Acquire Player and WannaCrypt attacks

Question:

We have had a report of several Units showing a black screen, where a Screensaver video usually plays.  When the User touches the screen, the Project loads as normal but after the timeout period reverts back to a black screen.  We have not made any changes to the Project (such as Deployment), CMS (such as uploaded a new video) or changed any Codecs on the Unit.  What is the problem and how can this be resolved?

Resolution:

In the first instance, you should always check the Logs as this will provide vital information about the issue.

For Users running Acquire Player on Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 and may have recently applied a security update in lieu of the recent WannaCrypt or WannaCry RansomeWare attacks, before experiencing problems in playback.  We are aware of an issue where a Project screensaver video may stop working and log and Access Violation after the Microsoft Security Bulletin MS17-00 installed or was not installed correctly, e.g:

170523|054831|311|SlideShow: ERROR[2] loading media from C:\ProgramData\Acquire\1LLUM1ST51776\Helpers\RSSdata\GreenTriangle.avi. LogStep:73. Error:Access violation at address 0467E6E8 in module 'slideshow.acq'. Read of address 00000000|

To resolve this issue we advise you reapply the most current Microsoft Security Bulletin MS17-00 release.  Further information can be found here.  This can be also done using Windows Update.

Please note: typically, when Units are setup Windows Update is often disabled and therefore in this case the security update released by Microsoft in March 2017 (or later versions) may not been applied.  However, it is suggested by Microsoft that you immediately install these updates.  In any case we do not support Units potentially impacted by Viruses or Ransomware or subsequent problems caused by installing security updates, as this a Windows issue.