October 27, 2004

11:14 AM

WinXP: my laptop downloaded a windows update (not sure what sort). Now, when I shut down, it tries to update my machine. I get a message saying that Windows is updating, and it advises me NOT to turn off my machine until it's done. But it continues to "update" forever. I've let it sit for two hours, and it still claims to be updating. Finally, with clenched teeth, I shut off the machine and rebooted. Everything seems okay. Now, whenever I shut down, it asks me if I want to install the upgrade or not. If I say yes, the machine stalls on that upgrading message. If I say no, it shuts down fine. I'm ok with saying no all the time, except that now I can't ever add any new updates. What should I do?
posted by grumblebee to (14 comments total)

I had something similar recently, but it wasn't *really* windows update happening. Check out the processes on your task manager, and see what's actually running. I recently got a trojan that was masquerading as windows update. I was able to get rid of it through ad-aware.

If it's not really windows update, you can find out what the process is that's eating up all your CPU time, google for it, and kill it.
posted by jasper411 at 12:05 PM on October 27, 2004

There's a freebie Control Panel that lets you decide what does and does not happen during boot, that might be useful in turning off the updater.


I've lately come more aware that I seldom hear complaints about MacOS, and have never encountered someone unhappy that s/he made the switch. Hmmmm.
posted by five fresh fish at 12:13 PM on October 27, 2004

If it is really a Windows update that got partially installed, you may be able to uninstall it from control panel. Then you can re-download the update and install properly.
posted by rhapsodie at 12:27 PM on October 27, 2004

Sounds a lot like Xombe. Make sure your trojan/virus definitions are updated and run a scan.

I've lately come more aware that I seldom hear complaints about MacOS, and have never encountered someone unhappy that s/he made the switch. Hmmmm.

Haven't we established that "get a Mac" isn't an appropriate response to a PC question? Keep your evangelical urges in check-- your religion costs more than Scientology and it's less amusing.
posted by Mayor Curley at 12:45 PM on October 27, 2004

Thanks for all your help. One problem with the "get a Mac" solution is that people who have been using one platorm for years have probably invested a huge amount of money in software. If I got a mac, I would have to rebuy thousands of dollars worth of software. No thanks.
posted by grumblebee at 1:00 PM on October 27, 2004

The last XP update on my parents' computer took about 16 hours to complete. As per the Mayor, I checked and it was a legitimate update, not a trojan or a virus.
posted by mischief at 2:12 PM on October 27, 2004

Metafilter: Costs more than scientology and it's less amusing.
posted by SpecialK at 2:17 PM on October 27, 2004

Blow me hard, Curley, you great boob. Evangelical my hairy ass: I use a Toshiba with Win2K and a BSD boxen.

You've been a right prissy and pissy little prick these last few weeks. Get off your high horse, boy.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:06 PM on October 27, 2004

Blow me hard, Curley, you great boob.

You're not going to try to pay me for it in Canadian currency, right?
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:04 PM on October 27, 2004

Yeah. If I had a Mac I couldn't use Corel Draw. I love that enough in and of itself to use windows. And no, I've tried Illustrator and hated it already.
posted by shepd at 4:08 PM on October 27, 2004

Blow me hard, Curley, you great boob.

Wow, that was unnecessary.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:43 PM on October 27, 2004

Wow, that was unnecessary.

Whatever, cockface.
posted by Kwantsar at 6:17 PM on October 27, 2004

I might be the MeFi member who hates flame wars the most. Please do this in someone else's thread!
posted by grumblebee at 8:45 PM on October 27, 2004

You could also be having a problem with updates installed out of order. For example if you had 3 updates to install each released a month apart and update 3 got installed before update 1 and 2 in some cases update 1 and 2 won't install because update 3 has already been installed even though windows update correctly flags update 1 and 2 as needing to be installed. Some updates can not be uninstalled. Microsoft's oh so helpful solution is to reinstall windows. DAMHIKT

Anyways sometimes you can use the windows repair feature to fix this kind of problem. Boot off your windows disk and select repair. For this to work you need to have a repair floppy created before the error started occuring. Also I'd download the redistributable service pack two and install it after the repair but before you connect your broadband connection.
posted by Mitheral at 9:46 AM on October 28, 2004