Windows August Update Plays Blue Screen Bingo – And MSI Boards Got The Winning Ticket

There's good news for those suffering from the dreaded UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR Blue Screen Of Death error following the installation of August's Windows update.

The error was experienced by some users following the installation of either the KB5029351 and KB5029332 Windows 11 updates or the KB5029331 Windows 10 update, according to hardware maker MSI.

The company has quietly released a BIOS update aimed at users of the MSI's Intel 700 and 600 series motherboards, paired with Intel's 13th Gen Core i9 CPU, which will stop the exception being thrown.

Microsoft admitted it was aware of the problem shortly after the update arrived. Some Windows users found their PCs tripping into a Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) following installation.

The Windows giant said it was looking into the issue, and later noted the problem was not caused by issues in the update. Instead, it was limited to a specific subset of processors and hardware. As such, the company pulled the update for customers using the affected kit.

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Those unlucky enough to already experience the BSOD found Windows usually able to recover and roll back the patch.

At the time of writing, Microsoft has not revised the documentation for the update to reflect the availability of the BIOS update.

MSI confirmed it was looking into the issue after it was reported and yesterday issued a BIOS update that it said would resolve the problem.

It blamed the firmware setting of the Intel Hybrid Architecture and said the fix would include an update on the Intel CPU uCode, "which will prevent any more messages regarding the 'UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR' issues." However, it did not go into any further detail regarding why the August Windows update experienced the problem.

It is entirely possible the issue was the result of Microsoft tightening up the processor checks within Windows and the BIOS reporting something that the operating system was not expecting, the result being the BSOD. We've asked Microsoft and MSI for more information and will update this piece if we get a response.

In the meantime, MSI said it planned to make the updates available for the Intel 700 and 600 series this week. It said: "All BIOS release [sic] will be available by the end of September." ®