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
    2010-09-15T06:16:51+00:00

    Well, when you do go to uninstall it, in the hope of being able to re-install a newer version, then it will wipe out your PC.

    Considering that Broadcom has such a huge portion of the bluetooth market, someone should really try to get this posted to slashdot.org in the hope that the problem will get some attention and be fixed. This problem must of course be destroying the computers of thousands of Broadcom customers. At minimum, the antivirus companies should be blocking the software at the point where it starts deleting user data.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-10-19T23:21:16+00:00

    There is definitely a problem..  Same thing just happened to me on a thinkpad t410.  uninstalled the drivers after i tried to update and LOST ALL OF MY FILES... I REMOVE HARD DRIVE AND PUT IN ANOTHER COMPUTER... NOTHING THERE.....Something is bad wrong here......

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-10-23T12:12:23+00:00

    I just experienced this problem as well on a brand new Dell Latitude E6510 running Windows 7 Pro 64bit. As a matter of fact, it was Dell tech support that caused this issue. I simply called Dell for a bluetooth problem, they remoted in, attempted a Brodcom driver upgrade and received the same error. During the update, I noticed it was taking a very long time to complete the installation (hard disk light was spinning but progress bar was going nowhere - so the Dell rep recommended a reboot and after bringing the system back up, nothing worked, programs attempted to re-install, Symantec EndPoint kept popping up looking for the installation files folder etc. , Upon closer examination, I noticed most of my directories and files were gone.

    There were no viruses or maleware on this laptop. It was brand new and installed with the full suite of Symantec Endpoint. It never left our office (behind the firewall). Other than the Bluetooth issue, it never had any problems and was operating at 100%. I am extremely frustrated that I now need to spend my entire weekend restoring the C partition from an image backup. If this does not work, then I will need to spend most of next week re-provisioning the laptop. I am he technical director for our organization and extremely frustrated that I have to go through this.

    We are a gold Microsoft ISV Partner and I will certainly push this issue with Dell and Microsoft to find out how a signed driver can cause this issue.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-10-23T18:14:50+00:00

    Hi NGCB . I am glad finally someone with the connection to do something is involved. This issue is a time bomb. Imagine a chain email asking people to uninstally their BT driver and upgrade! Or even a virus that initiates that uninstall program. Unfortunately so far none from Microsoft or Broadcom has even acknowledged this issue althoguh it is very easily reporduceable with super distructive effects. Post your experience here so at least there is record of concrenced users attempts to get a solution form the software makers. Hopefully they listen to you. If they don't please update us.

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