After 5 days of narrowing down this problem to this specific Update, making
it happen, and recovering I thought I would share the solution so you
wouldn't have to suffer too! This problem seems to afflict Pentium4HT
processors in the 2.8-3.0Ghz range. This microcode should not install on
these processors as it appears to be a Core 2/Duo update, but somehow the P4
slipped through the install processor check.
Problem: After installing KB936357 microcode update, Windows XP will no
longer boot into any mode. Various blue screens will appear, some with and
some without stop codes.
Solution: Follow these steps and you will save yourself lots of time and
trouble of reinstalling.
1) Boot the machine into the Windows Recovery Console. See KB if you don't
know how. You're now in basically a DOS shell with limited functionality.
2) Type the following: cd $NtUninstallKB936357$\spuninst
This will basically change the active directory to the uninstall
directory created by this update.
3) Type the following: BATCH spuninst.txt
You will see a couple of lines echo'd to the screen indicating a file
was copied.
4) Type the following to reboot the machine: exit
5) Your machine will now reboot into Windows XP.
6) Go to control panel, and add-remove programs, select "show updates".
7) Use add-remove programs to uninstall KB936357 update. This will finish
the cleanup of the registry and other misc windows stuff.
8) Start Windows update, select "Custom", and click the little box under
the update for KB936357 to never show it again.
Countless hours were spent figuring out what was wrong, my machine was
essentially 100% updated except for this one, it was intentionally installed
knowing it would break (yes, willing to risk reinstalling for the third time)
just to prove it was the bain of my existence. Fortunately I was right . . .
I'll keep my nasty comments to myself, have a good night.
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