PSA FortiClient VPN (7.4.3.1790) weird BSOD with 10th gen Intel Processors
Backstory:
We're a small MSP that has a client with existing Fortinet equipment, which means they use FortiClient VPN, we also use Pulseway to do 3rd party patching with a delay to make software update a few weeks after new patches.
This Monday, April 14th, we got reports of pre-boot BSOD, specifically PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA and some driver related ones but in all cases the "what failed" was fortitransctrl_74.sys in c:\windows\system32\drivers
The most annoying part is you couldn't boot in safe mode, no matter what you tried it would always BSOD before the advanced start menu would appear.
To fix the issue we used Windows ToGo usb and renamed the misbehaving driver, computer would boot back up no problem.
The other weirdest part is it only happened to computers with intel 10th gen (10500T/10210U/10505), the OS breakdown was 5 Windows 11 and 2 Windows 10 but all windows 11 were not fresh installs but upgraded from Windows 10. This is with a client that has ~100 computers operating on average daily. The sample size it too small to really say it's a OS dependent but it only happened on those processors spread between multiple different models of Dell Laptops and AIOs.
We were able to fresh reinstall FortiClient VPN on the same computers that had BSODs after a full driver update from Dell and making sure C++ redistributable (VC_Redist both x86 and x64) was using the latest version, without further BSOD in 24+ hours.
