How About Those Users That Can NOT Get Patches For Meltdown & Spectre?

Hi, montecarlo87,

I'm in the same boat as you. I have a 7year old Gateway DX4831-01e that is EOL and it to runs like a champ, all I can do for now is apply the recent patches that WU (windows update) sends me for the meltdown part of the Intel problem.

Here's what you need to understand:

• Meltdown and Spectre are the two labels applied to the Intel problem.

• Meltdown is being handled by MS (Microsoft) and WU.

• Spectre is being handled by the OEM of each individual user(s) machine(s) because it involves the Intel ME (management engine) and WU can't touch that.

How do you handle your windows updates, have you seen either KB4056894 or KB4056897? You can apply either one to harden your machine. Make sure your OS, AV and browser is up to date.

The one item that I haven't heard anything at all about is; What about all those brand new machines that are sitting in the big box stores that unsuspecting buyers will purchase, are they being alerted before they buy? I could just imagine the drop in sales.
In my opinion they should all be sent back to the OEM to apply the patches, but I'll bet you'll never see that happen.

I'm also waiting for those geek thinkers to come up with an answer, if I hear of anything I'll let you know.

Hi all,
Plus one in the boat.
Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz × 4
Windows,VMware and Linux Mint 18.3 got updates at software level and Mint gave Intel microcode update also as driver on its Driver Manager tool, it is easy and straightforward and it just required a reboot (a rare thing to happen on Linux distros).
As this weird situation goes on, I will change Windows 7 to guest and Mint as host because my old PC is still in a real good shape for my needs. Windows 10, no way unless its behavior changes up to W7 EOL.

itconcerned said:

...Windows 10, no way unless its behavior changes up to W7 EOL.

Even if Win 10 changes to something acceptable before Win 7's EOL, I still won't downgrade to Win 10. I just don't trust Microsoft anymore.

I'm also in the same boat for now, having a Sandybridge-E rig. I'm building a case for a Haswell-E machine (already have the board and CPU) and the board was one of the last ones Asus finally issued a BIOS update for. I don't like any of the boards since Haswell.

In have three perfectly good notebooks that there probably will be no updates for. I'm seriously considering suing Lenovo if they don't come up with one.

Anak said:

Hi, montecarlo87,

I'm in the same boat as you. I have a 7year old Gateway DX4831-01e that is EOL and it to runs like a champ, all I can do for now is apply the recent patches that WU (windows update) sends me for the meltdown part of the Intel problem.

Here's what you need to understand:

• Meltdown and Spectre are the two labels applied to the Intel problem.

• Meltdown is being handled by MS (Microsoft) and WU.

• Spectre is being handled by the OEM of each individual user(s) machine(s) because it involves the Intel ME (management engine) and WU can't touch that.

How do you handle your windows updates, have you seen either KB4056894 or KB4056897? You can apply either one to harden your machine. Make sure your OS, AV and browser is up to date.

The one item that I haven't heard anything at all about is; What about all those brand new machines that are sitting in the big box stores that unsuspecting buyers will purchase, are they being alerted before they buy? I could just imagine the drop in sales.
In my opinion they should all be sent back to the OEM to apply the patches, but I'll bet you'll never see that happen.

I'm also waiting for those geek thinkers to come up with an answer, if I hear of anything I'll let you know.

Good summary about Meltdown and Spectre, thanks Anak...

You can test, if your system has been patched:



My Ivy based system did receive MS update, but Intel is still dragging its feet...

Download the app here:

GRC

It didn't take Steve Gibson long to release this app, that does not require installation. Intel and AMD had over six month and they are still not ready with the patches for older system. And for business reasons ($$$), they'll probably never will...

You're welcome, thank you for the rep!

I'd like to add a caveat to one of my earlier statements:

Spectre is being handled by the OEM of each individual user(s) machine(s) because it involves the Intel ME (management engine) and WU can't touch that.

I'm seeing grumblings that WU could do the spectre updates but, MS and WU would have to work together with Intel and their code to receive the patches, so far Intel is reluctant to reveal their code and don't forget the OEM's, and how they along with Intel massage the Intel code to suit the individual aims of the OEM's.

It would be: MS + Intel + OEM's working together to achieve a fix that wouldn't greatly impact the consumer, but I'm not going to hold my breath because corporate pride would invariably get in the way.

I ran the InSpectre tool and had the same results as you.

Anak said:

You're welcome, thank you for the rep!

I'd like to add a caveat to one of my earlier statements:
I'm seeing grumblings that WU could do the spectre updates but, MS and WU would have to work together with Intel and their code to receive the patches, so far Intel is reluctant to reveal their code and don't forget the OEM's, and how they along with Intel massage the Intel code to suit the individual aims of the OEM's.

It would be: MS + Intel + OEM's working together to achieve a fix that wouldn't greatly impact the consumer, but I'm not going to hold my breath because corporate pride would invariably get in the way.

I ran the InSpectre tool and had the same results as you.

More like corporate greed.

You forgot avarice, but I try to remain neutral.

Anak said:

You forgot avarice, but I try to remain neutral.

According to my Webster's Thesaurus (and yes, it is a dinosaur...sorta), avarice and greed are synonyms of each other.