Bug found in Windows 7 RTM, delay rumors exaggerated

[Jos]

Microsoft today made the finalized version of Windows 7 available for download to TechNet and MSDN subscribers, announcing the right-on-schedule delivery on the official Windows Blog. At the same time, however, a recently-discovered memory bug is threatening to spoil the milestone as several sites are picking up the story and speculating about a possible launch delay.

While the bug has been called everything from critical to catastrophic, Windows division president Steven Sinofsky claims it is far from being a show stopper and joked about the blogosphere blowing things out of proportion.

The flaw is triggered when users run the CHKDSK command with the /r switch, which is designed to locate and repair bad sectors on a disk. According to reports, this should result in your memory quickly gobbled away by the chkdsk.exe process until it either stops at or around 90% or it maxes completely out and crashes the computer. Though it is said to affect both 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, it’s also not reproducible 100% of the time and apparently only affects systems with multiple hard drives or partitions.

Sinofsky still acknowledged the alleged flaw is something they must look into and that, for affected users, simply updating chipset drivers from the PC motherboard manufacturer may take care of the problem. Hopefully a fix will come ahead of the Windows 7 launch, but even if it doesn’t apparently it’s not serious enough to derail plans of an October 22 release.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/35748-bug-found-in-windows-7-rtm-delay-rumors-exaggerated.html

 

[JudaZ]

Yeah even though its is a bad problem, its not that big of a deal if you know about the issue. You normaly only run chkdsk if there is a problem, and as I see it you can just as well run chkdsk from a XP CD or similar in that case, until MS releases a fix.

 

[tengeta]

Its just one of many future Windows Updates, big deal.

 

[Darth Shiv]

tengeta said:
Its just one of many future Windows Updates, big deal.

That is a poor attitude to take to bugs. Anyone with pride in their work developing would not be happy this type of bug slipped through or fob it off as "just another bug, big deal".

 

[Wendig0]

Darth Shiv said:

tengeta said:
Its just one of many future Windows Updates, big deal.

That is a poor attitude to take to bugs. Anyone with pride in their work developing would not be happy this type of bug slipped through or fob it off as "just another bug, big deal".

So true.

 

[Zeromus]

If my software got out with a major bug. I'd simply respond "oh ****" and give the indication that I'm doing all I can to fix it.

 

[JudaZ]

Darth Shiv said:

tengeta said:
Its just one of many future Windows Updates, big deal.

That is a poor attitude to take to bugs. Anyone with pride in their work developing would not be happy this type of bug slipped through or fob it off as "just another bug, big deal".

Well I agree, there is to little pride in peoples job nowadays. Finding problems with a product is never good, and of cource MS will fix it, I just think its been blow a bit out of proportion.

Chkdsk is a utility, not a crucial part of the operating system..
It's bad if it doeasnt work, but its stil lnot a critical think.
It's not a security flaw, a critical update in MS language,
there for it will hardly change the release date of Windows 7

I'm sure they can fix chkdsk before the release

 

[tengeta]

It was sarcasm, I'm just that used to it being in Windows is all.

 

[IanDSamson]

As if CHKDSK is such an important program! I am sure there will be many more bugs found - there has never been a bug-free release of M$ software that isn't quickly followed up by a Service Pack.
As for M$ giving away free copies of Windows 7 Ultimate to their beta-testers, I checked with Microsoft South Africa and I am still waiting for a response. Sounds like that was nothing but hot air too.
As for the Microsoft Shop Logo, they could have used the Vista logo instead. It is far nicer. The one they have decided upon shows a real lack of vision, imagination, creativity ... much like everything else they produce.

 

[yukka]

I am not a hater but this is a shame that such a low level program has a bug. Does this mean that us techies will refer to Windows 7 as the disk with the broken chkdsk for years to come?

Imagine trying to get a knackered PC working, doing a system repair using the Windows disk which would strip it of all its updates then running chkdsk to try to get the drive fixed, only to have chkdsk crash. You need to get a copy of Vista or XP install disk to run chkdsk from a blank install when you dont have a net connection or dont want to put your computer on the net for whatever reason?

Its a shame for sure. An update via microsoft.com wont work unless we can slipstream it into the installation media and return the disk to its "usable utility disk" status.

 

[Guest]

Don`t worry people i`am on it it will be fixed soon untill then use the leaked windows 7 msdn version with the orbit30 loader, i thank you for your patiance in this matter.

yours sincerely

Microsoft
CEO.

Steve Ballmer