Newsletter Archives

• Weird hibernation state on reboot attributed to Win7 patches

  Posted on February 24, 2018 at 07:49 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  We have two reports here on AskWoody of Win7 hibernation (?) problems after installing recent Win7 Monthly Rollups.

  An anonymous poster:

  I installed KB 4074598 on my Windows 7 Desktop PC (I use AMD stuff etc) and it kept putting my PC into a weird hibernation state when trying to restart.. every single time. It wouldn’t show input from the monitors, mouse/keyboard, but the tower would still be running. To get out of this state I had to turn off the PC directly from the button on the tower itself, then turn it back on. It didn’t even do that “windows shut down unexpectedly” thing when you force turn off the PC.

  And a summary of reports on other forums, compliments of @amraybit.

  Looks like the problems started with the January Monthly Rollup, KB 4056894, and continue with this month’s Monthly Rollup KB 4074598. It seems to impact both Intel and AMD chips.

  Ben1907 on the Microsoft Answers forum has had some success, without uninstalling the patch:

  I checked my C-State settings on my ASUS P8P67-M motherboard and they were set to the default settings in the ASUS manual.

  • C1E [enabled]
  • C3 Report [disabled]
  • C6 Report [enabled]

  Playing around by setting different combinations, I found the C1E enabled/disabled did not matter, so left it enabled. However, by setting C6 Report to DISABLED, I have now been able to perform a normal restart/reboot from Windows 7. Tried at least half dozen times and all good so far.

  Thanks for investigating this and putting me on the right path to correct this issue. Microsoft has caused me so many lost hours of troubleshooting problems they inject with updates you wonder if they have any quality control.

  Indeed.

  Windows Patches/Security c-state, hibernation state, KB 4056894, KB 4074598, reboot, Win7

• Microsoft yanks all of this month’s Windows patches for “devices with impacted AMD processors”

  Posted on January 9, 2018 at 05:49 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Let’s hear it for beta testing.

  Early this morning, Microsoft officially announced that it was pulling all of this month’s Meltdown/Spectre patches for folks with AMD processors.

  That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  UPDATE: Kevin Beaumont has a sobering report on the status of antivirus vendors cooperating (or not) with Microsoft:

  this has been incredibly messy for everybody involved. My belief is organisations shouldn’t rush these patches out. They need to carefully test and see where they need to mitigate the vulnerability.

  As I’ve said many, many times before, there’s no reason to install any of the patches yet. In spite of what you saw on TV, or read in the newspaper — or what you heard from a Windows security “expert.”

  Windows Patches/Security AMD, KB 4056888, KB 4056890, KB 4056891, KB 4056892, KB 4056893, KB 4056894, KB 4056897, KB 4056898

• Widespread reports of blue screens (0X000000C4 and 0x800f0845) with Meltdown/Spectre patches for Win7 (KB 4056894) and Win10 1709 (KB 4056892)

  Posted on January 8, 2018 at 06:14 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Several AMD processor series – Athlon, Sempron, Opteron and Turion — seem most at risk, but others are reporting problems.

  Thx to @abbodi86 for the info about the difference between version 1 and version 2 of KB 4056894 — only the metadata changed, not the patches themselves.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Windows Patches/Security KB 4056894

• Multiple reports of blue screens (BSODs) 0X000000C4 when installing the January Win7 Monthly Rollup KB 4056894

  Posted on January 5, 2018 at 17:01 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  We’ve seen many reports here on AskWoody.

  There’s also a thread on Reddit. More on MyDigitalLife.

  Some reports are detailed. Some are — well, they’re complaints. If you can imagine. AMD machines are being pinpointed.

  If you hit a blue screen, or you know someone who did, please post about it here. Include your processor type (Intel or AMD), which version of Windows you’re using, which antivirus you’re using, and whether you installed the patch manually or via Windows Update.

  UPDATE: Lots and lots of reported problems.

  TechNet: Blue Screen after KB4056894

  Answers Forum: STOP: 0x000000C4 after installing KB4056894 – 2018-01 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for WIndows 7 for x64 

  Overclockers UK: Warning on KB4056894 (Intel/AMD) Fix caused Operton Bluescreen/STOP

  Reddit: Problems with Windows 7 Quality Rollup (KB4056894)

  Thanks for the links, everyone.

  Windows Patches/Security 0X000000C4, January 2018 Black Tuesday, KB 4056894

• Reaffirming that we’re still at MS-DEFCON 2

  Posted on January 5, 2018 at 08:28 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  There’s still no pressing reason to install the early crop of Patch Tuesday patches.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Correction: @teroalhonen notes that there’s no such thing as Win10 1511 LTSC. He’s right, my Computerworld article’s wrong. Win10 1511 is supported through April 2018, but only for Enterprise and Education editions.

  But that brings up a related question. Why are the Surface firmware updates only going out to 1703 and 1709? What about 1607 and 1511? They’re both being supported.

  UPDATE: We have a report of a BSOD with the Win7 32-bit patch. Details to follow.

  Windows Patches/Security KB 4056888, KB 4056890, KB 4056891, KB 4056892, KB 4056893, KB 4056894, KB 4056897, KB 4056898, MS-DEFCON 2