Tech worker testifies of 'blue screen of death' on oil rig's computer

Blue Screens No Responses »
Aug 182010
Crucial drilling monitoring and control system crippled by crashes, says rig’s chief electronics technician

A computer that monitored drilling operations on the Deepwater Horizon had been freezing with a “blue screen of death” prior to the explosion that sank the oil rig last April, the chief electronics technician aboard testified at a federal hearing.

“Blue screen of death,” or BSOD, is a term most often used to describe the display shown by Microsoft Windows after a serious crash that has incapacitated a PC.

In his testimony Friday, Michael Williams, the chief electronics technician aboard the Transocean-owned Deepwater Horizon, said that the rig’s safety alarm had been habitually switched to a bypass mode to avoid waking up the crew with middle-of-the-night warnings.

Williams said that a computer control system in the drill shack would still record high gas levels or a fire, but it would not trigger warning sirens, according to numerous reports, including stories published by the New York Times and New Orleans’ largest daily, the Times-Picayune.

Williams, who has filed a multi-million dollar federal lawsuit against Transocean, also said that five weeks before the April 20 explosion, he had been called to check a computer system that monitored and controlled drilling.

The machine had been locking up for months, Williams said, producing what he and others on the crew called a “blue screen of death.” “It would just turn blue. You’d have no data coming through,” Williams said today, according to the New York Times‘ story.

With the computer frozen, the driller would not have access to crucial data about what was going on in the well.

The April disaster left 11 dead and resulted in the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Williams survived the explosion and resulting fire on the rig by leaping into the water. While he did not identify the operating system running the balky computer, the phrase “blue screen of death” is typically used to describe a Windows crash.

Microsoft declined to comment on Williams’ testimony and characterization of the crash screen. Transocean did not respond to e-mail seeking comment.

(Source: Gregg Keizer, Computerworld)

Posted by Zak Dechovich at 3:29 pm Tagged with:

Windows security update causes 'blue screen of death' for some

Blue Screens No Responses »
Aug 112010

Windows users reported receiving the “blue screen of death“ on their computers after installing Microsoft’s latest security updates released in February.

Most of the people complaining on a Windows forum said they had the problem on Windows XP, but one person also reported problems on Windows 7.

Users posted a fix on the site that they said seemed to work, but that didn’t necessarily quell the anger.

“Where at Microsoft do I send my invoice for hours spent fixing this BS?” one person wrote.

The problem appears to be with one specific update, which addresses a vulnerability in the 32-bit Windows kernel that could allow elevation of privilege that was disclosed in January.

The fix requires users to have an installation CD, but not all computer manufacturers ship systems with a disc for re-installing the operating system, according to the Krebs on Security blog, which first reported the problems.

In addition, Netbooks do not have CD-ROM drives, making the problem even more difficult for them to fix, security blogger Brian Krebs wrote.

Several people reported on the Windows forum site that Microsoft told them the company would not be providing a fix for Netbooks and that Netbook users would have to get support from the equipment manufacturer.

Microsoft is investigating the reports to determine the cause of the problems, according to a statement from Jerry Bryant, senior security communications manager lead at Microsoft.

Anyone believed to have been affected can visit: https://consumersecuritysupport.microsoft.com, the statement said. Those in the United States can contact Customer Service and Support at no charge using the PC Safety hotline at 1-866-727-2338 (PCSAFETY). Those outside the United States can find local contact numbers at http://support.microsoft.com/international.

Update

Microsoft published a blog post later in the same day with this additional information:

Our initial analysis suggests that the issue occurs after installing MS10-015 (KB977165). However, we have not confirmed that the issue is specific to MS10-015 or if it is an interoperability problem with another component or third-party software. Our teams are working to resolve this as quickly as possible. We also stopped offering this update through Windows Update as soon as we discovered the restart issues. However, those using enterprise deployment systems such as SMS or WSUS will still see and be able to deploy these packages.

While we work to address this issue, customers who choose not to install the update can implement the workaround outlined in the bulletin. CVE-2010-0232 was publicly disclosed and we previously issued Security Advisory 979682 in response. Customers can disable the NTVDM subsystem as a workaround and we have provided an automated method of doing that with a Microsoft Fix It that you can find here.

The Fix (copied from link above). Note: Step 2 has been modified NOT to have a space between the KBXXXXXX and following $ as was in the original post.

Follow these steps:

1)      Boot from your Windows XP CD or DVD and start the recovery console

Once you’re at the Repair Screen:

2)      Type this command: CHDIR $NtUninstallKB978262 $\spuninst

3)      Type this command: BATCH spuninst.txt

4)      Type this command: systemroot

5)      Repeat steps 2-4 for each of the following updates provided by FindMeFollowMe:

  • KB978262
  • KB971468
  • KB978037
  • KB975713
  • KB978251
  • KB978706
  • KB977165
  • KB975560
  • KB977914

6)      When complete, type this command: exit

Your computer should restart and everything should be back to normal.

This apparent fix to the problem was posted on a Windows forum.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Posted by Nerie at 4:29 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Mac Users Confronted With Blue Screen of Death

Blue Screens No Responses »
May 172009

Apple’s operating system update results in BSOD… read more.

Posted by Dan Zimel at 1:03 pm Tagged with: , ,

100,000 Systems Suffer From Blue Screen

Blue Screens, Trojans No Responses »
May 102009

The computers were infected by the Zeus Trojan horse.

More than 100,000 computers, which were infected by the Zeus Trojan horse, suffered from what is known as the blue screen of death (BSOD) after the malware destroyed itself for no apparent reason.
The blue screen of death and slow computer are widely considered the ultimate nightmares of PC users, who, in such cases, need to get a computer repair.
The blue screen of death refers to an error message when Microsoft Windows experiences a fatal error condition. The monitor screen turns blue and fills with a typically cryptic description of why the computer will crash and that any data not saved to the hard drive will be lost forever.
Reportedly, the Trojan horse was activated in April and was ordered to self-destruct. Experts failed to provide an explanation as to why the malicious software ”committed suicide.”
Zeus and other such Trojans are mainly used to obtain financial data from infected PCs. According to OSnews, Zeus is a family of Windows malware that is special in that it has the uncanny ability to look completely unique on every infected machine, making it very hard to detect and remove.
Zeus is sold in kits for about US$700 to all sorts of people with criminal intentions.
Read more


Posted by Dan Zimel at 9:53 am Tagged with: , ,
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