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

2011-01-21T21:13:30+00:00

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

Please read the thread completely. In this thread, BT means Bluetooth and not British Telecom.
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Anonymous

2011-01-21T10:08:10+00:00

Thank you so much for this thread. I think you may have saved me alot of time....

I have a dell latitude 6410 win7 64bit pro. I have Office 2003 installed and was having regular excel 2003 crashes (several times a day). Through trial and error I've discovered what NOT to do in order to reduce the number of crashes but I would say that once a day I still have excel 2003 and word 2003 crashes. I found a link on one of the other threads that says the "Widcomm Bluetooth Software" is to blame.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/excslcreate/thread/a9d87eab-5e7b-43a8-90c3-0165887c9fda

As a result I was about to uninstall the whole widcomm software and drivers because I don't use Bluetooth at all. Fortunately I found your link first so I am going to delay that action until I have several full backups and the loss of my computer would have less damaging impacts on my business.

Thank you, Ta Gordon
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Anonymous

2011-01-13T08:47:38+00:00

Sorry to hear you got screwed too. But if you have windows 7 you may be able to restore your files. Withough doing any change to your computer go to each folder that has files missing from Windows Explorer. Right Click on the folder and click on "Restore previous versions". Hopefully you get your files back. Once you have all of your files back them up and start from scratch meaning install windows and all of your programs again.
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Anonymous

2011-01-12T22:32:35+00:00

I lost 2 years word today when I made the decision to buy a new BLueTooth adapter and was prompted BY WINDOWS to visit the BROADCOM site to update my WIDCOMM driver. A few minutes into the 'install' I started seeing icons from my DESKTOP disappearing and since I store most all of my stuff in a folder on my DESKTOP, everything I had is now gone forever.

I will now paste keywords below so that anyone who is trying to find this post, can.

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Unfortunately, if they've found this post, then it's too late.;
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