Warning AMD Ryzen Users Microsoft Installing Update Automatically That Bricks Your PC

[ltron]

If you have AMD Ryzen and click check for updates today then Microsoft automatically installs the AMD SCSI Adapter 9.3.0.221 driver which renders your system unbootable: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/n6synx/driver_from_microsoft_via_windows_updates/

This happened to me today and I got a blue screen with inaccessible boot device after this driver was installed. My Gigabyte motherboard got confused as a result and restored the old version F4 from the backup BIOS deleting all my profiles and settings, so I'm not best pleased. A startup repair fixes the issue.

I have a Gigabyte X570 Master, whether it's a Gigabyte thing I don't know.

 

[ltron]

Thanks for the warning, I have a GB X570. I’ll be vigilant now.

Yes, don't click 'check for updates', that was my undoing. I finally realised that my Gigabyte board got stuck in the backup BIOS, fiddling with the switches on my X570 Master allowed me to force it to boot from the main BIOS again (I'm not sure that the less high end Gigabyte boards have these switches in which case you'd be stuck using the backup BIOS forever), but I still needed to clear the CMOS as my board was giving F9 and 0d errors when starting from cold.

Gigabyte's automated recovery procedure from an inaccessible boot device is extremely overzealous but I think I've sorted it out now.

 

[ltron]

At some point and/or for some users it will be installed automatically in the background unless/until it gets pulled and even then MS has a habit of re-issuing the same broken or "fixed" but broken in other ways update later.

Can't believe there are still people who defend the approach to updates in 10.

EDIT: Unless MS has changed it recently you can't stop Windows 10 doing driver updates via the advanced option - people keep saying it does but all that does is change how much additional software is installed with a driver update.

They used to put certain drivers under optional updates, but for the first time a few weeks ago I noticed Microsoft had started force installing said supposed optional driver updates (one was a newer PSP driver than the one in the latest AMD chipset drivers and the other was some weird AMD driver thing that I've never seen before that has now got a PCI bus entry in Device Manager). I hope they reconsider this utterly stupid policy and go back to how they were doing it before, particularly if they are not testing them (it's clear that they are not).

With this AMD SCSI device they didn't even bother to put it under optional updates, it was just installed automatically after clicking 'check for updates'.

 

[ltron]

For the hell of it I checked update and it was there for me. I went ahead and, sure enough, I had a blue screen on reboot with the inaccessible boot device error.

Startup repair did not work in my case and the only way I could recover windows was to restore from a restore point. Luckily the last restore point was only 2 days ago and I haven't really lost anything.

That's good, but I'm surprised Microsoft haven't pulled the update given how severe the problems are. Also, good your board didn't have a fit like mine, sorting out all the Dual BIOS problems was not fun. It's strange that Startup Repair worked and removed the driver for me.

 

[ltron]

Well, it did really as the BIOS was reset several times while I was trying to get it back to life. The main difference is that I only have a single BIOS so it was probably easier for me to resolve.

Oh good, yes the dual BIOS was the problem. I didn't realise the Elite had single BIOS. This is a case where dual BIOS is very much a hindrance rather than a help, if I didn't have those switches I'd be screwed.

 

[ltron]

I don't think I have ever had a driver update in win updates, they've always come under the bracket of optional, and you have to actively click them, but I have an MSI MB.

They used to do that, but in the last few weeks they've been force installing them (some driver updates that were in the optional section started installing one day automatically).

 

[ltron]

I have a dual BIOS on my Gigabyte motherboard but I always have the switch on the motherboard set to 'Single BIOS' instead of the default 'Dual BIOS' setting. Buildzoid also recommend this until you actually need it.

I also use W10Privacy to disable auto updates as well as other bits of 'telemetry' that send info back to Microsoft.

That's a good idea since it seems too easy to trigger the backup BIOS.