Microsoft Windows 10 Fails Continue As Cumulative Update Cripples Surface Book 2 With BSOD

Microsoft has just encountered a string of bad luck with Windows 10 updates in recent months. It had to pull its October 2018 Update after it went rogue by deleting users' files. Most recently, a Windows Update borked the Windows Media Player in Windows 10. 

Now, we're heaving that a rather routine release of cumulative updates resulted in trouble for owners of Microsoft's own Surface Book 2. You wouldn't expect for a cumulative update (KB4467682) for Windows 10 version 1803 (April 2018 Update) to have harmful effects on a machine, but in the case of some Surface Book 2 owners, the update released last week has sparked a number of Blue Screen of Death (BSODs) on systems.

Surface Book 2 owners have been complaining not only on Reddit, but also on Microsoft's own answers forum. Some lucky owners have been able to restore their Surface Book 2 machines to normalcy by uninstalling KB4467682, however, some unfortunate souls have found that going that route only presents them with a bricked machine upon rebooting.

"Well, for some reason removing the update bricked my surface," wrote Luis10e10 on Reddit. "Now I can't even get into the OS. Just have blue screens. I will have to reinstall windows."

"Also having this problem," added seinberg. "WTF Microsoft? Seriously - your flagship laptop device, and you're sending out updates that cause widespread BSOD. I can't even uninstall the update without it failing."

The cause of the problem hasn't been pinned down at the moment, but some people are pointing to potential problems with Intel display drivers, the onboard Bluetooth controller, or Windows Hello. With that being said, Microsoft has officially addressed the issue in an update on the support page for KB4467682:

After installing this optional update some users may get a blue or black screen with error code, “System thread exception not handled.” A resolution for this issue will be available in the December 2018 security update release.

The company says that is now actively blocking Surface Book 2 owners from receiving the update.

Whatever the cause for the issues, Microsoft has a serious problem on its hands. It's one thing for Windows 10 installs to fail and cause issues on PC hardware that is anything but homogenous given seemingly infinite configuration options, but for it to happen on a flagship product produced by Microsoft is a bit harder to swallow.