Windows 8.1 Update Crippling PCs With BSOD, Microsoft Suggests You Roll Back 304
MojoKid writes Right on schedule, Microsoft rolled-out an onslaught of patches for its "Patch Tuesday" last week, and despite the fact that it wasn't the true "Update 2" for Windows 8.1 many of us were hoping for, updates are generally worth snatching up. Since the patch rollout, it's been discovered that four individual updates are causing random BSoD issues for its users, with KB2982791, a kernel-mode related driver, being the biggest culprit. Because of the bug's severity, Microsoft is recommending that anyone who updated go and uninstall a couple of the specific updates, or rollback using Windows Restore. You can uninstall these updates in much the same way you uninstall any app; the difference is that once you're in the "Programs and Features" section, you'll need to click on "View installed updates" on the left. While it's mostly recommended that you uninstall 2982791, you may wish to uninstall the others as well, just in case.
For some it was just a plain black screen (Score:5, Interesting)
For some it was just a plain black screen with no errors displayed (win 8.1 x64) , same fixes though:
http://answers.microsoft.com/e... [microsoft.com]
Re:It isn't only Windows 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't try to "fathom" anything. Just turn off automatic updates, and you'll be a bit safer.
Microsoft doesn't pay attention to that any more. Before I nuked 8.1 and replaced it with Mint, they had at least 5 forced updates that wrecked my wife's laptop.
Field day for hackers. (Score:4, Interesting)
They fired 30% of their testers (Score:5, Interesting)
The Windows Serviceability team (dealing with updates) was decimated in the middle of last month, losing about 30% of their testers. This outcome is not surprising at all. Expect things to get much worse soon.
For Win9, MS should go back to Service Packs... (Score:5, Interesting)
Instead of getting a SP for Windows 8, we now have 8.1. Instead of getting SPs for Windows 8.1, we now have 8.1 Update 1 and 8.1 August Update. We have updates that come through the "Store" app. This is one of the reasons (granted, not the primary one) why the uptake of Windows 8.x is now slower than Vista's uptake [infoworld.com] some ~2 years post-RTM, and why Windows 7 is gaining market share, at the expense of XP and Vista. Companies don't want this model and the headaches that go along with it.
So, for Win9, just go back to a Service Pack model and make everybody happy. Yes, SPs cost a lot of money to put out, and yes MS ends up looking old-school, but the rigor with testing is (presumed to be) significantly higher than some rushed, "little" update. Windows 8.x is broken, and Microsoft keeps pitching a newer, faster cycle of feature updates, but this just proves they are incapable of properly handling such a model... Microsoft: you are not Apple, and you don't have to try to emulate them.
As for myself, so far my two Win8.1 installations (one x86, one x64) and one of 2012R2 in a VM are not showing problems from these updates... But I have only myself to blame for not waiting a few extra days. Of course, now MS will have to come up with an out-of-band fix (with even less testing) within the next ~3 weeks or will have to have 2 sets of patches for September's Patch Tuesday--one for those who haven't uninstalled these updates and one for those who have. Pure stupidity...
Re:It's pretty hard to roll back automated updates (Score:5, Interesting)
I hadn't realised it was an update which caused the error, so when I finally resorted to system restore it just auto-updated immediately and broke again.
Rule number 1 = Dont use system restore
Rule number 2 = Dont use system restore
Rule number 3 = Google "Stop 0x0000000e" error code on your BSOD.
Rule number 4 = Remember the last thing you did before the BSOD started happening, reverse the process. Job fixed.
One thing I learned: Disable fast boot, if it's enabled, on your Windows machine. Your startup time will be a little slower, but you might just save that time if something ever goes wrong with your Windows install and system restore fails.
All fastboot does is skip a few bios checks (eg: fast memory scan instead of full). It will not effect anything else, unless you have a hardware fault which can be detected at BIOS post.
Apparently a Ubuntu boot dvd cannot mount an NTFS partition with write enabled if a hiberfile.sys is present (apparently windows leaves its mounts active and stored in said file, so modifying the file system would cause problems).
Sounds like the Ubuntu DVD doesnt include NTFS-3G which is required for NTFS write ability on linux. Or simply its a safey feature to prevent you deleting the hibernation file.
The only time you need to keep this file is if your machine is in hibernation and powered off. Only then will it contain possible data your working on that isnt technically saved. If you wernt in hibernation when you powered the machine off, the file is just a placeholder for the next hibernation.
Re:How about (Score:1, Interesting)