional
New components: The following list details preload components which were not included in the previous
version of the preload, but have been added to the most recent version.
Note: Optional components infer that this component is not a mandatory update to continue proper
functionality of the system. Mandatory components must be updated to ensure a stable operating
environment.
New Components:Mandatory/Optional
Rapid Restore PC Optional
IBM Rapid Restore PC Applet Optional
Service Partition Enabler Optional
WinXP QFE -Q317087 (UDMA dock suspend fix) Optional
WinXP QFE -Q318358 (Cardbus from suspend fix) Optional
WinXP QFE -Q309521 (IE/PNP Security update) Optional
WinXP QFE -Q312131 (OOBE Intl Settings) Optional

A31 – Preload updates
The following list details the changes that will be introduced on ThinkPad A31 model(s) 2652, 2653, 2654
shipping after September, 2002.
Updated drivers:All drivers have been updated to the latest level available on the web. Drivers can be
downloaded from the following location: http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/TPAD-MATRIX.html
Updated applications:The following list details applications that were already installed in the previous
version of the preload, but have been updated to a more recent version.
Note: Optional components infer that this component is not a mandatory update to continue proper
functionality of the system. Mandatory components must be updated to ensure a stable operating
environment.
Updated Applications: Mandatory/Optional
Intervideo WinDVD Mandatory
Veritas Record Now Optional
New components: The following list details preload components which were not included in the previous
version of the preload, but have been added to the most recent version.
Note: Optional components infer that this component is not a mandatory update to continue proper
functionality of the system. Mandatory components must be updated to continue
New Components:Mandatory/Optional
Rapid Restore PC Optional
IBM Rapid Restore PC Applet Optional
Service Partition Enabler Optional