Microsoft Fixes Windows 10 Update and Intel Driver Battery Drain

Microsoft finally fixed two known issues acknowledged over five months ago, causing higher than normal battery drain and update installation failure issues on Windows 10 devices.

The first one affected both client and server Windows 10, version 1903 platforms, while the second addressed issue impacted Windows 10, version 1903 and  Windows 10, version 1809 client platforms.

These two known issues were resolved on the same day Windows 10 November 2019 Update started rolling out (also known as Windows 10, version 1909) with bug fixes and feature improvements.

The company also released the November 2019 security updates designed to address 74 vulnerabilities, 13 of them being classified as Critical. The November 2019 Patch Tuesday also fixed an actively exploited critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability found in Internet Explorer.

No more battery drains, safeguard removed

Microsoft fixed a known issue impacting a range of Intel Display Audio device drivers (versions 10.25.0.3 through 10.25.0.8) that was found to be causing problems leading to higher than normal battery drain on devices running Windows 10 1903 and Windows 10 1809.

"If you see an intcdaud.sys notification or 'What needs your attention' notification when trying to update to Windows 10, version 1903, you have an affected Intel Audio Display device driver installed on your machine," said Microsoft in an update acknowledging the issue on the Windows 10 Health Dashboard in May.

At the time, Microsoft also put in place a new compatibility hold to block the Windows 10 May 2019 Update from being offered until users have installed updated device drivers as a preventative measure against any issues stemming from incompatible Intel Display Audio device drivers.

This known issue causing abnormal battery drain on Windows 10 devices with Intel Display Audio device drivers has now been resolved with updated drivers from Intel or the devices' manufacturers (OEMs).

Microsoft also removed the safeguard hold today, allowing customers to update to the latest Windows 10 version available through Windows Update.

Updates no longer failing to install

Microsoft initially confirmed in an update to the Windows 10 Health Dashboard from August that they were working to fix an issue causing updates to fail to install and displaying 'Error 0x80073701' for users who tried to install v1903 updates.

While users started reporting the side effects of this known issue the August 2019 Patch Tuesday updates, Redmond said at the time that the problem was known since May, with some users already having reported update problems after applying the KB4497935 cumulative update released on May 29.

Today, Microsoft updated the known issue's status, tagging it as 'Resolved' and stating that it "has been resolved for most users."

Users who are still receiving "Updates Failed. There were problems installing some updates, but we'll try again later" messages when attempting to install updates from Windows Update, as well as 0x80073701 and 0x800f0988 errors, are advised to check for updates again.

If that will not solve the issue, Microsoft recommends the following workaround procedure as mitigation:

Still active Windows 10 1903 safeguard holds

Right now there are only four compatibility holds left blocking some devices to upgrade to Windows 10, version 1903:

To make sure that a Windows device is compatible with the latest Windows 10 version, users should first read the Windows Processor Requirements and the Windows 10 System Requirements.

Microsoft also provides information on how Windows 10 customers can troubleshoot update problems and fix Windows Update errors.