cameo wrote:
Thanks, Paul. This fix restored my PC to the state it was before this
failed update, but that still leaves the question what to do when the
update shows up again. And it just did this morning with pending
download and install. Luckily my setup does not allow automatic updates
though. Hopefully MS releases a fixed version of this patch, but how do
I know it is a fixed one or the same bad one?
I also read somewhere that this patch might actually need a hardware
and/or firmware fix, too. I just don't see HP or AMD doing it for my old
Pavilion notebook. Anyway, this is what showed up again this morning:
2018-01 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 for x64-based
Systems (KB4056894)
Download size: 231.4 MB
You may need to restart your computer for this update to take effect.
Update type: Important
A security issue has been identified in a Microsoft software product
that could affect your system. You can help protect your system by
installing this update from Microsoft. For a complete listing of the
issues that are included in this update, see the associated Microsoft
Knowledge Base article. After you install this update, you may have to
restart your system.
More information:
http://support.microsoft.com/help/4056894
Help and Support:
http://support.microsoft.com/help/4056894
Now that the machine is upright again, make a backup.
Things I might try:
1) Clean up WinSXS
2) Download the update from catalog.update.microsoft.com and install it.
This is to bypass SoftwareDistribution folder issues, or at least
attempt to do that.
On Windows 8 or Windows 10, the following would be possible
for step (1).
*******
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
/CheckHealth - This switch option only checks to see if a component
corruption marker is already present in the registry.
It is just a quick way to see if corruption currently
exists, and to inform you if there is corruption. It
does not fix anything or create a log.
This should be finished almost instantaneous.
/ScanHealth - This switch option does not fix any corruption.
It only checks for component store corruption and records
that corruption to the log file.
This is useful for only logging what, if any, corruption
exists. This should take around 5-10 minutes to finish.
/RestoreHealth - This switch option checks for component store corruption,
records the corruption to the log file, and FIXES the
image corruption using Windows Update. This should take
around 10-15 minutes up to a few hours to finish depending
on the level of corruption.
*******
However, on Windows 7, DISM is not set up to automatically contact
Microsoft and verify files. While the Windows 8/10 users get to use
DISM, the Windows 7 user needs to download a 300MB+ "CheckSUR" package.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/...date-readiness
(Scroll down until you see...
"For Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008"
A second thing you can look at, is "sfc /scannow", and it checks
what is hardlinked from WinSXS into System32. You need to provide
the command with a file set reference, so you'll have to research
the syntax on Win7. On Win8/Win10, there's a better chance of
automation to help.
After that, when you have a clean bill of health on WinSXS,
try manually installing the borked update using a .msu file
from catalog.update.microsoft.com.
I have to mention these steps, because there's no indication
what's broken, or why it chose your machine to brick. There's
got to be something in the file set on your machine, which is
different from others who got a successful update. If there was
a real problem, it would have showed up on sites like Askwoody.
*******
And actually yes, the radar shows there is trouble for *AMD* users.
Here is a bread crumb, with a series of links to reports of BSOD.
https://www.askwoody.com/2018/multip...up-kb-4056894/
So maybe you should go through the evidence collected there first,
before the "script reader" DISM and SFC steps :-) It's possible
this patch just wasn't tested well enough.
Paul