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

Anonymous

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)

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Anonymous

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:

I´ve deinstalled all versions of widcomm bluetooth software with the windows program deinstallation in the system tools.
I´ve restarted the PC
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)
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.

Download it.
Extract it to a folder
Only use the file Broadcom_Bluetooth_6.4.0.670.exe out of the zip archive. Drop the rest.
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:
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.

Andy

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97 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-12-05T18:09:06+00:00

There is a solution to the "destroy all disk contents" issue when using updating the Bluetooth software but unfortunately, by the time someone runs into the problem their data is gone! It's hard to believe that this problem is still out there, destroying data and no one at Broadcom or Microsoft has bothered to pursue a fix. Unless you have a backup of your data, there isn't much hope. Once I was able to restore my data, the way to update the software is to go to the Add/Remove programs option in Control Panel and remove the package BEFORE running the installation of the update. Since the software is already uninstalled, the uninstaller that goes rogue and eats your data won't be invoked and you can just reinstall the latest version. That worked for me and I can tell you I was VERY nervous during the install. But it worked and that is the only way I know of to get the software updated: Uninstall from Control Panel and then re-install.

Bummer you had to go through this. All of us who posted here know your pain......
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Anonymous

2015-01-23T00:39:01+00:00

So...... this happened to me too.

bluetooth wasn't working, so I unsinstalled WIDCOMM Bluetooth from the control panel.

Now I lost 90% of my files, programs and everything. This is ridiculous. I am interested to know if this is an issue with the WIDCOMM uninstaller or windows. I need to know who is supposed to pay me compensation if I can't recover the files. I did not install this program. It was installed when setting up my laptop. This is unacceptable.

well said--sue them-maybe they will then start CARING
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Anonymous

2015-07-04T07:29:14+00:00

Just wanting to add this also happened to me, on Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Tried to reinstall WIDCOMM Bluetooth drivers using the standard setup program, it said it was "removing old version", took 5-10 min, when it was done almost everything on the windows drive was deleted, system unrecoverable (and worse, I'm on OEM & manufacturer is gone, "official" win7 ISOs are gone. looking forward to the rigmarole ahead).

Do not use WIDCOMM drivers or software.
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Anonymous

2015-09-14T21:19:13+00:00

Just happened to me. Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit; Dell Inspiron N5010. Incredible.

I was able to get my disk image restored using an external drive, because I have been using Carbonite. The process was difficult and at first (and second and third) appeared to fail, such that the process took several days, basically due to defective Carbonite documentation. I would encourage folks to use something other than Carbonite. I will be moving to a different backup provider.
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