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Thanks Ascaris for the suggestion, but it didn’t help. I used Rufus before, and it may have been set for the MBR mode, so I redid two flash drives, one with Linux Mint, and one with Puppy Linux, and I definitely set it UEFI/GPT mode. But the result was the same– a black screen and frozen computer.  Linux won’t boot with CSM off, and Windows won’t boot with CSM enabled.

FWIW, trying Linux from a live boot is not as easy as some suggest. I have read that the major Linux versions will work just fine with Secure Boot. In my case I got a “boot failure” message every time I tried to boot from USB. So I disabled Secure Boot. Then Linux would start to boot, get to the grub menu, then freeze the computer with a black screen. I finally found that I could get Linux to run by enabling the CSM boot option in the BIOS. But then I discovered that with CSM enabled, Windows would not boot! I managed to get back into the BIOS settings, disabled CSM, and now all is back to normal. If my laptop is still working two years from now, when support for Windows 8.1 ends, I may revisit Linux. Until then, I don’t need the aggravation!

Is there any evidence of telemetry c*** in the 8.1 security-only July patch, or is it just in Win7?

Well, today Windows Update found the Win Defender update on both of my Win8.1 computers, for the first time in 11 days.  Whatever the glitch was it seems to have gone away.  Thanks, Microfix, for your replies.

Since my first post I have updated Win Defender with the full update file (mpam-fe.exe), and I installed the Servicing Stack update (KB4504418), but still Windows Update does not find the Win Defender definition updates.  It seems like Microsoft changed something coincident with last patch Tuesday.  Since this situation began  on two Win8.1 computers at the same time, I find it hard to believe that it’s an issue with my computers. Is Windows Update still finding Windows Defender updates on anybody else’s Win 8.1 computer?