Windows Update patch causes BSOD on select HP desktop computers

CSIT has received reports from about 6 employees (mostly staff) this morning that their HP desktop computers “blue screened” this morning.  That is, the computers failed to boot and instead displayed the blue screen message reporting a system error.  It became clear as the reports came in that the issue with confined to certain HP desktop models running Windows 10 Pro and all displayed the same error or stop code.  Instance of this issue have so far been reported in Smith-Curtis, Burt Hall and Weary.

After some research, we narrowed the issue down to a device driver problem.  Steve Lepert was able to isolate the source of the problem and the fix.  In brief, the source of the problem was a combination of bad patches pushed by Windows Update.  The first bad patch was distributed to computers with specific hardware profiles a couple of weeks ago.  A second patch was pushed within the past couple of days intended to correct the previous one.  If a computer received the first patch, it would pull the second one; otherwise it would not receive the second patch.

If your HP desktop computer displays the BSOD, please report the issue to CSIT.  The fix is relatively quick to implement and has reliably resolved the issue so far.