Newsletter Archives

• KB 2670838 “Platform Update” crashing systems

  Posted on March 2, 2013 at 22:02 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  KB 2670838 was released last Tuesday, as part of the second Black Tuesday in February. (Microsoft generally releases non-security-related patches on the fourth Tuesday of the month.)

  Commenter FTWMike noted, “I find it interesting that yesterday “Platform Update for Windows 7 x64-Edition (KB2670838)” was listed as an ‘Important’ and today it’s ‘Optional’ or did I imagine yesterday?”

  You didn’t imagine anything, FTWMike…

  If you had Automatic Update turned on last Tuesday or Wednesday, and you’re running Windows 7 Service Pack 1, you may wonder why Internet Explorer is tossing up a blue screen, “PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA,” blaming the problem on igdpmd64.sys .

  Guess what? Microsoft screwed up the patch. Gosh.

  At first, it looked like the problem only appeared on laptops with hybrid graphics . Now it’s starting to look like desktops are affected too, with or without hybrid graphics.

  An announcement just went up. It appears to come from an official Microsoft source, but there’s some confusion at this moment as to whether the person who posted the announcement represents Microsoft in some way. Anyway, here’s what the post says: “Microsoft is aware of an issue some customers are experiencing when installing KB2670838 on certain laptop systems with hybrid graphics. We are looking into the situation and are considering blocking the update for systems that could be affected. Customers who are experiencing issues on systems that already have installed the update should consider uninstalling KB2670838.”

  At this point, nobody seems to know what caused the problem, but MS is in the process of pulling the patch.

  Full details on the MS Answers blog.

  And the next time somebody tells you it’s OK to turn on Microsoft Automatic Update, you should quote JMBE on that thread: “Same Problem, Pavilion Notebook G7 With ATI Radeon card 6470M card, no update possible voor Card, blue screen. I had to buy new Notebook to do my work. Of topic next time it becomes A Mac”

  UPDATE: More details on my InfoWorld Tech Watch post.

  Windows Patches/Security February 2013 second Black Tuesday, KB 2670838