STOP: 0x000000C4 after installing KB4056894 - 2018-01 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for WIndows 7 for x64

Anonymous

After installing the latest Windows updates and rebooting, I got the following error:

*** STOP: 0x000000C4 (0X0000000000000091, 0x0000000000000000**, 0xFFFFFF80002C4EFC0, 0x0000000000000000)**

I could not boot into Safe Mode. I was able to boot into the Recover Console and uninstall the latest update that was still in the "Install Pending" state by doing this:

Determine what drive letter has your windows install. There's a good chance when in you are in the Recover Console command prompt that the Windows drive letter isn't your regular "C:". Enter a drive letter to change to that drive, could be c:, d:, e: etc. Run "dir" to check what is in that drive. Note, the recover console environment, which might be "c:" also looks like a Windows install, but it isn't your regular install. It's a special Windows image for the Recover Console. Also try checking the "Users" directory contents to see if the users in it look correct.

dir

cd Users

dir

The above should list contents that look like your regular Windows root. If so then use "d:" below, if not keep checking other drive letters. Once you've found the right drive letter replace "d:" in the commands below with that drive letter.

Next, make sure you have a "temp" directory or create one with:

mkdir temp

Now uninstall the bad update. Note, this works for 64 bit Windows. Run this all on one line, replacing with the correct drive letter:

dism /image:d:\ /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~7601.24002.1.4**/norestart****/scratchdir:d:\temp**

Same line as above with different formatting if it's easier to read:

dism /image:d:\ /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~7601.24002.1.4 /norestart /scratchdir:d:\temp

Reported that the 32 bit package name is: Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~7601.24002.1.4

Now reboot the computer and it should boot normally.

I do not know if that RollupFix is the same a KB4056894, but after removing that package the system booted successfully. The KB4056894 update is now listed as available in Windows Update again. I'm going to avoid installing that update, but it includes the fix for the latest Spectre and Meltdown security vulnerabilities.

The STOP code appears to match this KB2816159, but when I tried to apply the hotfix, it says:

The update is not applicable to your computer.

Is KB4056894 causing this STOP: 0x000000C4 error?

Other reports have been able to use System Restore to restore to an earlier restore point successfully, but that might fail. Just because the recovery/repair disk says a restore doesn't work does not mean that it did not work. Some users receive an error message, 0x80070002, but when they tried to boot Windows again it worked and the KB5046894 was showing as a failed update.

For me the CPU is a dual socket motherboard with two Dual Core AMD Opteron 285 chips.

Based on other reports, this is effecting Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, 32-bit and 64-bit installs for all older AMD CPUs. It is not related to the anti-virus registry key issue. Many reports are running standard Microsoft Security Essentials. AMD CPUs effected include Athlon, Sempron, Opteron and Turion:

AMD Athlon X2 6000+
AMD Athlon X2 5600+
AMD Athlon X2 5400+
AMD Athlon X2 5200+
AMD Athlon X2 5050e
AMD Athlon X2 4800+
AMD Athlon X2 4600+
AMD Athlon X2 4200+
AMD Athlon X2 3800+
AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400
AMD Opteron 285
AMD Opteron 2218
AMD Opteron 2220
AMD Semprom 3400+
AMD Turion X

UPDATE: 2018-01-08

It's been three days now and still not knowledgement from Microsoft that this is an bug. This post has Views: 15014, Replies (56), I have the same question (445). This same error has been mentioned at the following sites:

TechNet: Blue Screen after KB4056894

Overclockers UK: Warning on KB4056894 (Intel/AMD) Fix caused Operton Bluescreen/STOPAskWoody: Multiple reports of blue screens (BSODs) 0X000000C4 when installing the January Win7 Monthly Rollup KB 4056894

Reddit: Problems with Windows 7 Quality Rollup (KB4056894)

SevenForums: Windows 7 won't start after update on 5 Jan 2018

UPDATE: 2018-01-09

It's been four days and Microsoft has knowledged this is an bug and blocked the update for older AMD systems.

See Microsoft's official response here:

Windows operating system security update block for some AMD based devices

Note: I unhid the update to see if it was blocked. After running "Check for updates", it is no longer showing up as a pending update for me.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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115 answers

Anonymous

2018-01-09T05:54:00+00:00

Official Microsoft response about the issue: https://support.microsoft.com/help/4073707/
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Anonymous

2018-01-09T02:41:43+00:00

Hi,

I'm so glad I finally searched and found this thread.

AMD Turion X2 here with same problem. Before I had a handle on this I went back and reinstalled a fresh Windows 7 Home Edition version. I thought my son's laptop must have been infected with a virus. Then I applied updates for 2 days straight until I got to the last update. After that I got hit with the BSOC 0x000000C4. That's when I suspected MS was at fault here.

I went and use the restore point to get back to prior version and the computer is running again. I also turned off automatic updates to avoid getting hit again. I will keep an eye on this thread to see when it is safe again to update.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Spectre?

Thank you,

Ozymotto
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Anonymous

2018-01-09T00:58:30+00:00

This happened to me on 1/5. I saw a strange window pop up in lower left with a series of "1"s which disappeared quickly. I restarted and got the blue screen with the stop error 0x000000c4. I also tried every option under recovery to no avail. Wish I'd found this site before I decided to reinstall Win 7 64. Now I need to recover old system settings from Windows.old or my Acronis Backup. But would I be restoring the problem as well from old Windows? Today I was checking my Windows Updates and KB4056894 was in the queue. Luckily I unchecked it before installing updates. Microsoft, WTF? It's been 3 days and you don't know about this? This has been totally disabling. Who needs malware when we have Microsoft to do us in.
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Anonymous

2018-01-08T23:03:19+00:00

When I restarted with my 3 drives (5 partitions) then Windows was on drive E - and then PC could not start windows. So I shut Down and disconnected power. Removed power to the two drives that do not have Windows on and restarted. Now Windows was forced to be on C-drive. And I recovered this way to status before the update. Afterwords I could connect the power to the two other drives Again with no change in drive-names.

Hopefully this might help you.
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Anonymous

2018-01-08T22:18:32+00:00

I spent 8 hours last night trying to work through these patches with some success and some failure. I had 4 computers affected by this update that would not start up the morning of 1/5/18. 2 of them were able to run the disk repair or restore to a restore point and then have been functioning normally with failed update KB 4056894. 2 have not restarted. On one I was able to access the dos screen from the restore console and went through some suggested steps that allowed me to remove the pending update. The computer still would not boot up. I found that the directory where windows is installed on this computer was the D drive so I ran the command listed above and have gotten the response that the package name was not recognized. I reviewed the dism log and nothing stands out as a reason the command would not work. Could it be that because I deleted the pending update, the package is no longer there when I run the dism? If that is the case, is there another fix that I could try to apply or a different package name that I might be able to use? I have a hard drive from this machine that I imaged and upgraded to a larger HD. Could I install this HD in another box and create a boot disk from that to get it to start up or would I have to restore the system and in doing so, lose data since the HD replacement. I'm trying to preserve a proprietary software that was installed for me that was a complete pain to get operational on the system. I'd prefer not to roll the computer back to before that install and I don't have a good back-up from after the install.

My second computer will not give me command prompt as an option in the restore console. The only choices I am presented with when after the boot up is to repair or to reset to factory settings. I got frustrated and attempted to restore that machine to factory settings and it calls for a Lenovo recovery disk that it apparently thinks is stored on DVD but as far as I know, is stored on a partition on the hard drive but I have no idea how to get to it. Any help would be appreciated!
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