Microsoft has stopped serving a security patch that has apparently triggered the infamous Microsoft Blue Screen of Death for a number of Windows XP users.
"We are still investigating this but I wanted to provide some additional clarity on what I mean when I said we stopped offering the update via Windows Update," said Jerry Bryant, senior security communications manager lead in a post in The Microsoft Security Response Center. "To be more precise, we basically turned off the Automatic Update system for this bulletin. This means that computers that have our recommended setting to automatically look for, download, and install high priority updates, will not pull this update down."
The Windows XP Blue Screen of Death issues surfaced after Microsoft released a record 13-patch security update for its February Patch Tuesday repairing what it called 26 vulnerabilities in its Windows operating system and Office productivity software.
The decision to stop serving the suspected patch came after a flurry of complaints from Windows XP users that had updated their systems.
"When my wife downloaded Windows update it shut the Acer Aspire down and only the blue screen comes up," complained a user on the Microsoft Answers forum. "We can only see the Safemode screen and thats (sic) about all. We tried to reboot with the proper disk and nothing happens when we hit Enter. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jack."
"I am glad to see that I am not the only one having the same problem," wrote another frustrated user. "I had to go to work and use my MACINTOSH (sic) to get on line to find out what is going on with the XP updates last night. I got the exact same page fault error!!! I am this much closer to switching over to a MACINTOSH for good."
At least one user that had his system crippled is considering moving to Windows 7.
"Impossible to get it to boot by any means," wrote the user. "Have turned off Auto Update on all other PCs - fortunately only the one (my main one) is effected (sic). I'll be really annoyed if I have to do a clean install (as I have so much software and updates and patches on it). If I have to do that I may as well go for Win 7 :-(."
Kevin Hau, a moderator in the Microsoft Answer forum, advised users that the patch that needs to be uninstalled to resolve the Blue Screen issue is KB977165.
"We have found that there is only one patch that requires un-installation to resolve the blue screen issue," wrote Hau. "KB977165 is the patch in question, the other patches do not seem to cause the blue screen behaviour and do not need to be uninstalled."
Hau advised users to:
1. Boot from your Windows XP CD or DVD and start the recovery console.
2. Once you are in the Repair Screen, type this command: CHDIR $NtUninstallKB977165$\spuninst.
3. Type this command: BATCH spuninst.txt.
4. When complete, type this command: exit.
One user this morning was still having problems after attempting the fix.
"Since my first restart after performing the recent Microsoft update, I can't boot up--so pretty sure I have the bug attributed to KB977165 in the update," wrote the user. "I've gotten to my recovery screen, but when I type in-- CHDIR $NtUninstallKB977165$\spuninst -- it responds "path or file directory not valid". I've tried all the KBs that came w/ the update and I'm getting the same response. What could I be doing wrong?"
