Windows 10 V1809: Update KB4490481 causes blue screens

[German]Cumulative update KB4490481released by Microsoft on April 2, 2019, for Windows 10 V1809 and Windows Server 2019 is causing BlueScreens on some systems.


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Microsoft released the KB4490481 cumulative update on April 2, 2019 for Windows 10 V1809 and Windows Server 2019 after a long testing period with Windows Insiders. The update includes quality improvements and raises the Windows build to 17763.404. It should be noted that this update also still contains numerous bugs.

I had listed the fixes in the blog post Windows 10 V1809: Updates KB4490481 and KB4493510. This update also introduces new Group Policy for Windows 10 V1809 (see my blog post KB4490481 fixes/adds group policies in Windows 10 V1809). However, I also wrote in the linked posts that this update has a number of known issues. Therefore I cannot recommend an installation.

Update KB4490481 causes Blue Screens

And now there's the blue screen problem. Blog reader EP pointed out this problem in this comment. Martin Brinkmann gave a clear warning on Twitter. 

You should not install this update without a backup. Martin Brinkmann ran into a 'System Service Exception' error after the installation. Martin writes:


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Ran into a System Service Exception error on restart after installing the update on one machine. System Restore fixed the issue, Startup repair did not.

Martin is not the only user who reports problems or BlueScreens in connection with this update. In a comment to his blog post there is a confirmation by another user and also the user EP mentioned above is plagued with a blue screen. Woody Leonhard has collected more findings at askwoody.com in this article.

System Service Exception BSOD

Within tenforums user doctorwizz reported also a System Service Exception BlueScreen (0x0000003B) after installing this update.

I was rebooting from Win10 to boot to Win8.1. The update was installing on the shutdown phase and it was taking longer to install this time. So I tried to boot to Win10 again. It was continuing to update and bam. BSOD System Service Exception.

There is another confirmation within the tensforum thread, from a user receiving also a Blue Screen.

I like doctorwizz above also have BSOD on every machine I have after restarting to complete this update. They all run Win 10 Enterprise. I don't have any special software running and I've never had such problems before. I got out of the fix by doing a system restore and I'm back at 17783.379 now. I tried an experiment or two. I tried the standalone windows catalog installer….same thing. I tried also the installer for kb4493510 and strangely it said it was already installed (but its not…well not that I can see). Its all very odd.

Woody Leonhard compiled the whole findings within this article on Computer World. He received another feedback on Twitter, where another user confirmed such a BSOD.

Also within the askwoody.com forum comments here, here and here confirms the BSOD.

A possible explanation

Within the known issues section of update KB4490481, Microsoft mentions a BlueScreen condition caused by this update:

  • If you enable End-User-Defined Characters (EUDCs) per font, the system will stop working and a blue screen will be displayed at startup. In regions other than Asia, this is not a common setting.
  • Microsoft writes about it: To avoid this problem, you should not enable EUDC per font. Alternatively, you can edit the registry to alleviate the problem. For more information, see KB4496149.

However, all of the above mentioned locations for the BlueScreen are not Asian systems – the EUDC font should therefore not be activated. Final question: Are any of you affected?

Similar articles:
Windows 10 V1809: Updates KB4490481 and KB4493510
KB4490481 fixes/adds group policies in Windows 10 V1809


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10 Responses to Windows 10 V1809: Update KB4490481 causes blue screens

  1. paul says:

    Two of my PCs crash with System Service Exception after installing KB4490481 on Windows 10 x64 1809. A dell laptop with intel graphics 520 and an intel nuc with intel HD5000 graphics. I'm suspecting an issue with the update and intel graphics drivers. Just a gut feeling.

    Fortunately in both cases a system restore fixes the issue.

  2. Christopher says:

    Yes, I have been affected by this. BSODs aplenty after installing the update. System restore doesn't work, nor does anything else except a Windows reinstall.

  3. B. Aide says:

    Can confirm this update causes BSOD.

    Windows 10 Enterprise x64, 1809. Three different computers.

    System restore helped.

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  5. Gerry says:

    2 systems BSOD so far.
    1st Ryzen 2700 was recovered by a rollback.

    2nd Intel 2500. Totally borked. System would not respond to wired or wireless Kbd or mouse.
    MS support got me to download a full ISO that kept bombing out. Instead used the USB tool. then was able to get to a previous restore point. Finally got working.
    Just turn updates off for a couple of weeks until these clowns actually do some QA and re-issue.

  6. Liverpool Lee says:

    Two of my machines kept getting the BSOD, one was a machine I built a few years ago and the other is a HP 8200 Elite. Luckily enough, I have them both dual booted with Linux Manjaro so used that until a fixcomes out. I used the system restore which rolled them back and paused the updates for now.

  7. Paul says:

    My BSOD was caused by fonts left over by Windows Media Center

    https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/discussion-patch-wmc-to-run-on-windows-10-final-possible-alternatives.61061/page-456#post-1513950

    KB installed fine after removing the fonts

  8. EP says:

    recent Softpedia news article on how to fix the BSOD problems with KB4490481, guenni:

    https://news.softpedia.com/news/how-to-fix-bsods-caused-by-windows-10-cumulative-update-kb4490481-525599.shtml

  9. BCL Technologies says:

    I can confirm that the cause of the problem is the EUDC (end-user defined characters). This is extremely uncommon, especially outside of Asia, but I was testing a rare feature for a Japanese customer, so my system was affected under my main developer account. But I was able to log in under a different user.

    What you want to do is to launch regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\EUDC, and go through all code pages (1252, 932, 936, 949, 950), and delete all registry values. You might be able to keep SystemDefaultEUDCFont and (Default), but all other values must go away: MS Mincho, MS Gothic, everything that you may find there.

    This stops the Blue Screen of Death, and the system is usable again.

  10. BCL Technologies says:

    Here's how I've restored my system. I logged in under another user account, which did not have the problem. I guess booting in safe mode might have helped as well.

    Then I went to Windows Update, Update History, and uninstalled KB4490481. If you don't have another account that works, you have to boot into safe mode, and do a System Restore, or restore your entire drive from an old backup.

    Then I went into regedit, and removed everything EUDC under all user accounts, and reinstalled KB4490481. There's no more BSOD.

    It is generally a good idea to have a backup user account that is factory default and you never touch it. Even better, make a duplicate image of your system drive from time to time.

    Another thing people can try is to boot from an external drive, and delete all *.TTE and *.EUF files under C:\Windows. This should delete all EUDC fonts, and the system may boot again. If the drive can be taken out of your machine, it could be accessed from another computer, and the files could be deleted that way. Otherwise booting in safe mode into the command line would also give you a chance to delete your TTE and EUF fonts, which should fix the boot. Otherwise you need a command line tool that deletes entries from the registry in safe mode.

    You're guaranteed to be able to boot again if you can clean up your HKEY_CURRENT_USER\EUDC.

  11. almonds says:

    Oh my god, I thought I was alone on this issue. this is the third time this week I've had to reinstall Win10 and I can't go gaming for a hot minute without a (supposedly) driver-related BSOD, and then the godforsaken SYSTEM SERVICE thing popping up when I reboot. what's worse seems to be that there's a 50% chance the entire system will start killing itself after it comes up, I'm reinstalling the OS as we speak because of CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED :(. I don't know if it's related to programs or games, but it sure as hell doesn't seem to like them very much.

    I'm so tired of this nonsense.

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