A
ahicks66
Computer is a Dell Optiplex GX520, refurbished by Joy Systems, running Windows 7. OEM Seagate hard drive failed last week (let me thank Windows 7 for reading my SMART and informing us of the impending media-level failure) and was replaced with a blank new WD drive. Win7 installed without a hitch, and I did the usual update-reboot-check for updates-update-reboot-check for updates-update-reboot cycle for several hours. Once all was said and done, every update reported by WinUpdate was performed, and no further updates were supposedly available.
Two days later, my mother reports the computer is running ridiculously slow, and browser windows open/close/minimize/maximize without user interaction. Upon closer inspection, WinUpdate was running in the background (not visible in elevated task manager except cleverly-hidden as System NT Kernel) and system memory usage was alternating between 98-99% for OVER FIVE HOURS. I attempted to shut down the computer to flush the RAM, which is how I found out all the RAM and CPU use was due to updates...
The usual "Do Not Turn Off Your Computer" message appeared, along with the "performing update 98 of 213." TWO HUNDRED THIRTEEN UPDATES miraculously appeared within two days... And the updates stalled at 98 (not 98%) for OVER NINE HOURS. I forced a hard reboot, and then spent over two hours waiting for Windows to self-heal the WinUpdate process, including running the Windows Update Troubleshooter.
As of this afternoon before I left for work, there were only 13 updates to be performed (where did the others go? We'll find out shortly...) and WinUpdate showed that previous updates had never been performed. (Where did the 87 that were performed yesterday go, and where did the others that I performed last Thursday?) I left it to do the thirteen updates while I was at work.
7 hours later I return home to discover the computer has now decided there are 208 updates to be performed, and it's stuck on #70. I clicked "Stop Installation" in the hopes that it'll finish #70 and then I can attempt to reboot in Safe Mode to try and finish these updates. I have waited over an hour for it to "stop."
I have five questions:
1. Why is Windows Update now crashing on a fresh install of Win7 when it worked flawlessly before?
2. Should I turn off Windows Firewall or McAfee LiveSafe during the update process?
3. Is there a better way to perform these updates all at once, or should I be installing them in many smaller groups? (By this I allude to required restarts that aren't being performed as a possible cause for failure/hanging?)
4. Why does WinUpdate perform multiple floppy drive seeks (sometimes as often as every ten-twenty seconds during some updates) when it never did this before?
5. Why are users required to restart (to install) updates before we can check for updates, which of course require us to restart again?
The ONLY things that have changed is replacing the hard drive with a faster, bigger drive, and the installation of McAfee LiveSafe. Everything else has remained the same (hardware and software are exactly the same configurations, the computer is completely stock with no add-on cards, peripherals are only keyboard, mouse, VGA monitor, Lexmark printer). PC connects to the internet via 1000 Mb/s NIC, Cat 5e cable directly to 1000 Mb/s router. Everything in device manager shows good (no exclamation points) and all drivers are current.
Thank you for any assistance you can provide! I'm at my wits' end here! And so is my mother (it's her computer, and she's about to throw it in a dumpster out of frustration).
I'd offer her my computer, but she would be even more frustrated with Win 8.1 and all the issues I'm having with that (which I won't even bother the forums with anymore - the techs haven't been able to help me with all the problems in this OS - they should have called it Win ME II!)
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Two days later, my mother reports the computer is running ridiculously slow, and browser windows open/close/minimize/maximize without user interaction. Upon closer inspection, WinUpdate was running in the background (not visible in elevated task manager except cleverly-hidden as System NT Kernel) and system memory usage was alternating between 98-99% for OVER FIVE HOURS. I attempted to shut down the computer to flush the RAM, which is how I found out all the RAM and CPU use was due to updates...
The usual "Do Not Turn Off Your Computer" message appeared, along with the "performing update 98 of 213." TWO HUNDRED THIRTEEN UPDATES miraculously appeared within two days... And the updates stalled at 98 (not 98%) for OVER NINE HOURS. I forced a hard reboot, and then spent over two hours waiting for Windows to self-heal the WinUpdate process, including running the Windows Update Troubleshooter.
As of this afternoon before I left for work, there were only 13 updates to be performed (where did the others go? We'll find out shortly...) and WinUpdate showed that previous updates had never been performed. (Where did the 87 that were performed yesterday go, and where did the others that I performed last Thursday?) I left it to do the thirteen updates while I was at work.
7 hours later I return home to discover the computer has now decided there are 208 updates to be performed, and it's stuck on #70. I clicked "Stop Installation" in the hopes that it'll finish #70 and then I can attempt to reboot in Safe Mode to try and finish these updates. I have waited over an hour for it to "stop."
I have five questions:
1. Why is Windows Update now crashing on a fresh install of Win7 when it worked flawlessly before?
2. Should I turn off Windows Firewall or McAfee LiveSafe during the update process?
3. Is there a better way to perform these updates all at once, or should I be installing them in many smaller groups? (By this I allude to required restarts that aren't being performed as a possible cause for failure/hanging?)
4. Why does WinUpdate perform multiple floppy drive seeks (sometimes as often as every ten-twenty seconds during some updates) when it never did this before?
5. Why are users required to restart (to install) updates before we can check for updates, which of course require us to restart again?
The ONLY things that have changed is replacing the hard drive with a faster, bigger drive, and the installation of McAfee LiveSafe. Everything else has remained the same (hardware and software are exactly the same configurations, the computer is completely stock with no add-on cards, peripherals are only keyboard, mouse, VGA monitor, Lexmark printer). PC connects to the internet via 1000 Mb/s NIC, Cat 5e cable directly to 1000 Mb/s router. Everything in device manager shows good (no exclamation points) and all drivers are current.
Thank you for any assistance you can provide! I'm at my wits' end here! And so is my mother (it's her computer, and she's about to throw it in a dumpster out of frustration).
I'd offer her my computer, but she would be even more frustrated with Win 8.1 and all the issues I'm having with that (which I won't even bother the forums with anymore - the techs haven't been able to help me with all the problems in this OS - they should have called it Win ME II!)
Continue reading...