In a rather embarrassing disclosure on Friday, security software maker Symantec revealed that a bug in its antivirus software update had led to the crash of some Windows PCs last week; infuriating the users because the computers needed to be serviced before they could become operational again.

About the problem, Symantec said on its website that it was an update to the company's its widely-used enterprises-specific Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 and Norton antivirus software which led to the repeated crashing of some Windows XP-based computers, which showed the so-called "blue screen of death".

In the Friday post on the website, Symantec Security Response's Orla Cox said that it was after Symantec had applied "the July 11th revision 18 definitions" that reports of customers experiencing blue screens started pouring in. The customers affected by the problem told the company that they were forced to go through the tedious process of removing the software from crashed PCs.

Acknowledging the fact that the affected computers had to be serviced because they continued to show blue screen even after they were rebooted, Cox said that this problem seemingly occurs only on Windows XP systems.

According to Symantec, the identification of the problem by the company led it to immediately issue a rollback of signatures on Thursday. The company also said that the glitch was a result of "software compatibility issues that arose after an update was released late on Wednesday" and added that it will "compensate" the affected users.