Microsoft is currently investigating reports of Windows 11 systems failing to boot following recent updates, according to a report from Cybersecurity News. As attention around the issue grows, technicians and IT teams are seeing an increase in systems stuck in boot loops, failing to load Windows, or halting during the boot process.

While update-related boot failures are often treated as software-only problems, real-world repair experience shows that operating system updates can expose underlying hardware instability that had not yet produced visible symptoms. Addressing the failure without confirming hardware health frequently leads to repeat issues after rollback or reinstallation.

In many of the reported cases tied to the current Windows 11 update investigation, affected systems display a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error during startup, often stopping the system before Windows can fully load. While this stop code is commonly associated with file system or boot configuration issues, real-world repair experience shows it can also surface when operating system updates expose underlying storage instability.

Over the past year, there have been increasing reports of Windows systems “bricking” following a Windows Update. By “bricking,” I mean that the system becomes entirely non-responsive. Although incidence rates vary — ranging from negligible (0%) in some environments to as high as 0.25% of managed systems per month — the issue raises significant concerns about the reliability and transparency of automated firmware updates.