Two HP Notebooks freezing after KB5032288-update for Windows

[Thorsten1]

Hi everybody.

I have two HP notebooks that both started freezing within two days.

It started with the newer one two days ago. Shortly after booting I can't start any new apps, can't restart or turn the computer off. Rightclick or Ctrl+Alt+Delete causes no reaction at all.

If I have an open browser I can move to different sub-pages on the page I have opened but cannot load another page.

It started shortly after the KB5032288-update for Windows. Might be unrelated though.

I ran extensive component Checks on memory, storage, CPU and power supply. All passed.

I have used recovery twice. First I kept my data second time I used recovery from the ground up. It worked for a few hours but after rebooting today the problem reappeared. 

Also today the same symptomes showed up on my older HP notebook I still use at work.

This is the newer one:

 

This is the old notebook:

 

Any help ist greatly appreachiated. 

[PetrusMaximus]

Hi Thorsten1,

I can confirm this problem. I have differen customers with HP computers that experience exactly the same problem.
Windows is responsive 10-15 seconds after login, then it freezes like you described it.
The problem also applies to stationary clients from HP.

So far I have not worked out a solution yet. Uninstalling the Update did not work because Windows was not able to unistall it.
Have you tried reinstalling Windows and blocking the installation of said update?

With kind regards,

Peter.

[Thorsten1]

Hi Peter,

thanks for your reply.

I arrived at the same non-solution. A soft reset did't help and a hard reset with updates led to the same issues after a short time.

I have blocked updates now. Not a permanent solution but a workaround for the moment. I haven't found other complaints about this issues so I am unsure how wide spread it is.

With kind regards,
Thorsten 

[PetrusMaximus]

Hi Torsten,

I fixed a HP computer with this issue today by uninstalling the Update and the Avira Virus Scanner.

Do your have Avira running on those notebooks?

With kind regards,

Peter.

[Thorsten1]

Hi Peter,

yes indeed I do use the Avira software. Is that part of the problem? Since I have a subscription and would like to keep using Avira.

How did you manage do uninstall the update? I tried last week but only got an error message that the update could not be removed.

I think the update is going into the regular automaticoop this week isn't it? So the number of cases might rise the next couple of days.

With kind regards,
Thorsten

[PetrusMaximus]

Hi Thorsten,

first I tried to remove the Update by starting recovery mode and uninstalling the latest quality update. This did not work, the process finished successful but the update was still there.
After that I booted windows into safe mode and uninstalled the update from the system control. The updated dissappeared from the list of recently installed updates, but was replaced by another update, with the same installation date. I could not uninstall this update.

So ich changed tactics and tried to uninstall the HP companion software and the virus scanner. I could only uninstall 2 or 3 of the HP companion programs since the windows installer is not available in safe mode. Also the uninstall of Avira failed in safe mode.
After that I booted windows in normal mode, quickly opened the system controls and uninstalled Avira. Since then the problem is gone.

So for me uninstalling Avira did the trick. I don't think that HP Documentation and the other HP software packages cause the problem but it was Avira.

If you try to uninstall Avira let me know if that also helped you.

With kind regards,

Peter.

[Thorsten1]

Hi Peter,

both of my notebooks worked well the last to days using Avira but with blocked Windows updates.

Two different anti-virus programs as (from what I read) on your client's computer might have caused issues in themselves. Maybe those got in the way of each other.

Honestly I kind of hope that either Microsoft or maybe Avira has that problem sorted out by the time automatic updates are re-started. 

With kind regards.