Hi -
appreciate any assistance with this, I’m providing some logs as per the sticky.
This XP PC is sluggish, and neither Windows updates nor automatic updates are working.
Thanks for any assistance.
Dave
What error does windows updates give ?
Warning This fix is only relevant for this system and no other, using on another computer may cause problems
Be advised that when the fix commences it will shut down all running processes and you may lose the desktop and icons, they will return on reboot
Run OTL
[*]Under the Custom Scans/Fixes box at the bottom, paste in the following
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73555776/OTL_Fix.GIF
:Commands
[CREATERESTOREPOINT]
:OTL
[2009/11/20 10:44:29 | 000,000,000 | ---D | M](C:\Documents and Settings\Dave New\My Documents\a?sembly) -- C:\Documents and Settings\Dave New\My Documents\a?sembly
[2009/11/20 10:44:29 | 000,000,000 | ---D | M](C:\Documents and Settings\Dave New\My Documents\?asks) -- C:\Documents and Settings\Dave New\My Documents\?asks
[2009/11/20 10:44:29 | 000,000,000 | ---D | C](C:\Documents and Settings\Dave New\My Documents\a?sembly) -- C:\Documents and Settings\Dave New\My Documents\a?sembly
[2009/11/20 10:44:29 | 000,000,000 | ---D | C](C:\Documents and Settings\Dave New\My Documents\?asks) -- C:\Documents and Settings\Dave New\My Documents\?asks
:Commands
[resethosts]
[emptytemp]
[Reboot]
[*]Then click the Run Fix button at the top
[*]Let the program run unhindered, reboot the PC when it is done
[*]Open OTL again and click the Quick Scan button. Post the log it produces in your next reply.
Essexboy, thanks for looking at this for me.
Windows update, at this point, after you click on either Express or Custom in IE8,
the green progress bar moves from left to right forever, it never comes back with anything.
Task Manager shows svchost.exe using 50% (of a dual core cpu) and I have to kill it.
I ran the Microsoft “fixit” for WU, and after it was complete, it gives me the following:
Service registration is missing or corrupt - not fixed
Problems installing recent updates - not fixed.
I’ve never seen this before, hence my suspicion about the system. My 9 year old daughter has a limited account
and she plays all kinds of games and music from various websites, etc,etc. Avast is active and I thought that along
with her non-admin account, chances of infection were low.
Here’s the followup otl.log
I do not believe this to be an infection
Could you run this small programme and let me know if it cures the problem http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/repair_windows_updates.html
Select the direct download
Not the result of an infection? Perhaps nothing got in; yesterday I saw something in the temp folder
after running the ESET standalone scanner - a solitary DLL related to Open Candy. I guess what ever it
was, it didn’t harm the system.
Here is the extent of the tweaking.com WU repair tool log:
Log:
Repair Windows Updates
Start (11/13/2013 2:38:07 PM)
Running Repair Under Current User Account
Running Repair Under System Account
Done (11/13/2013 2:38:13 PM)
Total Repair Time: 00:00:06
Unfortunately it hasn’t resolved the problem. I tried the command sfc /purgecache followed by sfc /scannow earlier,
once again no errors were found. Perhaps something in the system has become unregistered or corrupted ?
EDIT Essexboy, it started to work. I used System Restore to go back in time two hours. System restarted OK,
no sign that anything had changed. Uninstalled and cleaned up all the Microsoft dotnet releases.
While reinstalling, the system crashed with a blue screen. After restarting, I noticed the automatic uodates icon appear in the tray,
first time I’d seen it in a while
My settings were “download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them”. I think, normally, when this is set,
the updates are downloaded, prepared and you get notification to install them during shutdown. If you never shutdown, but
only restart, there’s no notification that I can see. Furthermore, I don’t think WU will let you do anything, while these updates
are pending.
I’m wondering if the fact that the updates were pending and I hadn’t shut the machine to install them was the problem all along?
Seems too simple an explanation. I’m going to change the setting to “notify me but don’t automatically download or install them”
and see if it’s working properly.
That could be a possibility as it would be waiting to install the older updates before checking for new
Sorry for cutting in on this thread, but since Essexboy has already noted it’s not an infection after reviewing your PC’s logs, I figured it would be o.k. to chime in (sorry if we’re not supposed to post in the “Virus/Worm” section of the forum).
Windows update agent running in svchost.exe using up all of your CPU is a known issue in some XP machines. Windows Auto Update can put your PC in this svchost lockup situation, so you could turn off auto update at the risk of missing an important update (bad idea). Unfortunately, even if you turn off Windows auto update, when you manually check for an update you can still get your PC in the svchost.exe CPU lockup anyway. The “fixit” and previous KB’s don’t seem to work reliably to correct this situation so I can’t give you a permanent fix. From the information I’ve read, it’s unknown if this XP Windows update problem is just in the XP system itself or a Microsoft server issue in dealing with the XP update (or combo of the two), but most people have come to the conclusion that Microsoft probably won’t fix this since XP’s days are coming to an end for support. To me, it looks like something is buggy on Microsoft’s server end because if you try to manually update after you’ve updated this month, it quickly checks for updates with no svchost.exe lockup at all. Go ahead and try a manual Windows update now you’ve got November’s updates installed, and you’ll see how fast it works (like it used to for all of these years).
After researching this online and talking to an IT person who has seen this on several XP machines the last two Patch Tuesdays, it looks the best course of action is to simply let your machine sit and spin for several minutes and let it update. If you are manually updating through the XP’s control panel, pick a time next month on Patch Tuesday were you don’t mind leaving it running/updating for however long it takes (have seen reports it can take an hour or more!).
There are plenty of reports/complaints/articles online, mostly filled with frustration over the situation.
essexboy/klinker
perhaps the problem is the automatic updates mechanism itself. The xp install in question has been in use for about 10 years
without reinstall/repair. As part of the MS “fixit”, the aggressive mode wiped out the WU history and the softwaredistrubuton folder.
Since that was reset, the whole thing is much more responsive, for example - using manual WU in IE8.
It seems sometimes the system wants to install updates at shutdown, but there’s no icon in the tray to remind you.
If the updates are allowed to remain pending for too long, seems as if it’s a problem.
On the other hand, I usually have AU set to “notify me but don’t automatically download or install them”,
the icon appears, you select the updates, after they’re downloaded the installation starts immediately,
and you normally have to restart the system to allow them to finish installing. At least this way, you don’t “forget”
about them - causing these kinds of issues.
I have fixed a similar Windows Update problem on one of my computers with Windows XP. I’ve tried the following tools without success:
- MicrosoftFixit.wu.LB.63307294324470577.1.1
- ResetWindowsUpdate
- Dial-a-Fix 0.60.0.24
- Windows Repair 2.0.1
And finally… I’ve downloaded WinUpdateFix by Xplode:
http://general-changelog-team.fr/en/downloads/viewdownload/20-outils-de-xplode/11-winupdatefix
http://general-changelog-team.fr/fr/downloads/viewdownload/20-outils-de-xplode/11-winupdatefix
This program is easy to use and fix the problem for my PC.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9403/e31s.jpg
I have clicked on each button “Activer” (activate), “Démarrer” (start) and “Automatique” (automatic) of the Services for Windows Update.
Next, I’ve clicked on “Tous” (all) to set all the fix at same time. And, finally, I’ve clicked on “Exécuter” (Run) to start the repair of Windows Update. After this fix, the program Windows Update with Internet Explorer works again!
Later, after 127 updates installed by Windows Update, I have got a little problem with BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service), solved with help of this page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916251/en
When the BITS service was wrong, I had a strange name given to “Background Intelligent Transfer Service” in the services list and BITS service can’t start and new updates can’t be installed anymore by Windows Update program.
Now, Windows Update works normally on my PC. I hope this is a (good) solution for you too… (sorry for my bad english)
A new programme that I will check it out, the author is reputable 
bernado,
thanks for the info. I also had that strange problem with BITS, and found that the tools section in dial-a-fix
was able to restore it to normal operation. I always thought BITS should have a startup type of manual,
seems to be automatic now - but WU working fine. I’m going to leave it that way.
Dave
dave, you’re right!
The normal state for BITS service is Stopped and Manual starting. After few Windows updates (or just rebooting), the BITS service has recovered his normal state. I think the WUAUSERV service restart BITS service when needed. When I force a service to start with WinUpdateFix, the program displaying a message that the service is started, but no error message will be displayed if the service can’t start.
When I tried to repair BITS, I did not think to use Dial-a-fix (the Tools menu) because I mostly use Windows 7 and sometimes Windows XP (Dial-a-fix works almost only on XP)…