Microsoft has only just unleashed the October 2018 Update, but the big Windows 10 upgrade has already encountered its first technical hitch, hitting compatibility issues with some Skylake (6th-generation) or newer processors.
The issue is with the Intel Display Audio driver for some of those chips, and Microsoft notes that it may result in excessive processor usage, along with reduced battery life (the latter presumably because of the former, at least in part).
At any rate, if you’ve got a notebook with an affected Intel chip, diminished battery longevity is obviously very bad news.
You’ll know if this gremlin pertains to your machine if when you attempt to install the October 2018 Update, you get a ‘What needs your attention’ notification, which warns that the Intel Display Audio driver causes stability problems and will be disabled.
Whatever you do, don’t click the Confirm button to go ahead with the installation of the Windows update – because it will fail. Instead, simply close the dialog box and don’t attempt the upgrade.
Blocking move
Microsoft is moving to block the update being offered to affected machines anyway. As noted previously, Intel has said that this affects some Skylake or newer chips, using versions 10.25.0.3 through to 10.25.0.8 of this particular driver.
However, if you have Intel Graphics Driver 24.20.100.6286 or better on your PC, this reportedly already contains the fix for the issue (as it runs with version 10.25.0.10 of the Intel Display Audio driver). So you should be fine if this is the case, and no warning message should pop up.
Note that while Microsoft has made the Windows 10 October 2018 Update available to manually grab, the automatic rollout of the upgrade doesn’t actually kick off until October 9, as we’ve previously observed.
Don’t forget that we’ve got a full guide on how to download and install the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. Also, if you encounter any other issues, check out our guide on how to fix Windows 10 October 2018 Update problems.
