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Installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 sends some PCs into an endless series of reboots, according to posts to a Microsoft support forum.

Jesper Johansson, a former program manager for security policy at Microsoft Corp. and a prominent Windows blogger, has worked with users to tentatively identify the problem as involving only machines using processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Messages from frustrated users began accumulating on the XP SP3 support newsgroup Wednesday, just a day after Microsoft released the update to the general public.

"I just installed Windows XP SP3 and after completing the processes and when the system reboots, the system cannot proceed to load the Windows," said a user identified as "Olin" in a message that kicked off a long thread. "It just displays the flash screen of Windows then after it reboots again."

Most users who left messages on the forum said that they were unable to boot into Windows Safe mode — a last-ditch way to sidestep the normal boot process for troubleshooting purposes — or revert to a previously saved System Restore point.

Some were understandably upset. "Way to go, Microsoft, releasing the pile of dung called SP3 that hoses your system so bad even Safe Mode isn't working!" said a user identified as Mike Voss. "Props to your QA guys, they certainly have done their job."

Johansson, who watched one of his PCs repeatedly reboot after installing XP SP3, traded accounts with several other users on the newsgroup and summarized the results on his blog.

According to Johansson, there appears to be two separate issues. One affects only AMD-equipped PCs sold by Hewlett-Packard Co. "The problem is that HP, apparently along with other OEMs, deploys the same image to Intel-based computers that they do to AMD-based computers," said Johansson. "Because the image for both Intel and AMD is the same, all have the intelppm.sys driver installed and running. That driver provides power management on Intel-based computers. On an AMD-based computer, amdk8.sys provides the same functionality."

Running the intelppm.sys driver on an AMD-powered PC isn't normally an issue, but on the first reboot after a service pack installation, it causes "a big problem," Johansson said. The machine either fails to boot or crashes and immediately reboots.

The other problem, according to Johansson, also seems to affect only AMD machines, and involves an error message indicating trouble with the PC's BIOS. Johansson said that the ensuing recommendation to update the BIOS is "most likely not your problem," but said that the problem may be isolated to a specific motherboard. "Possibly, it is related to computers with the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard in them," he said.

Johansson also spelled out workarounds for both problems on his blog. The HP issue can be solved by disabling the intelppm.sys driver, while the second fix requires the user to plug in a USB flash drive before booting.

A Microsoft spokeswoman on Friday said the company was aware of the problems and was looking into them. Earlier, someone identified as a Microsoft employee on the support forum had asked users to e-mail him information about the PC's system configuration and whether they were able to enter Safe mode, and to submit event viewer logs. But the company declined to offer any fixes for the time being. "Until Microsoft completes our investigation into this reported issue, we can't confirm the validity of any proposed solution or work-around," the spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

This isn't the first endless reboot problem Microsoft's faced in relation to a service pack recently. In February, the company pulled a Windows Vista SP1 prerequisite update from automatic delivery because it was crippling some machines.

BioWare technical producer Derek French has said that the PC versions of both Mass Effect and Spore will make use of copy protection that will require online validation every ten days in order for the games to continue working.

"After the first activation, SecuROM requires that [Mass Effect PC] re-check with the server within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez'd and gets banned)," said French in a post on the BioWare forums.

If customers do not come online after ten days, the game will cease to function.

"After 10 days a re-check is required before the game can run," added French. "..An internet connection is not required to install, just to activate the first time, and every 10 days after."

The check is run when users activate the game's executable file, with the first re-check coming within "5 days remaining in the 10 day window."

According to French, Maxis' Spore will also make use of the same scheme: "[Electronic Arts] is ready for us and getting ready for Spore, which will use the same system."

French also noted that the online requirement will be clearly labelled on the games' packaging.

Source:ShackNews

COD4 DE_DUST
Version: Beta
Map size: Medium
Game type: DM, TDM, SD, DOM, SAB

Download:http://www.codutility.com/index.php?...ion&dl_id=2898

COD 4 New Maps and Feedback - Page 3 - T.O.C. Clan Forums

Download:Here

COD 4 New Maps and Feedback - Page 3 - T.O.C. Clan Forums

MP_FACTORY
This is a very nice urban map.
Version: Beta
Map size: Large
Game type: DM, TDM, SD, HQ, CTF, DOM, SAB
Author: OSZ.LoSt.BoY

Installation Instructions:
Place all your files in the "C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\usermaps\mp_factory" directory.
If the folder does not exist, create it
Download

COD 4 New Maps and Feedback - Page 3 - T.O.C. Clan Forums

Call of Duty 4 DLC Map Pack Hands-On

If you're tired of Middle Eastern villages and Russian forests, take heart: Infinity Ward has some shiny new battlefields on the way soon.

 

Last year was exceptionally strong for first-person shooters. Yet despite being one of the latest genre releases in the year, Call of Duty 4 towered over its competition. There are so many shooters released these days that it's hard to stick with an online community for more than a few weeks, but even months later, we're still obsessively playing COD4's addictive online mode with no end in sight. So we counted ourselves among the incredibly fortunate when we headed down to developer Infinity Ward's Southern California offices recently to check out the game's first downloadable map pack, which is coming later this spring.

Broadcast is taken from and expanded upon the Iraqi TV station mission in COD4's single-player campaign.

We got a chance to chat with IW community relations manager Robert Bowling--better known to COD4 diehards by his online handle, "fourzerotwo"--about the pending downloadable maps. The first thing he told us was the first thing we wanted to hear about this pack: The Middle Eastern and Russian environments will no longer comprise the entirety of the retail game's lineup. Now that the team has moved on from the single-player campaign (and has time to work up some new art assets), we can expect to see new Call of Duty 4 maps set in entirely new locations separate from the original game.

Well, except one of the maps in this pack. It's called Broadcast and is lifted from the Iraqi campaign "Charlie Don't Surf," in which you assault a television station where the enemy is holed up. Don't think the team just copied and pasted the campaign map into this multiplayer pack, though. It does contain the iconic, cavernous main room with its dozens of computer monitors and TV screens, as well as a big map of the world on the wall. We can tell you from experience that that's a great place for multiplayer firefights, with all those cubicles to duck down behind and all that equipment just waiting to get shot up by you or your opponents. A large-scale multiplayer match concentrated in that room is going to be serious calamity.

But Broadcast has been expanded significantly throughout its incarnation in the campaign. There are multiple routes into and out of that main room. Some routes lead up to the building's second floor, replete with smaller rooms and hallways. The map is mostly indoors, so air strikes and helicopters will be largely ineffectual--except up on the roof, which you can access from the second floor, as well as in the expanded parking lot area outside the main building. On the other side of that parking lot is another new, smaller building that you can hide out in as well.

The second map we played is entirely new, and it's named Creek. But there's a lot more to it than a simple babbling brook. This is a very large-scale outdoor map with a small cluster of houses on one side of it. In the middle, there's a huge ravine circling the perimeter with multiple levels of pathways up its side. Down below, the trail leads along the eponymous creek bed to a waterfall. Elsewhere along the base of the ravine, there's a lengthy and winding cave that cuts underneath the hill then out to the other side. As big as it is, there are a lot of places to go on this map; from prone sniping atop the cliff face to hiding out behind a rock in the tunnel, you never know where an opponent will be attacking you.

Creek is a massive original map with a high ravine, cliffside pathways, and a tunnel through the base of the hill.

Broadcast naturally looks exactly like COD4's campaign, but Infinity Ward's artists have done a nice pass on Creek to give it a distinctive look, with rocky terrain and various sorts of foliage that are more verdant than what you've seen in the previous Russian maps. It all feels a little sunnier and more pleasant than the game's other forested maps, too--at least until you catch a slug between your teeth. Because there's so much underbrush and shrubbery on top of the cliffs here, Bowling pointed out that it's a great map for you to use the sniper's ghillie suit for blending in while going for some sneaky kills.

There will actually be four maps in the final pack, though we can only really tell you about these two. The other two will be Chinatown, which is pretty self-explanatory, and Killhouse, which is a "bonus" map that we didn't get any hard details on (though we were told to think of the single-player campaign's initial training level as a reference). The map pack will be available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the coming months for an unspecified price. But interestingly, Infinity Ward hasn't decided how the maps will be distributed on the PC, where players are much more expectant of postrelease bonus content being released for free. Realistically, Call of Duty 4's multiplayer is so absurdly good that would have gladly handed over cash for whatever maps the designers could have phoned in--so we're especially glad to see them putting so much time and care into this first release.

Call of Duty 4 DLC Map Pack Hands-On - PC News at GameSpot

Release The Breakout,looks very nice

Download links
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AS43LO9V
http://files.totalgamingnetwork.com/...+The+Breakout/
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AS43LO9V

COD 4 New Maps and Feedback - Page 2 - T.O.C. Clan Forums