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Have a recent ASUS Mobo? Microsoft may Brick it.
The Register [theregister.co.uk] and a few other sources report that Microsoft's KB3133977 update may brick your machine if you have a relativly recent Asus motherboard and are running Windows 7.
KB3133977 [microsoft.com] patch triggers certain Asus mothereboards into raising a EUFI alarm, preventing the system from booting.
Though the KB3133977 patch has been out for a while, Microsoft has only this week changed its classification from "optional" to "recommended", meaning for many users it now automatically installs through Windows Update – and then borks the PC.
The problem, Asus says, is that its newer boards support Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)'s Secure Boot mechanism by default to prevent firmware and operating system tampering. Windows 7, however, does not support that feature, so it's normally not used.
The KB3133977 patch – which fixes an issue in Microsoft's BitLocker drive encryption system – leads the motherboard's firmware to believe Secure Boot is supported, but when it comes to the crunch, the operating system is incompatible and cannot start.
Asus makes mother boards for a lot of different whitebox machines, so this may affect a lot of different computers. Asus suggests turning off EUFI in the bios if that option is available.
