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February 20, 2008 (Computerworld)
Responding to reports of endlessly rebooting PCs that flooded
support newsgroups last week, Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it
had pulled an update designed to prep Windows Vista for Service
Pack 1.
Although the update -- actually a pair of prerequisite files
that modify Vista's install components -- has been temporarily
pulled from Windows Update, Microsoft has not yet produced a fix
for users whose machines either won't boot or reboot
constantly.
"Immediately after receiving reports of this error, we made the
decision to temporarily suspend automatic distribution of the
update to avoid further customer impact while we investigate
possible causes," said Nick.
White, a Vista program manager, in a post to the company's blog Tuesday afternoon.
White downplayed the problem. "So far, we've been able to
determine that this problem only affects a small number of
customers in unique circumstances. We are working to identify
possible solutions and will make the update available again shortly
after we address the issue."
According to White, Update 937287 was the cause of the problem.
In a support document, Microsoft describes that update as
one for Vista's installation software, "the component that handles
the installation and the removal of software updates, language
packs, optional Windows features and service packs." Along with a
companion update pushed to users starting Feb. 12 and another that
was offered to machines running Vista Ultimate and Vista Business
in January, the guilty update is required before Vista can be
upgraded to Service Pack 1 (SP1).
Shortly after the two prerequisites hit Windows Update last
week, users began reporting problems on Microsoft's support
newsgroups. Most said that the update hung as the message
"Configuring Updates Step 3 of 3 -- 0% Complete" appeared on the
screen. When users rebooted hoping to clear the error, their PCs
went into an endless cycle of reboots. A smaller number of users
said that their computers refused to boot normally.
Some users have been able to regain control by booting from a
Vista install DVD and selecting the "Restore from a previous
restore point" option.
It's uncertain whether Microsoft knows exactly why Update 937287
is hammering PCs. Even after White posted the company statement to
the Vista blog, Darrell Gorter, a Microsoft employee, was asking
users to send him system logs. "I still need more log files for the
investigations that we are doing," Gorter said in a message on the
support newsgroup. Late last week, Gorter made a similar request on
the same message board.
Also unclear is the actual extent of the problem. Although White
called the number "small," the traffic on the Vista SP1 newsgroup
is heavy. One thread had been viewed more than 35,500 times by late
Tuesday.
But the problem is not new. Computerworld has found
messages describing the endless reboot problem dated Dec. 13, one
day after it first offered a Vista SP1 release candidate to the
general public. That build of SP1 also required the prerequisite
updates, including 937287.
Microsoft was not available for comment Tuesday night to answer
questions about whether, and if so how, the snafu will impact its
plans to start offering SP1 to most users next month. Currently,
only beta testers, Volume Licensing customers, and subscribers to
TechNet Plus and Microsoft Developer Network have been able to
download legal versions of the service pack.
That will change in mid-March when SP1 is set to land on Windows
Update as an optional update, and again in mid-April when Microsoft
said it would start installing SP1 automatically on most PCs
running Vista.