UPDATE 9/6: MSI confirms Microsoft is not to blame, sources the error to a firmware setting involving the hybrid architecture on Intel's 13th generation Core i9 chips, and releases a fix.
Original Story:Microsoft says a Windows 11 update is not to blame for a Blue Screen of Death error that’s been impacting users since last week.
The problem affects PC owners running 600/700 series MSI motherboards for Intel chips. According to users, installing Microsoft’s Windows 11 “KB5029351” update causes their PCs to crash with a Blue Screen of Death error message that says “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR.”
Microsoft has been investigating the problem and concludes that KB5029351 isn’t the main culprit for the crashing problems. “After investigating these reports, we have found that the ‘UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR’ error was not caused by issues in KB5029351 and is limited to a specific subset of processors,” the company said in a support document.
The statement is a bit odd since users began reporting the BSOD errors after Microsoft began offering the KB5029351 update as a preview release. In addition, Microsoft is pulling the KB5029351 package from circulation.
“We are collaborating with device manufacturers (OEMs) and will temporarily mitigate this issue by not offering KB5029351 to Windows devices that might be affected by this issue. If you still experience this issue, please contact your device’s processor manufacturer,” Microsoft says.
So far, Microsoft has declined to elaborate. But reading between the lines, it’s possible a recent BIOS version that MSI released for the company’s motherboards last month is causing conflicts with the KB5029351 update.
On Friday, MSI released a statement that noted users can address the Blue Screen of Death errors by installing an older BIOS version for their motherboards. Some affected users also say they were running the newest motherboard BIOS for their the Core i7 13700K and Core i9-13900K processors when they encountered the problem.
That said, MSI’s statement advises users to avoid installing the KB5029351 update too. The company's temporary workaround adds: “If you have already encountered this issue, KB5029351 might automatically be uninstalled to allow Windows to restore to normal. However, if KB5029351 is not automatically uninstalled, we recommend reverting your BIOS to the previous version and uninstalling KB5029351 from Windows.”
MSI published a video with instructions on reflashing an MSI motherboard with a different BIOS. It involves first saving an older BIOS onto a USB flash drive, restarting the PC, and then entering into the BIOS settings during startup. Users can download older BIOS versions for their motherboard by looking up the product model through MSI’s support website.