G3258 and Windows 10 Problem

[CHorn3]

There seems to be a major problem with the G3258 20th Anniversary Edition and Windows 10. In later Technical Preview builds, INCLUDING 10240 which is the RTM version, overclocking is only permitted on ONE CORE.

Specifically you can run:

1) BOTH cores at 3.2GHz 'stock' speed- this is my current 'workaround'.

2) Any attempt to overclock- however minimally (say 100MHz) on BOTH CORES results in a 'death loop' ("Preparing Automatic Repair" ad nauseam).

3) It is possible to overclock BUT ONLY ON ONE CORE.

Needless to say this is a board sent to market by Intel as something of a (very successful?) PR effort for the Pentium chip's 20th Anniversary and is highly regarded by the enthusiast/gaming community. For them to suddenly find their G3258s won't overclock anymore (and their PCs won't work) after July 29th isn't going to make them very happy. Fingers of blame will start to be pointed. Some manufacturers are aware of the issue (ASRock: http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=441&PID=2071&title=kb3064209-breaks-the-g3258 KB3064209 breaks the G3258 - ASRock Forums), and I've tried to get ASUS to take a look for my H81M-PLUS motherboard.

Microsoft has been made aware of the issue: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_upgrade/win-10-g3258-issue-microcode/2b8ba9bd-24e4-4b4a-8d39-abc738a3dec5?page=2 Win 10 G3258 issue, microcode? - Microsoft Community and there are links to others flagging it in ISisparavanje's post # 2 on the first page there.

I'm not sure this has been sufficiently escalated before Windows 10 officially launches or how to get (more of) Microsoft's attention. Since it relates to an Intel product perhaps Intel has more 'clout' and can flag this to Microsoft better than the community?

Any help appreciated.

[DAstu1]

Thank you for writing this. I attempted the Windows 10 update on my g3258 machine, with success until my system rebooted. The update failed in the "SAFE_OS phase". My machine is overclocked, but I don't see the point of returning to stock, as I bought the g3258 specifically for overclocking.

Some users with the same issue have said returning to stock speeds hasn't worked for them, however returning to stock and disabling one core does. That is a compromise I'm not willing to make and I'm sure a majority of others aren't either. This is a complete outrage. Intel needs to recognize this severe issue with their product and work on a solution with Microsoft.

[RGrim3]

I can concur, my G3258 in a new B85 chip-set MOBO fails to boot under Windows 10 unless I disable 1 core (no over-clocking done at all). The CPU and MOBO are just 4 week old and work fine under Win 8.1. I really hope INTEL and Microsoft can fix this MAJOR issue ASAP. The problem affects at least 4 MOBO manufactures and various INTEL chip-set MOBOs...

[bnika]

i get this, too, but i'm not even overclocked. and i've tried everything from Windows Updates upgrades to ISO upgrades to fresh installs to USB fresh installs to upgrades from activated 7.

the frustrating thing is that Windows 10 was at least usably fine (days-long x264 encodes and half day gaming sessions) in 10130.

[MHoss11]

I am facing this problem as well. I was scratching my head for two days to find a way to upgrade my desktop to windows 10. I had to disable one of the cores and the overclock option in my motherboard bios at the end after going through a lot of comments on the web. Right now, I am using a CPU that is busted thanks to Intel.

It's a shame that Intel tried to act in such a manner. This will only scare their customers as they know that Intel will undermine them in the future again if they get the chance. One might ask why Intel should do something like this when it knows that this is the enthusiasts that spread the word about a certain product. This time they are going to have a hard time explaining why they did something like this and I am sure if they ever attempt to provide us with a fix, they are going to blame one of their engineers for this. This, I am sure, amounts to an anti-trust suit all by itself.

[CHorn3]

Temporary (?) fix here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_upgrade/win-10-g3258-issue-microcode/2b8ba9bd-24e4-4b4a-8d39-abc738a3dec5?page=7&msgId=0be950ef-e359-40f4-96df-70e9ab05b47e&tm=1438523147485 http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_upgrade/win-10-g3258-issue-microcode/2b8ba9bd-24e4-4b4a-8d39-abc738a3dec5?page=7&msgId=0be950ef-e359-40f4-96df-70e9ab05b47e&tm=1438523147485

For me (from this thread):

"I just renamed C:\Windows\System32\mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll to C:\Windows\System32\mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll.bak (and changed permissions to be able to do so- on this file only). And that's ALL I needed to do Win 10-side for my G3258 (aside obviously from setting OC again on all cores in BIOS).

I used http://http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-take-ownership-and-get-full-access-to-files-and-folders-in-windows-10/ http://http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-take-ownership-and-get-full-access-to-files-and-folders-in-windows-10/ and http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-restore-the-trustedinstaller-ownership-in-windows-10/ http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-restore-the-trustedinstaller-ownership-in-windows-10/ to get rights to rename and then restore rights back to TrustedInstaller on this single file only (you probably don't need to restore rights back on the bak file but I do for completeness so everything in the C:\Windows\System32 folder continues to have TrustedInstaller as owner).

So no registry key uploads/editing (other than that performed by the usual Windows interface as described in these links)."

Hope this helps (for now).

[MHoss11]

Good job posting that here as well. I saw the post a few hours ago on the Microsoft community. It's a temporary fix, but that'll should do for now until somebody step up and releases a real fix.

[JLars9]

My system is also affected: a G3258K on a Gigabyte H81M-DS2V MB with no overclocking. I can't install any Windows 10 pre-release beyond 10130 successfully.

Come on Intel--you owe us a fix for this.

[CHorn3]

For everyone's info, someone else asked the pertinent Qs /thread/78003 here.

[CCoff3]

I encountered this issue on Windows 10 launch day, after already experiencing boot failure after KB3064209. Using ASRock H81M motherboard.

For me the problem was resolved when ASRock released BIOS v1.90 on 8/4/15. My suggestion is to keep checking/asking your mobo manufacturer for the necessary BIOS update. Based on my Intel support ticket, Intel seems to be saying that they have released the code, it is up to the motherboard manufacturer to update each BIOS. So maybe the best channel to request this is at the support website for Asus, ASRock, MSI, etc.

[JLars9]

It's great that Asrock fixed this for you, but you might not realize that Asrock accomplished this 'fix' by taking away your ability to overclock your g3258K:

http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=517&title=g3258-on-windows-10-8-5-update http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=517&title=g3258-on-windows-10-8-5-update

As far as I can tell, it's not actually a problem with the motherboards, but rather that Intel released microcode that 'changed the rules' about overclocking this CPU with non z-series boards. Since they sold this CPU specifically as a K-series CPU (i.e. overclocking enabled), they have a duty to support that in their updates.

In this case, the windows update with code from Intel prevents my computer from running, even without overclocking. That means that Intel and Microsoft are responsible for fixing the issue.

[Kevin_M_Intel]

This processor is an unlocked processor and by default settings it is possible to change the configuration.

I will pass this information to the corresponding department to verify what is going.

In the meantime, try updating the BIOS in the motherboard and running the latest drivers.

[JFern23]

I am now using windows 10 on my G3258 processor with h81m-ds2 board. There is now a work around on this issue.

1. First reset bios settings to default and enable only 1 core in bios, running g3258 in stock speed with only 1 core enabled will let you install the windows 10 without any issue like the death loop or SAFE_OS phase with an error during BOOT operation".

2. Install your windows 10 with only one core enable,

3. To enable both cores on windows 10 and overclock your G3258, You have to download and install Take Ownership and follow the instructions on how to rename or delete mcupdate_genuineintel.dll. click on the link http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/ http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

4. After installing Take Ownership go to C:\Windows\System32 and look for mcupdate_genuineintel.dll

5. Right click on mcupdate_genuineintel.dll and select Take ownership

6. After taking ownership of mcupdate_genuineintel.dll, you can either rename it or just delete it. i deleted it and made sure its not in recycle bin as well. Then you uninstall the Take Ownership

7. Go back to your bios settings and re-enable both cores and do your overclocking. You should be able to boot without any issue.

[JLars9]

I tried disabling "mcupdate_genuineintel.dll" to allow me to upgrade past Windows 10 pre-release 10130 (my test machine is running Windows 10 via the Insider's program), but it still does not complete the upgrade to the "TH1 Update 10240".

I also have concerns about what might happen when a Microsoft update 'fixes' the missing file with a restored version--will I happen to see it before the repeated boot loops trash my Windows installation?

[TKeel]

This has worked for me in every case so far:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/windows-10-upgrade-fails-with-0xc1900101-0x20017/db224756-027e-4a5c-83a8-0c8edd156e55 http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/windows-10-upgrade-fails-with-0xc1900101-0x20017/db224756-027e-4a5c-83a8-0c8edd156e55

[TKeel]

For those users who have successfully installed Win10 only after installing a new BIOS update but find that the new BIOS has blocked the ability to overclock, I suggest that you try following the steps in the link below to disable Microsoft's faulty microcode update file, then revert the BIOS back to the previous version. After this you should be able to overclock as desired:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/windows-10-upgrade-fails-with-0xc1900101-0x20017/db224756-027e-4a5c-83a8-0c8edd156e55 http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/windows-10-upgrade-fails-with-0xc1900101-0x20017/db224756-027e-4a5c-83a8-0c8edd156e55

[Ronny_G_Intel]

Hello All,

I am with Intel Customer Support and I am really sorry to hear that you are having such a trouble in getting this combination to work.

Intel is aware of this issue and is validating a solution. It is very possible that the solution will be available through the system manufacturer and we hope to have it very soon.

Regards,

[rsl]

I'm glad intel have finally acknowledged that there is a problem. How are you going to roll out the fix and inform processor owners of it?

[CHorn3]

This now seems sorted, at least in Build 10547 for me (I'm on Insider Preview). Can anyone else confirm?

[Ronny_G_Intel]

Hello All,

Newer BIOS and other fixes (it depends on the computer's manufacturer) to address this issue should be already available.

Please reply back if you are still having issues.

Regards,

[JCorb3]

Hello,

I held off on Windows 10 until everyone seemed happy with it, only to discover the microcode issue (via reboot loop) with the G3258 yesterday. I'm using build 10240, as downloaded a few days ago. I used the "fix" described above and neutralized the "mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll" but I did take a shortcut for the sake of experimentation. YMMV at Your Risk.

0) Downloaded Windows 10 and wrote the ISO to a USB.

1) Updated the BIOS on my ASUS H97I-PLUS to 2701. (This version does not break the overclock, but does reset to factory defaults)

2) Applied the Windows 10 ISO to my Windows 7 OS.

3) Was able to reboot naturally during the OS upgrade using BOTH cores at 3.2GHz.

4) Finished the upgrade successfully and tested stability for 12 hours or so. (movies, internet, ReInstalled my XBox360 Controller driver, nothing stressful)

5) Shutdown Fully using "shutdown /s /t 0" at a command prompt. (regular shutdown leaves the hibernation file intact in this version)

6) Boot into my favourite Linux variety's Live CD. (I used Ubuntu 14.04 x64 Desktop)

7) Mount the OS drive (in my case /dev/sdc3)

8) Browse to the troubled "mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll" and rename it "mcupdate_GenuineIntel.bak"

9) UnMount the OS drive and Reboot without the Live CD.

10) Successfully overclocked to 4.5GHz (on water) without issue. (same overclock settings as before)

Note: Linux does not care about Windows permissions, hence the lack of need to fiddle with permissions hacks.

Since Linux and Windows 7 didn't care about the overclock and the only thing that changed is Windows 10 being applied I see the bulk of the responsibility on Microsoft, without only a small amount being on motherboard manufacturers and Intel. The vendors can cooperate and get it identified, but unless the DLL file in the image is fixed by Microsoft the issue will recur.

Best of Luck.