14 DAY TRIAL // Some customers running Windows 7 have been experiencing intermittent crashes, and Microsoft says that the problem is because of a race condition.
Threads (the smallest unit of processing, smaller than processes) can coexist and share resources, but when at least two of them attempt to change shared data at the same time a race condition occurs.
The issue affects Windows 7 RTM and Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), as well as Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM / SP1.
Crashes are one symptom that customers might be impacted by this glitch, but they should also be on the lookout for the following stop error message:
STOP: 0x00000044 (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4) - MULTIPLE_IRP_COMPLETE_REQUESTS.
The software giant stresses that “The parameters in the Stop error message may vary, depending on the configuration of the computer. Not all "0x00000044" Stop errors are caused by this issue.”
“This issue occurs because of a race condition that is caused by a reference counting on lease,” the Redmond company reveals.
Even though a fix is available from Microsoft Support, customers should be very careful when deploying it.
In fact, if they believe that the hotfix does not resolve their particular issues, or that the crashes they might have been experienced are unrelated to the bug KB 2552033 is designed to resolve, then they should not deploy the fix.
This is especially true since not all 0x00000044 stop errors are generated by the race condition that KB 2552033 will fix.
The best course of action for the vast majority of users is to wait for Windows 7 Service Pack 2 (SP2).
Microsoft currently plans to include KB 2552033 in the second service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, at which time it will distribute it to all users.
A specific release date for Windows 7 SP2 has yet to be made public, as is the case for any details about the upcoming upgrade, or about a potential public testing program.