ebrke Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 (edited) I'm trying to update a W2K box that has always updated without issues at Windows Update. Now it goes into an endless loop of "Checking for updates for your computer". It starts a svchost.exe process which, combined with iexplorer.exe, uses 100% of the CPU. It runs for 5+ minutes with no result. The svchost.exe process cannot be cancelled, says "not authorized", and I am running this session as Administrator. The only thing I can do is ctl+alt+del and shutdown the machine. I have cleared the temporary files in IE, and stopped the software firewall and it doesn't help. I MUST update this system--run by my 80-year-old mother! Does anyone have any suggestions. I have not attempted to get help from MS because in the past this has not been helpful and I've had to figure out problems by myself. However, I'm stumped. Edited September 16, 2006 by ebrke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James M. Fisher Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Is it possible to uninstall the last few updates via Add/Remove programs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrke Posted September 16, 2006 Author Share Posted September 16, 2006 (edited) In desperation, I manually downloaded and installed several updates using the Administrator function on Windows Update, so those would be the most recent. Also, I don't know how to determine the most recent updates--they only list the numbers in Add/Remove, no dates, so I guess I would have to find out what the numbers were. I hate using Administrator in Windows Update--you have to look through all 172 critical updates since the beginning of time and select the ones you want! Also in desperation, I installed the new Microsoft Update, so now I have links to both old and new in the start menu, both giving different problems. I guess I'll have to resort to emailing MS, when I've managed to work up the courage. Edited September 16, 2006 by ebrke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kkehoe Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Anything in the WindowsUpdate.log file, hopefully a 0x... type of error??Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 Elizabeth, I had the same problem on one of my 2K computers yesterday. I spent the day parked at the update site, watching the green thing move from left to right (1/2 hour of that, several times).Finally I searched here for a link I posted.This is where I went:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Browse....6D-CBE61F040027I selected Windows 2000 (clicked GO) and then I clicked on the Release date heading so I could see the latest. I was able to manually download 3 of the 4 updates needed.I installed those, rebooted and went to the Windows Update site again and it then worked for me. I grabbed the one item it said I needed.I hope this works for your mother's computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrke Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 (edited) Liz, thanks for the link, I will try it and then Windows Update again, although I'm not confident. I was going through all critical updates, ugh, so I really appreciate the link. Does your machine also run ZoneAlarm? The ZoneAlarm settings had been changed, I don't know how, I ask her never to click anything in a Zone Alarm box. However, even after I changed the settings back to what they used to be, I still bombed out at Windows Update. Even stopping Zone Alarm didn't work. At least I know I'm not the only one. If all else fails, I do have a partition image from July 30--I might try going back to that and then doing the August and September updates, I haven't decided yet.EDIT: Unfortunately, your solution doesn't seem to work for me, Liz. I did get 3 updates yesterday going a different route than you used, 1 for IE (which she doesn't use) and 2 for windows. I'll have to keep working with it.EDIT: Found an update I missed yesterday which said it was for a problem that could keep you from downloading updates. Downloaded and applied that and it didn't work either. I do seem to have all the recent updates now, if I trust MS date-ordered list, so I guess I'm off the hook for the time being. Now off to Office Update for the PowerPoint fix. Wonder if I can get that. Edited September 17, 2006 by ebrke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrke Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 (edited) Okay, windowsupdate logfile has a WARNING about failing to evaluate an installed rule. The error is 0x80041017. When I google this, it appears to be an OLD (2005) problem with MS windows update scripts, which they fixed. Well, it didn't happen to me until September 2006, which makes no sense at all.I deleted the contents of the log file just to get it up to date, and later this week I will attempt to run windows update again and I guess then I will email the log file to MS support via the link on the windows update site. At least I am fairly satisfied that I have manually applied all the security fixes, which is pretty much what was concerning me. At Liz's link and also at the other site I was using yesterday, I can filter by date (was too tired and frustrated yesterday to explore and find that) so even if I have to continue downloading fixes manually, it's not such an overwhelming task. The Office Update site works just fine for me, however (one thing works, anyway). Edited September 17, 2006 by ebrke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 Elizabeth, I do run Zone Alarm but an old version 4.5.594 on both 2K computers. The one that refused to update is running a beta v2 of CounterSpy. As far as I'm aware, that is the only difference between them. So I completely turned off CS to see if that was creating my problem. It wasn't. I went thru the FAQs and other things to see if I could determine what might be the problem. I did not get an error message with a specific number - that is what was frustrating. I couldn't decide if it was working or frozen (except for that blasted green line). I even thought, well MS is annoyed because i don't allow auto-updates so they are taking longer than normal to scan my computer. That theory went out the window when the other 2K computer, updated in short order without any problems.There were 4 updates, if you include the malicious removal tool, so if you have the four, your mother's computer should be up to date.According to my history, on the good computer:KB890830, KB918899, KB920685, KB922582All but the first, the malicious software removal program are listed in Add/Remove programs of my computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSerge Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 I have an old Win2K laptop. It too sometimes acts up with windows updates. Sometimes it sits for 10 minutes then gives me a page load error, and usually hitting refresh and then waiting another 10 minutes works.what about automatic updates? So far that old laptop has no problems with auto updates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrke Posted September 23, 2006 Author Share Posted September 23, 2006 I really don't want to do auto updates, I'm a control freak, plus I don't want my mother possibly getting messages she doesn't understand. I don't allow my linux systems to auto update either--I'm an equal opportunity distruster! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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