On March 11, 2026 my Windows 11 Pro system seems to have automatically rebooted itself to apply an unknown software update. Following the reboot attempt, the system failed to boot with a Windows error message listing the “nllvmm.sys” driver as an unspecified problem - but implying it was missing. Upon opening a recovery console, I was able to determine that this driver did exist and had been updated that morning. Microsoft also did their normal “patch Tuesday” the night before which may have attempted to apply an unknown service patch. (Note: my Windows 11 system has been in an odd state for several years, where after automatically upgrading it to Windows 11 in 2022 (without asking me), in recent years Windows Update has refused to attempt to install any major OS update after 22H2. Windows 11 cannot be reinstalled on this system with an error basically saying the system with its older i7-5820k CPU isn’t good enough despite the fact that it’s been running Windows 11 22H2 for years perfectly).
Anyway, none of the normal Windows recovery procedures worked at all until I was forced to use the Windows 10 installation media to recover the system from a restorre point created the night before. (Of course the Windows 11 install media would not provide that option at all, because it failed after determining that it didn’t like my system which had been running Windows 11 for years). Once the recovered system came up I immediately did two things:
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Paused Windows updates from being applied.
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Removed Norton 360 Premium, since it was still unclear what software had tried to brick the system.
I subsequently found a nice third party utility that takes over the Windows Update process, now giving me complete control of each individual update it tries to install. Updating the daily Windows Defender updates has worked perfectly with no further issues.
So, did anyone else see this problem - specifically relating it to any Norton updates on or about March 10th? I don’t want to reinstall Norton 360 on my computer again if it’s going to break it again as you can imagine!
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions you may be able to provide! - David
Any chance you have used Norton Driver Updater app? That has been known to make a system unbootable.
You can try to boot to safe mode using these instructions.
- Turn on your PC. As soon as you see the Windows logo, press and hold the power button until the PC turns off.
- Repeat this process two more times.
- On the third restart, Windows will enter the Automatic Repair environment. Select Advanced options > Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart.
- Press 4 or F4 for Safe Mode.
Once you get into Safe Mode see if you have a System Restore Point you can use to go back to before you ran into the non boot issue.
@Warp009 By chance is this a Samsung device ? Users with those specific devices are seeing the last monthly update on March 10, 2026 from Microsoft cause drive C: to not be usable. Please review this article below:
Edited: Can you tell whether one or both of these updates got installed?
SA
Thanks for your reply! Yep, my boot drive is a Samsung EVO 870 (500GB)! I had Windows Update wipe out my entire Windows 10 system near 10 years ago because one of their “routine updates” destroyed any systems using these SSDs as a boot device.
I looked through the history that Windows Update keeps (not sure if it’s valid after restoring the system from a restore point?) and as usual didn’t see anything suspicious other than KB4052623 (Update for Microsoft Defender Antivirus antimalware platform) being applied on March 11th, the day this happened. Now that I’m using CariFread’s WAU Manager to take over Windows Update’s functionality, I can prevent this update from being applied as long as necessary - but it’s unclear how I’ll ever know if it’s really ever fixed or not… I’ll try reading through the patch’s description to see if I can learn anything there - but that looks like a likely smoking gun at this point!
As mentioned in my original post, Windows Update hasn’t tried to install a major Windows 11 update since 22H2, usually just picking up the occasional .Net, PowerShell, Windows Defender updates, and the monthly Malicious Software Removal Tool. I count it as a blessing that none of the recent 25Hx updates have been applied at all! -
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On an older laptop, I downloaded an ISO for Windows 11 25H2 directly from Microsoft and setup the laptop using it. The installation went as expected, however, only version 21H1 installed causing a secondary issue regarding Windows Updates. Microsoft WILL NOT push new version updates when that old version is installed. I wiped the laptop, redid the ISO install to USB and found that. Formatting the USB device to exFat was the issue. No archiving or restore is available with that format. The second install went right to 25H2 as it should.
I suppose my boilerplate is that, your issue is most likely a Microsoft issue they are working to resolve. The idea you are using is also a good thing in your instance as it fits your needs not to update.
SA