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Crashing Windows 10 1903

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Bret Harrell, User (Posts: 5)
Jun 28, 2019 11:51:27 pm EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Came into the office this morning with a portion of my Windows 10 desktops sitting on a black screen with a spinning pinwheel.  Reimaged them and after doing Windows updates and rebooting they crashed again... On 2nd reboot after updates they sit at the spinning wheel screen forever.  I originally thought this was a 1903 issue as I rolled it out early this month.  After imaging and installing fresh Windows from a USB drive for 9 hours on a handfull of working - and trying different combinations of removing GPO's - I finally isolated the cause as Remote Utilities Host 6.10.9.0 - which I had recently deployed.

This only crashes a portion of my desktops - not all of them.  However, my 6.10.9.0 host MSI file will crash a fresh install of 1903 (April edition) on the 2nd reboot.  The fact this was a little intermittent made it extremely difficult to track down.

I've used Remote Utilities for years with no issues - but I'm looking for other options after today!
Attached Files
Crashing Windows 10 1903
Adam Savacool, User (Posts: 2)
Jun 29, 2019 12:42:26 am EDT
Having the same exact issue on Windows 10 1903 after installing cumulative updates for May and June. Took hours to track down the issue. Only happens to certain 1903 installations.

Using msconfig to disable startup of Remote Utilities - Host allows update to complete and reboot to login screen normally. All hosts are 6.10.9.0.
Edited:nachthorn4 - Jun 29, 2019 12:46:19 am EDT
Conrad Sallian, Support (Posts: 3049)
Jun 29, 2019 4:37:06 am EDT
Hello,

Thank you for reporting this. We will immediately test and see if we can reproduce the issue and what might be the cause.
Conrad Sallian, Support (Posts: 3049)
Jun 29, 2019 7:08:37 am EDT
Hello again,

It seems that this problem occurs with updates KB4503293 and KB4501375 on some systems. Here is an article on the subject https://windowsreport.com/kb4503293-boot-up-display-issues/ . Quote:

Soon after Microsoft pushed KB4503293, Windows 10 users started to complain about booting issues on Microsoft’s forums. At the time of writing this article, there is no official workaround for this bug.

Therefore, if you have not installed the update yet, it is better to pause the updates for a few days. Otherwise, you may experience some serious issues after installing KB4503293.

We will still see if we can somehow rectify this problem on our end though.
Bret Harrell, User (Posts: 5)
Jun 29, 2019 1:17:16 pm EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Thank you for the response.

I still have a few PCs that are stuck on the black screen.  Most of the others have been reinstalled fr om images or startup repair was able to work.  Interestingly, on some of them the "remove latest Windows update" works, and on others it says it can't remove because there's an installation in progress.  System restore has caused other problems thogh like workstations losing their domain trust.

How the heck do you get into safe mode in Windows 10 when the OS doesn't boot?  Even booting from the W10 1903 ISO under startup repair advanced options the safe mode or startup settings item is missing.  The Internet tells me to pull power on boot up and after a few times a different screen should comesup - but in my case that doesn't seem to work.  

Booting into command prompt and trying this:
Wmic Product wh ere name=”Remote Utilities - Host” call uninstall /nointeractive
doesn't work either - though it will work on the systems which are booted and have not yet crashed.

This is a horrible situation!!!
Bret Harrell, User (Posts: 5)
Jun 29, 2019 11:14:36 pm EDT
Support level: Free or trial
Would also like to point out that Remote Utilities 6.10.9.0 has repeatedly crashed fresh installs of W10 1903.  Over the past 2 days I've installed W10 1903 about 20-25 times testing this.  I have not had a single crash on a computer which does not have 6.10.9.0 installed.  So in my case - I'm attributing 100% of my black-screened PCs to Remote Utilities.  
Steps to crash a PC:
1.  Install 1903 (April 2019 version)
2.  Install Remote Utilties 6.10.9.0
3.  Reboot
4.  Install 1st round of Windows patches
5.  Reboot
6.  Spinning Wheel of death
Leave out the step of installing Remote Utilities and the computer will not crash.
Conrad Sallian, Support (Posts: 3049)
Jul 01, 2019 3:01:23 pm EDT
Hello Bret,

We investigated this issue and it looks like we got to the root of the problem. When a certain function is called in one of the core RU code components/libraries it causes the whole system to crash. This bug is triggered when rebooting after installing updates KB4503293 and KB4501375 and not on each and every system, at least not in our testing.

We have reported this problem to Microsoft and hopefully they will fix. Meanwhile, here is what can be done to reduce the impact of this issue:

- Before applying these updates set the Remote Utilities Host service startup to "Manual" and then after successful updates return it back to Auto.

or, if the update has already started and there is a spinning wheel use Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart the system (or use the Reset button) - the updates should still install after the system restarts.

Hope that helps. As I said, unfortunately this is a problem beyond our control but we will do our best to reach to Microsoft and see if they can fix the problem. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Thanks.
Bret Harrell, User (Posts: 5)
Jul 01, 2019 3:50:12 pm EDT
Support level: Free or trial
I don't think you are understanding the severity of this.  Once the PC has the spinning wheel it's pretty much trashed.  A simple reboot does not fix the problem!!  (I would not be complaining if it was that simple!!!!!)  I've explained this in my previous posts.  Sometimes startup repair will fix it, but not always.  Sometimes startup repair can roll back the update, but not always.

None of my PCs have any problems with Windows Updates when Remote Utilities is not installed.  And I can reproduce this problem with Remote Utilities on multiple PCs 100% of the time with the steps I outlined above by starting with a fresh 1903 install, installing Remote Utilities, and then Windows Updates.

So - you have a version of Remote Utilities that will brick W10 1903 when updates (automatically) install.   I think you need to take a little stronger action here to fix the problem and prevent your other customers from having their PCs bricked because of a conflict between your software and Windows updates.

The only reason most of my PCs were not bricked was because I was lucky enough to have an older version of Remote Utilities still running on many PCs.
Conrad Sallian, Support (Posts: 3049)
Jul 01, 2019 4:08:17 pm EDT
Hello Bret,

I understand your frustration. Remote Utilities didn't "brick" previous Windows installations until these updates came out. Isn't this a clear indication of a bug with updates then? As I said, we reported this bug to Microsoft but so far this is all we can do.
Mac Wilson, User (Posts: 10)
Jul 01, 2019 6:41:38 pm EDT
I had this problem a lot also.  Didn't realise it was related to Remote Utilities.  

To get windows back I have to power it off 3 times during the boot up to force start up repair then can
select boot into safe mode with networking.  

Then just rebooting will roll back the update (sometimes had to do this twice).  

Then run the “Show or Hide Updates” troubleshooter to disable that update.
wushowhide.diagcab Show or Hide Updates

Will have to try setting the RU host service to manual next time.
Edited:Mac Wilson - Jul 01, 2019 6:46:48 pm EDT

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