Microsoft software update breaks Windows 7 on some PCs

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KevinRush

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Microsoft software update breaks Windows 7 on some PCs

#1

Post by KevinRush » Thu May 05, 2016 9:35 pm

Hello,

Has anyone had a problem with their HTPC because of this? See: http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-soft ... ome-users/
My HTPC has stopped booting and I'm looking into what the problem might be. I came across this article and thought that I would find it mentioned here on the The Green Button.

Maybe it''s unrelated?

Thoughts?

Space

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#2

Post by Space » Thu May 05, 2016 10:49 pm

It looks like it is KB3133977 that causes the problem and you just need to disable "Secure Boot" in the BIOS to allow the PC to boot up.

Apparently some Asus motherboard have Secure Boot enabled by default, but I assume any motherboard with this enabled would have the same problem.

Does your PC complain about a Secure Boot violation? If so, then follow the steps to disable Secure Boot in your BIOS.

If it is not complaining about Secure Boot, or you disable Secure Boot in the BIOS and still have the problem, then it is probably unrelated.

EDIT: I just checked my Windows 7 x64 HTPC (it has an Asus MB) and I see that I do not have KB3133977 installed (but it is pending to be installed). I went in to my BIOS and saw that "Secure Boot" was enabled, so I disabled it and rebooted. Everything in WMC seems to be working (previously recorded copyOnce recordings play fine), so I currently don't see any ill effects to disabling Secure Boot on my Windows 7 HTPC.

I still haven't decided whether or not to install KB3133977. With "Secure Boot" disabled it should cause no problems, but having to remember to "Hide" it each time I go to update my system could be a pain (if it decides to unhide itself like the win10 upgrade ones do all the time). Since this is only a WMC machine, it probably does no other harm to not install it, so I probably wont.

glugglug

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#3

Post by glugglug » Sat May 07, 2016 2:36 pm

I got this annoying message about unauthorized changes and had to disable secure boot. Had initially attributed it to the tuner firmware upgrade, as it happened to trigger on the boot immediately after that, which was probably the first time in a year or so I did a shutdown and restart instead of just restart.

I DON'T have automatic updates enabled, especially with how I've grown to distrust the updates as of late, instead looking at the descriptions and googling each one before installing. Yet during the shutdown and restart I had to wait for updates to be applied. I remember reading that 3133977 description a month or two ago, but don't remember there being the part about Asus motherboards at the time, so may have installed it then?

Space

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#4

Post by Space » Sat May 07, 2016 3:09 pm

I usually install the updates from Microsoft, just to keep my system current with all the patches. I have it set to notify me of the updates, but not to install them automatically. I usually wait several weeks before I install anything, monitoring these forums for any reports of problems with the updates.

Technically, it is my understanding that having "Secure Boot" turned on in your BIOS should have always caused Windows 7 boot to fail, as Windows 7 does not support it. It is not clear why there was no problem with having this turned on prior to installing KB3133977. I've seen some speculation that Asus built a check in to the BIOS to check for Win7 and to automatically disable "Secure Boot" if it was detected. Apparently KB3133977 changed something that made the BIOS not think it was Win7 anymore. It's not clear why Asus just didn't have the BIOS default to "Secure Boot" being disabled.

KB3133977 was originally an "optional" update, it just recently became "recommended", so you may have installed it when it was "optional". It originally had no warning about "Secure Boot" or Asus motherboards.

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DavidinCT

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#5

Post by DavidinCT » Thu May 26, 2016 5:44 pm

and I am glad I have Windows Updates DISABLED on my Home Theater PC.... As I have said, to keep it stable, If it "Aint" broke, DONT fix...including updates
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

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camelopardis

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#6

Post by camelopardis » Sat Jul 23, 2016 12:15 pm

I now have a Windows server on my home lan running WSUS... no more WMC-breaking patches or Windows 10 surprise upgrades for me!

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