I’ve run into another very annoying WSUS bug and this one deals with Computer Model information being corrupted when being entered into the SUS DB.

Crashing groups highlighted in red.

Twice I’ve encountered a bug where the WSUS console would crash every time I tried to browse the All Computers or Unassigned Computers groups, but it wouldn’t crash when I browse another sub-group.

I found a very useful blog post that showed how to fix it but I’m unable to find it now; however, I was able to remember the steps I took.

New Method

UPDATE 2020-02-08: I found an easier method of doing this. It still occurs a couple times a year.

Find the entry with the bad data. For me it’s usually the ComputerModel field.

 SELECT * FROM tbComputerTargetDetail
 WHERE ComputerModel
 NOT LIKE '[a-z]%'

Update the bad data to anything else. (I normally choose ‘blank’)

 UPDATE tbComputerTargetDetail
 SET ComputerModel = ''
 WHERE TargetID = '<targetid>'

Old Method

Using SSMS, export the table tbComputerTargetDetail to a csv. (Select * query, then save the results as csv.)
Sort the various columns to find the one with the box (like an unknown character). This is the corrupt entry. For me, it’s always been the ComputerModel field.
Note the TargetID #.
You can use the TargetID number in the tbComputerTarget table to find out the hostname of the offending machine for a permanent fix.
```
 SELECT FullDomainName
 FROM [SUSDB].[dbo].[tbComputerTarget]
 WHERE TargetID = '<targetid#>'
```

Blank out the field with the bad data.

 UPDATE [SUSDB].[dbo].[tbComputerTargetDetail]
 SET ComputerModel=''
 FROM [SUSDB].[dbo].[tbComputerTargetDetail]
 WHERE TargetID='<targetid#>'

WSUS will be working again.

For a more permament fix, I’ve only needed to update the BIOS on the workstation.