boot stops at Applying Intel IA32 Microcode update

[Shea,Dan [NCR]]

Upgraded to kernel-2.4.21-32.0.1.EL.i686.rpm and kernel-smp-2.4.21-32.0.1.EL.i686.rpm from kernel-smp-2.4.21-20.EL.i686.rpm.
The server is a PowerEdge 6650 with 4 GB of memory and 4 cpu's.  It has an emulex Fibre optic card and runs PowerPath.
Once I upgraded it would stop booting at "Applying Intel IA32 Microcode update" with the smp kernel.  I then tried the single cpu kernel and it did boot.  I added the emulex modules and powerpath modules.  It did boot up afterwards and then it stopped after a day.  It would complain at the same place in the bootup process.
Trying to trooubleshoot this I can boot using init=/bain/bash.  I have tried going back to the older kernel and it fails at the same place.
Below is an oops message .  
Can someone shed any light?
Would a bios upgrade fix this?
Could it a bad cpu?

Dan.


Applying Intel IA32 Microcode update: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address b4b23ae4
*pde = 00000000
Oops: 0000
microcode lpfcdfc lpfc ide-scsi ide-cd cdrom loop keybdev mousedev hid input usb-ohci usbcore ext3 jbd lvm-m
CPU:    0
EIP:    0060:[<f8c2d742>]    Not tainted
EFLAGS: 00010086

EIP is at do_update_one [microcode] 0x52 (2.4.21-32.0.1.EL/i686)
eax: f8c32030   ebx: f8c2e560   ecx: 00000079   edx: 00000000
esi: 00000000   edi: 00000286   ebp: 00033000   esp: f6f71f50
ds: 0068   es: 0068   ss: 0068
Process microcode_ctl (pid: 368, stackpage=f6f71000)
Stack: 00001000 00000000 00000000 00000000 f8c2e560 f8c2e560 00000000 ffffffea
       f8c2d80c 00000000 f8c2e560 00033000 f8c2d87e f7fee000 00000292 00000000
       f74f3e00 c0154b03 f74f3e00 b6e45008 00033000 f74f3e20 f7fee000 08752008
Call Trace:   [<f8c2e560>] microcode_update_lock [microcode] 0x0 (0xf6f71f60)
[<f8c2e560>] microcode_update_lock [microcode] 0x0 (0xf6f71f64)
[<f8c2d80c>] do_microcode_update [microcode] 0x7c (0xf6f71f70)
[<f8c2e560>] microcode_update_lock [microcode] 0x0 (0xf6f71f78)
[<f8c2d87e>] microcode_write [microcode] 0x6e (0xf6f71f80)
[<c0154b03>] sys_write [kernel] 0xa3 (0xf6f71f94)

Code: 0f 30 be 8b 00 00 00 31 c0 89 f1 0f 30 0f a2 89 f1 0f 32 31

Kernel panic: Fatal exception