If any XP users have just started to experience BSODs,
read this as avast! may not be responsible for all of them.
Windows Patch Leaves XP Users With Blue Screen of Death
http://www.pcworld.com/article/189110/windows_patch_leaves_xp_users_with_blue_screen_of_death.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl
Interestingly enough, I guess I’ve been lucky and none of the pc’s I worked with have experienced this problem with regard to the monthly updates. I’m sure it’s more people than have posted in the forum at Microsoft that are having this issue.
They just aren’t sure yet if the patches themselves are the real problem, or maybe something they’ve possibly installed, hardware issues…etc. It’s great that it’s being brought to the surface so quickly. Not so great, however for those experiencing the problems. Thanks so very much for the link. I have a netbook, haven’t checked into it yet with Windows XP on it. :o 
Thank you SO much for posting this info. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to work it out because my XP Pro 64 bit PC is continually BSOD ing and I’m still on Avast 4.8. My notebook’s fine (XP Pro 32 bit) but after uninstalling printer, other peripherals and heaps of software on the PC, I’m still getting BSODs which did indeed start after MS Updates. Now I may have a clue as to a fix. Sounds spooky though the fix…the one suggested by maxyimus. Do you think this is necessary or will MS put out a fix please? Do you have any other links to this problem please? Thank you for posting this waking. Much appreciated.
Hi kakapo 
There is nothing spooky about the fix from maxyimus. All he does is using Recovery Console to remove the updates.
Greetz, Red.
You should see this thread as well:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistawu/thread/73cea559-ebbd-4274-96bc-e292b69f2fd1
MS is more likely to fix it quickly if they get help from end-users experiencing the problem.
Phil
P.S. Comments to this story on the SANS Intitute’s Internet Storm Center suggest it might be a rootkit crashing the newly updated kernel:
Thanks so very much PhilR for the links. Well, my netbook gave me no problems with the updates.
Rootkits, a true menace. They hide in your system and are sometimes extremely hard to eliminate. Infected systems will always create problems for security updates. The security forums are having a time of it right now, I’m sure of that.
Thanks so very much for the link Polonus. Looks like possible driver issues on some of the other boards I’ve finally been able to read on as well where the BSOD’s were concerned with Windows Updates. Very glad your problem was fixed.
Microsoft Pulls Patch that Causes Blue Screen of Death
Possible reason?
Thanks so very much waking and sunrisecc for the links. This is quite interesting, and intriguing. To patch or not to patch, that is the question? ;D I’m doing a bit of research on my own with this one. As long as you’re not experiencing any problems, I wouldn’t worry about it just yet.
They (Microsoft) may or may not let you know where the problem lies. Sometimes, it’s better they don’t let “the cat out of the bag” as it were. Even after they find out what they need to know. Keeps the hounds (hackers) at bay for a while longer.
Since the patch is unavailable temporarily, I would definitely patch the others.
I have updated 3 XP Pro computers and have no problem.
But then I use Avast on the XP computers. 
Regardless of what turns out the be the root cause of the problems that update KB977165 seems to have triggered, the recovery problems being faced by those who have been affected once again highlights the value of having frequent partition imaging as a primary part of any backup system.
I manually downloaded and installed the latest batch of MS updates early on the 11th Feb when they still included KB977165. So far I have experienced no problems at all - hope it stays that way.
Yes, I too have that KB installed and so far no issues in XP Pro SP3.
No problem here. Applied all patches on Patch Tuesday. I have a Dell XPS system purchased in 2005. The link above indicated that the affected systems may have been infected with malware already. Maybe that’s just Microsoft’s story, but some of the malware doesn’t like being neutered.
No problem on my XP Pro system. 8)
Just a short while for the 2010 Winter Games to start.
Iget an occasional BSOD but nothing like described, Apparently do have that patch installed.
I updated last night, and 977165 was included. But so far, no problems.
I think I saw somewhere that there’s some evidence that the BSOD associated with this patch may only affect systems infected with a particular trojan, I forget which one.
Microsoft Says Malware Causing Blue Screen Crashes
I notice that the VirusTotal report:
referenced in the last PC World article I posted indicates that avast! 4.8 (1351? - not the latest!)
with VPS 100211 does NOT detect the bad atapi.sys file. Does anyone know whether or not
avast! 5.0.418 will catch it?