Widcomm Uninstalltion wipes out the computer. New Virus or Windows Voulnerability.

Anonymous
2010-07-09T05:33:11+00:00

VERY SERIOUS BUG/VULNERABILITY WIDCOMM BLUETOOTH SOFTWARE

Uninstalling Widcomm bluetooth software from control panel wipes out all data, programs and the boot sector on the computer.

I have tried to report this to microsoft but can't find out how. Please report this to the appropirate department.

I have windows 7 home premium. I tried to update my widcomm bluetooth software by downloading and installing the upgrade. The installation fails giving error 1935. After that the existing widcomm software becomes nonoperational. I tried to uninstall the widcomm bluetooth software from control panel the message "please wait while windows configures Bluetooth software". As it works all files from the hard drive are deleted, the desktop becomes empty, all open programs are deleted, all app data is deleted, the start menu becomes empty and finally it asks to reboot. After reboot the computer gives boot error message and does not boot up.

I had to install windows again to get the computer working. All data was lost. The anti virus was up to date and recent scans were all good. Windows was up to date. It appears that the error is from windows uninstaller some how going haywire when trying to remove widcomm bluetooth software. After restoring my computer I installed widcomm bluetooth software, copied the hard drive and tried to uninstall widcomm again. Results were exactly the same and I got screen shots from the beginning to the end. I have tried it on multiple computers with the same results (cloned the disk before)

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2011-02-05T00:50:32+00:00

Hi widcommbug,

yes, things are getting wild here...I don´t know why.

Maybe I can help you, here is what I did- and it worked:

  1. I´ve deinstalled all versions of widcomm bluetooth software with the windows program deinstallation in the system tools.
  2. I´ve restarted the PC
  3. I´ve cleaned up the registry with a tool (I do not rely on any, I´ve used registry mechanic, which is the same as Norton Utillities 14- but it works more or less)
  4. I´ve downloaded the latest version of widcomm bluethooth software here:

http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f237/widcomm-bluetooth-driver-6-4-0-670-a-1197332/ 

click on "deposit files", and you´ll get version 6.3.0.7000 of Lenovo widcomm bluetooth software which is the same

as original widcomm bluetooth.

  1. Download it.
  2. Extract it to a folder
  3. Only use the file Broadcom_Bluetooth_6.4.0.670.exe out of the zip archive. Drop the rest.
  4. If you´ll click on this .exe file you´ll only get some weird screen all filled up with ????, so you´ll have to use a different way:
  5. Exctract Broadcom_Bluetooth_6.4.0.670.exe once again to a folder and then click on the file setup.exe

Then, the software will install correctly.

Well, this is weird, agreed. I found it out only a few trials. Remember, this software is leaked from Lenovo, but

it is the latest version I found, it is 100% Widcomm Bluetooth Software.

Here you have prove of what Widcomm is doing:

It does not provide the latest widcomm bluetooth software for free, but only for notebook manufacturers.

Widcomm doesn´t give a single hint on this policy on their homepage- private customers seem to be

unimportant for Widcomm- and still no amendment with the update bug in this software- really poor.

But no way to kid me.

BR

Andy

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-11-14T15:06:19+00:00

    I unistalled the widcomm bluetooth software from the control panel then windows fell apart and I couldn't access anything so I restarted and got the oxc000000f error message saying it was caused by a bad driver. This is not fair and caused me to fail two midterms. This happened to me on two days ago, I lost all of my data since my last backup 8 months ago, I am going to pursue legal action.

    The driver that i for some reason had actually backed up on a separate partition is called 6.2.0.9450-9600, also I was running windows 7 hp 64

    I also used recuva to get some of my files back but I only got the ones I deleted myself.

    I called asus technical support and they told me that they don't recover data. they refferred me to geeksquad,

    Now I am pissed off and i am going to stop buying windows based computers.

    How could it possibly delete all my files and programs in five minutes?

    This is the first time I wasnt able to recover my data after many years of virus's and malware. I can't believe widcomm is better at screwing me over than computer hackers.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-11-13T19:48:17+00:00

    I just had this exact same thing happen, I had 6.2.1.800 

    Basically, I had drivers for my Targus ACBUS10 BT adapter(cheap lil 10$ job) installed on my Windows 7 Ultimate. I had trouble getting the Audio Gateway working, reinstalling the same driver package didnt seem to work. So I uninstalled a different driver package(6.2.1.800) With the WIDCOMM utility included. Everything seemed to work good enough, there was this obnoxious error that popped up semi-frequently about my bluetooth drivers not having the correct license for the operating system. I dealt with it for a few months then today I decided to uninstall it.

    It stopped at the window "Configuring your Bluetooth Drivers" or something like that, some pre-uninstallation message. It stayed there for a good while. I then noticed the game I was playing just sort of....froze, and stopped responding. I tried to bring up another instance of the same game but got a blank error message. I checked the installation folder, and noticed ALL the files except the primary DLL for that game had been deleted. It scares me how it managed to delete everything except the executing assembly, WHILE the program was running.

    I freaked out, rebooted my PC, and tried the uninstallation again. I quickly figured out what was going on and killed msiexec.exe in task manager and the random deletions stopped.

    My PC, as it sits, basically has nothing installed, and several components of the OS just plain missing. It still seems to boot fine, fortunately. So at least I can recover my important stuff easilly before I re-install windows.

    The funny thing is, I don't think Windows ever managed to delete files that fast even when I wanted it to.

    ON AN IMPORTANT NOTE: I noticed that all the files that were deleted werent actually damaged(aside from them being marked "deleted" of course) I was able to easilly recover them using Recuva. If this happens and important files are missing, the best thing you can do is pull the plug ASAP, rip the drive out, slave it to another computer and undelete your files. As anyone here will tell you, the longer windows is left running, the greater the chance those deleted files will be overwritten and destroyed.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-10-27T03:07:09+00:00

    I have an important update. On my spare PC I upgrageded to Widcomm 6.3.0.6800 (the latest version) which went fine and then uninstalled it which also went on fine. Looks like they have fixed the issue but anyone who has 6.2.1.2100 or earlier may still be at risk and who knows if this issue comes back with future versions. Even their lastest version has a bug. After upgrade if you check for another update it again trys to download and install 6.3.0.6800 over and over again. I tried 4 times and each time it downloaded the same version, uninstalled and reinstalled the same version again. Bottom line people behind this programing are idiots.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-10-24T10:12:52+00:00

    "widcommbug" wrote in message news:dea18280-f213-491a-8cb6-71d2fb0e4a00...

    The issue is not with updating or upgrading. It happens if you try to remove the damn thing from your computer by uninstalling it through the control panel. I am not updating or doing any changes to my BT software until this issue is resolved.

    My recommendation would be to completely uninstall the BT (British Telecom) software - it's mostly fluff anyhow.

    Get a decent Anti-Virus (MSE is as good as most), install it, and run a full system scan

    --


    Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth

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