[JC.in.van]

for a while now I have been struggling with windows update: one or more update(s) is/are not compatible with my computer, but which one? installing each one by one and waiting to see if it screws things up is a painful, lengthy and annoying process, if anyone as identified a troublesome update please let me know, I currently have up to 26 updates pending installation...

if I install updates auto my computer gets sluggish and start to crash especially media center. my computer work great right now so I'm tempted to just ignore the damn stupid updates...

Appreciate any input on this subject. thanks in advance.

[amon91]

Well, I think you're doing the right thing: installing all updates one by one until you start having problems. Once you figured out which one is causing you trouble please let us know here so we can help.

[JC.in.van]

Thanks for the reply, thing is this has been going on for months and at the going rate will take me another many months maybe years... this is why I was hoping someone else that may have suffered similar trouble could give me a jump start. Frankly I would have switch to Mac a long time ago... if I could afford it and it didn't mean starting all over from scratch (like moving to Japan)

This post has been edited by JC.in.van: 13 November 2009 - 06:07 PM

[amon91]

JC.in.van, on 13 November 2009 - 06:06 PM, said:

Thanks for the reply, thing is this has been going on for months and at the going rate will take me another many months maybe years... this is why I was hoping someone else that may have suffered similar trouble could give me a jump start. Frankly I would have switch to Mac a long time ago... if I could afford it and it didn't mean starting all over from scratch (like moving to Japan)

Well, I can't see why that would take years. You can just install all updates one by one and see when you start having problems, that can be done in one day. Are you running Vista SP2 already? If so that rules out the chance a service pack could be messing with your system.

[JC.in.van]

amon91, on 13 November 2009 - 07:20 PM, said:

JC.in.van, on 13 November 2009 - 06:06 PM, said:

Thanks for the reply, thing is this has been going on for months and at the going rate will take me another many months maybe years... this is why I was hoping someone else that may have suffered similar trouble could give me a jump start. Frankly I would have switch to Mac a long time ago... if I could afford it and it didn't mean starting all over from scratch (like moving to Japan)

Well, I can't see why that would take years. You can just install all updates one by one and see when you start having problems, that can be done in one day. Are you running Vista SP2 already? If so that rules out the chance a service pack could be messing with your system.

You're probably right, thing is I record tv shows so restarting the computer has to fit between recordings... but I thought that I would install the latest update for each issue and ignore the older ones... what do you think about that. the computer often hangs on start-up at the Microsoft Corporation screen sometimes for hours... any tips on how to find out what it hangs up on?

SP2 is installed.

[amon91]

JC.in.van, on 14 November 2009 - 01:12 AM, said:

You're probably right, thing is I record tv shows so restarting the computer has to fit between recordings... but I thought that I would install the latest update for each issue and ignore the older ones... what do you think about that. the computer often hangs on start-up at the Microsoft Corporation screen sometimes for hours... any tips on how to find out what it hangs up on?

SP2 is installed.

That's a possible symptom of malware. Run a scan with Malwarebytes just in case.

[JC.in.van]

I did and it said I was clean. I have a new problem now media center can't "see" my TV tuner or it thinks it's been used by another program...

I tried creating a rescue disk on a flash drive but it won't boot and I can't burn a cd cause it always says the device is busy.

I just tried for the past 2 hours to install windows 7 but that failed as well it won't boot after the first restart. I making a copy of vista on a different disk right now and I'll try "updating to windows 7" see if that works... if all fails I'll do a vista/HP recovery back to "factory install" and start over (this is what I had to do the first time the "tuner" issue arrised.

I'm also trying to clean up the windows and the registry with some utilities I have, see if that helps any.

[mich]

amon91, on 14 November 2009 - 07:20 AM, said:

JC.in.van, on 13 November 2009 - 06:06 PM, said:

Thanks for the reply, thing is this has been going on for months and at the going rate will take me another many months maybe years... this is why I was hoping someone else that may have suffered similar trouble could give me a jump start. Frankly I would have switch to Mac a long time ago... if I could afford it and it didn't mean starting all over from scratch (like moving to Japan)

Well, I can't see why that would take years. You can just install all updates one by one and see when you start having problems, that can be done in one day. Are you running Vista SP2 already? If so that rules out the chance a service pack could be messing with your system.

I had the same problem but have successfully installed SP2 but I still have the problems

[JC.in.van]

I'm already running on Sp2 for quite some time now... The computer works great most of the time, but after a while (could be a week, a month or 2) all hell seem to break loose, usually recovery to an earlier date fixes it, but not always. Like there's a ghost in the machine! All seems well now I ran Uniblue registry booster ( found 200+ errors on the first run) and it's working good again. I also installed tune-up 2010. I haven't had time to install any of the pending updates yet. odd thing is, after [uniblue] corrected the errors and restarted the system the second scan found another 50+ errors. it's as if the system is unstable and screws itself up all the time... anyway still working on it. Also checking out Ubuntu for an alternative...

Mich, tell me more about your problems, I believe the more of us comparing notes the faster we will pinpoint this "ghost"...

[JC.in.van]

Hi everyone and thanks for the help, to speed up the process I started installing the updates in packets instead of one at a time I will then break down the offending packet in smaller packets...

Updated my drivers (display, network card)

now I get this message in Media Center: "component registration failure" I looked this up and found it to be an XP issue, which has lead me to realize that this may be all due to my own stupidity: I remember now that I uninstalled something called net.framework 1.1 since I had net.framework 3.5 sp1 version installed. Could this be all my own doing? Do I need to have all net.framework versions installed?

Sure enough, I went ahead and reinstalled net.framework 1.1 and it's SP1 restarted and everything is working just fine so far, Media Center says it deleted my schedule because the file was corrupted, but it's all there.

So odd enough uninstalling net.framework 1.1 didn't cause any problems for months by it's absence, up until a certain update (don't know which one) came up that seemed to need it to function...

[amon91]

Well, Vista comes with .NET Framework 3.0 built-in, which is backwards compatible with .NET Framework 2.0 and 1.1. Not sure how that even showed up on your system, any tips here?

[mich]

JC.in.van, on 17 November 2009 - 03:27 PM, said:

Mich, tell me more about your problems, I believe the more of us comparing notes the faster we will pinpoint this "ghost"...

My problems include the following:
Important M/S updates will not install
Can not use system restore
A general slowing down of system in general
Continually get the message that the Drive C has errors
Can not use Vista “save files”
I have been onto Dell help line just a few minutes ago and they can not fix without a “DELL RESTORE” which wipes all the info on C, (I have used this before and it does work but you loose all files) They suggest that I purchase a separate external HD to save my files to. Not very impressed with this suggestion as it is still under Wty

Having cooled down a bit I accept that I should have an external HD as a backup system what do you think of - Seagate FreeAgent 3.5" 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive,

This post has been edited by mich: 20 November 2009 - 12:46 AM

[JC.in.van]

mich, on 19 November 2009 - 11:05 PM, said:

JC.in.van, on 17 November 2009 - 03:27 PM, said:

Mich, tell me more about your problems, I believe the more of us comparing notes the faster we will pinpoint this "ghost"...

My problems include the following:
Important M/S updates will not install
Can not use system restore
A general slowing down of system in general
Continually get the message that the Drive C has errors
Can not use Vista “save files”
I have been onto Dell help line just a few minutes ago and they can not fix without a “DELL RESTORE” which wipes all the info on C, (I have used this before and it does work but you loose all files) They suggest that I purchase a separate external HD to save my files to. Not very impressed with this suggestion as it is still under Wty

Having cooled down a bit I accept that I should have an external HD as a backup system what do you think of - Seagate FreeAgent 3.5" 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive,

Hi Mich,

Well, Seagate is my favorite brand, although I'm not familiar with the one you mention. Samsung is a good brand as well, I have been disappointed by Maxtor. If your box is not sealed, I recommend at least 2 partitioned internal drives (alternate boot options and faster transfers). Internal drives are usually cheaper. I have mine partitioned as follow:

disk 0; partition 1: operating system (80Gb)
partition 2: recovery (6Gb); factory install partition
partition 3: personal files (documents, pics, data)(rest of disk space, 230Gb)

disk 1; partition 1: alternate system (80Gb); this is a clone of a healthy system
partition 2: daily back-ups of system and files (rest of disk space, 385Gb)

disk 2; partition 1: Ubuntu (40 Gb)
partition 2: Recorded Tv, secondary back-ups, other large files(videos), and files that don't need to be backed-up like downloads, CD or DVD copies; (rest of disk space, 890Gb)

This last partition's files would be on disk 1; partition 2 if I had only 2 disks.

Of course I have external drives to which I make weekly backups and store archives and recorded movies I might want to watch at some later time.

I can relate to how you feel about Dell, I remember how I felt about HP when my box was still under warranty!

As for your problems, it might well be a lot easier to start over than to try to fix it. If you use Firefox make sure you save your profiles found here: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\ and back-up your bookmarks as well and your saved passwords!

Ounce recovered make sure the software you install is compatible, your drivers and system are updated before you start again and then Backup, Backup, Backup!

If you decide to fix it you may want to check-out this other great forum: http://www.windowsbb...searchid=438836

Also if you want to read how I fixed my problems: http://thewinforums....85&#entry378185

Good luck, and keep me posted!

This post has been edited by JC.in.van: 20 November 2009 - 08:23 AM

[mich]

JC, This one At $152NZ seems a bargain write speed= 7200 rpm but it is heavy @ 2.2lbsMy link

Price $206.99 write speed = 5400rpm weight only 5.6ozs which seems odd?My link

Are you familiar with these??


Also this one was recomended on a forum do you know it ??
[500GB Transcend external hard drive that is drop tested to military standards] My link

This post has been edited by mich: 20 November 2009 - 09:17 PM

[JC.in.van]

mich, on 20 November 2009 - 09:15 PM, said:

JC, This one At $152NZ seems a bargain write speed= 7200 rpm but it is heavy @ 2.2lbsMy link

Price $206.99 write speed = 5400rpm weight only 5.6ozs which seems odd?My link

Are you familiar with these??


Also this one was recomended on a forum do you know it ??
[500GB Transcend external hard drive that is drop tested to military standards] My link

For me it kind of boils down to price/ size ratio with the faster speed (7200 RPM and Data Transfer Rate (in Mbps). But you may want to take noise into consideration as well, I have a 1Tb Digital Research drive with a noisy built in fan (my Seagate 1Tb internal is very quiet compared. I suppose I could disconnect the fan, but I'm worried it will overheat). As for Brand, as discussed previously only Maxtor as let me down so far. Western Digital is another brand making a name for itself, mine is still purring.
Another consideration is warranty.

Unless you intend to carry it around a lot and you're clumsy (no offense intended) you probably don't need to consider military grade drop proof into the equation (unless it's a really good deal) nor portable (USB Bus powered, usually smaller and pricey). But if this is for a laptop, a portable is convenient, example of portables:

http://www.tigerdire...AIN#detailspecs
http://www.tigerdire...78&Sku=R40-0003

An big advantage of the internal drive is that it can also easily be converted to a USB drive with an enclosure.

Here in Canada I found really good prices on line using a comparison web site called Shop-to-It (Canada Direct and Tiger Direct been the 2 best online outlets) I don't know for NZ.

Well I think that pretty much covers it, if you get a warm fuzzy feeling about a product and the specs are good, it's probably the right one...

Enjoy,

JC

[osuwildlifer]

This topic is now resolved. Moved to Resolved Topics.