Earlier this year, Microsoft had released a software patch, that has now created a bit of a frenzy among some Asus users. The issue mainly persists in PC housing Asus motherboards and can cause them to freeze or refuse to boot.
The patch, which Microsoft calls KB 3133977, was released as an Optional update in March and was meant to fix an earlier bug in KB 2990184, which was a fix for a problem with backing up a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) password to Active Directory in FIPS compliance mode. At this point, the update affected only a handful of people as most people ignore the Optional updates that Windows comes up with.
But on April 12, Microsoft changed the status of the update from Optional to Recommended which meant that anyone with Automatic Updates enabled would receive the patch. It was fine for most users but people with PCs built over an Asus motherboard started experiencing boot issues and their computers would randomly freeze.
Going in deep, the issue was rooted in place because Asus enabled a setting called Secure Boot, which protects the PC against boot loader attacks that can compromise a system before the OS loads. The problem occurred because the patch stopped Windows 7 from supporting Secure Boot.
Asus made an attempt to fix the issue and described a way to disable UEFI Secure Boot on their motherboards. Some users are also reporting that uninstalling the update can rid you of the problem. Seeing this, Microsoft also responded recently with a support page. Here’s what the Redmond giant has to say:
After you install update 3133977 on a Windows 7 x64-based system that includes an Asus-based main board, the system does not start, and it generates a Secure Boot error on the Asus BIOS screen. This problem occurs because Asus allowed the main board to enable the Secure Boot process even though Windows 7 does not support this feature.
To resolve this problem, go to the following Asus support website to learn how to disable Secure Boot for Windows 7:
http://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1016356/
Note The Secure Boot feature is supported in Windows 10. To learn more about the security advantages of this feature and about the upgrade path from Windows 7 to Windows 10, go to the following Windows website:
www.microsoft.com/windows
