Windows Update

Windows 7 64. The following Important Update showed up by itself "AMD
SMBus". What is it and should I install it.

Roy Colson wrote:
AMD SMBus
https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=cr&ei...#q=AMD+SMBus&*

Roy Colson wrote:
Windows 7 64. The following Important Update showed up by itself "AMD
SMBus". What is it and should I install it.

Microsoft has been randomly leaking hardware drivers
for a while. There have been a bunch of Intel ones as well.
Rather than being "some sort of necessity", it appears
to be a process problem with the staff at Windows update.

*******

As for the SMBus, that stands for System Management Bus.
At the moment, the memory DIMMs in your computer connect to
that bus. When a program like CPU-Z collects information about
your RAM DIMMs, it would be reading over that bus. Each DIMM
has a declaration PROM, a small 8 pin chip on the DIMM,
and that's what they read out.

The SMBus used to be used at one time, for hardware monitor readings.
But, it isn't compatible with multi-processing - if two programs
write to the bus at the same time, the second operation can corrupt
(truncate) the first operation. And over time, functions have
been moved off SMBus and onto LPC (Low Pin Count - nibble wide
33MHz bus). The LPC bus has the SuperI/O (and its associated
hardware monitor), as well as things like the BIOS chip can
sit on that bus. But they're not going to change the
DIMMs to sit on that bus.

I would say the update was "mostly irrelevant", as your
Device Manager probably already has an entry for SMBus in
the System section, and it probably already has a working driver
for it. And the chances of that needing an "update",
are slim to none. Maybe it's needed for Ryzen, but then,
a bunch of companies swore an oath not to support it on Win7,
so how would that work ? :-)

*******

All I can tell you Roy, is if I see stuff like that
in Windows Update, I *avoid it*. Drivers delivered
that way are nothing but trouble. Like the time some
touchpad driver was offered in Windows Update, and
anyone who installed it, their keyboard stopped
working. That one was pulled after around half a day.

There's some reason Microsoft is doing this, but
"rational" is not the first word that comes to mind.

Paul

On 4/1/2017 8:22 AM, Roy Colson wrote:
Windows 7 64. The following Important Update showed up by itself "AMD
SMBus". What is it and should I install it.


That is an update for a non-Microsoft hardware driver. I NEVER accept
such updates from Microsoft. Given the number of times Microsoft has
released Windows updates that replace prior Windows updates (some of
which replaced even older updates), I just do not trust Microsoft to
provide the latest correct updates from other companies.

Instead, I go to the Web sites of the manufacturers to check for updates
to their drivers.

--
David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com

Consider:
* Most state mandate that drivers have liability insurance.
* Employers are mandated to have worker's compensation insurance.
* If you live in a flood zone, flood insurance is mandatory.
* If your home has a mortgage, fire insurance is mandatory.

Why then is mandatory health insurance so bad??

On Sat, 1 Apr 2017 12:12:11 -0700, "David E. Ross"
wrote in

On 4/1/2017 8:22 AM, Roy Colson wrote:
Windows 7 64. The following Important Update showed up by itself "AMD
SMBus". What is it and should I install it.


That is an update for a non-Microsoft hardware driver. I NEVER accept
such updates from Microsoft. Given the number of times Microsoft has
released Windows updates that replace prior Windows updates (some of
which replaced even older updates), I just do not trust Microsoft to
provide the latest correct updates from other companies.

Instead, I go to the Web sites of the manufacturers to check for updates
to their drivers.

+1
--
Web based forums are like subscribing to 10 different newspapers
and having to visit 10 different news stands to pickup each one.
Email list-server groups and USENET are like having all of those
newspapers delivered to your door every morning.

On 01/04/2017 20:12, David E. Ross wrote:
Instead, I go to the Web sites of the manufacturers to check for
updates to their drivers.

That is why people call you the most stupid person on the internet
because you don't understand that it is not in the interest of
manufacturers bottom line to give you latest drivers for new operating
system while Microsoft is better placed to give you because it has
access to nearly 500 million devices and can easily create something
quickly to make sure its latest operating system runs correctly on old
machines.



--

If you want to filter all of my posts then please read this article:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/organize-your-messages-using-filters
In step 7 select "Delete"

With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

In message , Good Guy
writes:
On 01/04/2017 20:12, David E. Ross wrote:
Instead, I go to the Web sites of the manufacturers to check for
updates to their drivers.

That is why people call you the most stupid person on the internet
because you don't understand that it is not in the interest of
manufacturers bottom line to give you latest drivers for new operating
system while Microsoft is better placed to give you because it has
access to nearly 500 million devices and can easily create something
quickly to make sure its latest operating system runs correctly on old
machines.

Experience has shown that driver "updates" from Microsoft have often
caused problems, which getting an updated driver from the manufacturer
have at least sometimes cured.

It _is_ in the interest of manufacturers to make sure they provide
drivers, at least for _relatively_ recent hardware; it affects their
reputation, which can affect their bottom line. Certainly, I wouldn't
expect most manufacturers to provide drivers for new OSs for hardware
that ceased production several OSs ago (though some do to a surprising
extent).

Microsoft's "access" to 500 million (or whatever other figure one might
pluck out of the air) is mostly one-way: they don't know if the updates
they push out actually _work_ on those devices.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

No, I haven't changed my mind - I'm perfectly happy with the one I have, thank
you.