Problems with "Windows Genuine Advantage" module after today's upd

[Guest Edward Ripley-Duggan]

This morning, I found a substantial group of Windows XP, Media, and Explorer

updates indicated as needing download in the tray. I duly ran these.

Immediately after rebooting, my machine (a Dell Dimension 5150) became

unstable. Upon booting into my desktop, an error message appeared indicating

that there was an error in the Windows Genuine Advantage Module. More

distressingly, I was from then on unable to run *any* programs.

 

I went into safe mode and rolled back the system 24 hours. I restarted and

my machine ran in a stable fashion. I then re-downloaded only the four

specific Windows XP patches, as I consider these to be the most crucial since

I don't use IE or Media. These are (KB936021), (KB938828), (KB921503), and

(KB938829). After downloading these and rebooting, the instability

immediately returned, with the same error message. FWIW, my Windows XP Pro is

indisputably genuine (it came from Dell with the machine, over a year ago), I

have not changed my machine configuration an iota. Something in one of these

four patches seems to be causing a serious issue.

 

This has caused me a good deal of stress (my first reaction was, sorry to

say, to yell at my daughter, who had gone onto my machine subsequent to patch

installation without letting me know). Is anyone able to tell me how these

patches may be safely added? Right now, I have instructed Windows Update not

to download them, but that leaves several vulnerabilities, which I dislike. I

have not tried to isolate which patch is at fault (as I don't like repeatedly

rolling back the system). Thanks in advance.

 

Edward

[Guest LadyDungeness@Fish.Net]

I'm not a tech, just a wary user. In my experience, patches cause

trouble about three times a year. Sometimes just annoying, other

times so severe they prevent me from working and take up hours -- even

days -- of my time to fix.

 

Thank god you have a restore point. That may be your best course of

action, unless you want to stop using Automatic Updates and learn to

download each update, navigate through the MS links to the KB & MSO

articles, read them, figure out the techno-speak, and make a guess as

to which one will cause trouble.

 

For now, you can try installing each update, one at a time, with a

restore point before each, and see if you can ID the troublesome one.

Then you can install the others, and post here about the one that

causes a glitch.

 

 

Lady Dungeness

Crabby, but Great Legs!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:14:00 -0700, Edward Ripley-Duggan

<EdwardRipleyDuggan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

 

|This morning, I found a substantial group of Windows XP, Media, and Explorer

|updates indicated as needing download in the tray. I duly ran these.

|Immediately after rebooting, my machine (a Dell Dimension 5150) became

|unstable. Upon booting into my desktop, an error message appeared indicating

|that there was an error in the Windows Genuine Advantage Module. More

|distressingly, I was from then on unable to run *any* programs.

|

|I went into safe mode and rolled back the system 24 hours. I restarted and

|my machine ran in a stable fashion. I then re-downloaded only the four

|specific Windows XP patches, as I consider these to be the most crucial since

|I don't use IE or Media. These are (KB936021), (KB938828), (KB921503), and

|(KB938829). After downloading these and rebooting, the instability

|immediately returned, with the same error message. FWIW, my Windows XP Pro is

|indisputably genuine (it came from Dell with the machine, over a year ago), I

|have not changed my machine configuration an iota. Something in one of these

|four patches seems to be causing a serious issue.

|

|This has caused me a good deal of stress (my first reaction was, sorry to

|say, to yell at my daughter, who had gone onto my machine subsequent to patch

|installation without letting me know). Is anyone able to tell me how these

|patches may be safely added? Right now, I have instructed Windows Update not

|to download them, but that leaves several vulnerabilities, which I dislike. I

|have not tried to isolate which patch is at fault (as I don't like repeatedly

|rolling back the system). Thanks in advance.

|

|Edward

[Guest Edward Ripley-Duggan]

Re: Problems with "Windows Genuine Advantage" module after today's

 

I have done so. It's KB921503 that's the offending update. I'll place a

separate post on this list, as that's more likely to be picked up by MS

members.

 

> >

> > For now, you can try installing each update, one at a time, with a

> > restore point before each, and see if you can ID the troublesome one.

> > Then you can install the others, and post here about the one that

> > causes a glitch.

> >

> >

> > Lady Dungeness

> > Crabby, but Great Legs!

> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> >

[Guest Edward Ripley-Duggan]

Re: Problems with "Windows Genuine Advantage" module after today's

 

Thank god (and any other appropriate deities) indeed! This has been a

cautionary lesson, one which your remarks reinforce. While I don't have

updates set totally on automatic, I usually accept them without too much

thought or concern. I shall probably install these updates individually, as

you suggest, though I'm not in a rush to do so. Meanwhile. I have to

apologize to my daughter...

 

"LadyDungeness@Fish.Net" wrote:

> I'm not a tech, just a wary user. In my experience, patches cause

> trouble about three times a year. Sometimes just annoying, other

> times so severe they prevent me from working and take up hours -- even

> days -- of my time to fix.

>

> Thank god you have a restore point. That may be your best course of

> action, unless you want to stop using Automatic Updates and learn to

> download each update, navigate through the MS links to the KB & MSO

> articles, read them, figure out the techno-speak, and make a guess as

> to which one will cause trouble.

>

> For now, you can try installing each update, one at a time, with a

> restore point before each, and see if you can ID the troublesome one.

> Then you can install the others, and post here about the one that

> causes a glitch.

>

>

> Lady Dungeness

> Crabby, but Great Legs!

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>

[Guest LadyDungeness@Fish.Net]

Re: Problems with "Windows Genuine Advantage" module after today's

 

You sound like a pretty good father. :-)

 

 

Lady Dungeness

Crabby, but Great Legs!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:11:32 -0700, Edward Ripley-Duggan

<EdwardRipleyDuggan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

 

|Thank god (and any other appropriate deities) indeed! This has been a

|cautionary lesson, one which your remarks reinforce. While I don't have

|updates set totally on automatic, I usually accept them without too much

|thought or concern. I shall probably install these updates individually, as

|you suggest, though I'm not in a rush to do so. Meanwhile. I have to

|apologize to my daughter...

|

|"LadyDungeness@Fish.Net" wrote:

|

|> I'm not a tech, just a wary user. In my experience, patches cause

|> trouble about three times a year. Sometimes just annoying, other

|> times so severe they prevent me from working and take up hours -- even

|> days -- of my time to fix.

|>

|> Thank god you have a restore point. That may be your best course of

|> action, unless you want to stop using Automatic Updates and learn to

|> download each update, navigate through the MS links to the KB & MSO

|> articles, read them, figure out the techno-speak, and make a guess as

|> to which one will cause trouble.

|>

|> For now, you can try installing each update, one at a time, with a

|> restore point before each, and see if you can ID the troublesome one.

|> Then you can install the others, and post here about the one that

|> causes a glitch.

|>

|>

|> Lady Dungeness

|> Crabby, but Great Legs!

|> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

|>