XP sp3 won't update

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stuck
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XP sp3 won't update

Post by stuck »

I'm sitting at my parent's PC. It says XP SP3 and when I checked MS Update it said 121 updates. I started to apply these and part way through it crashed and rebooted. Now when I go to MS update I just get 'website has enountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view.

Before I take the nuclear option and reinstall from scratch any ideas?

Ken

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John Gray
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Re: XP sp3 won't update

Post by John Gray »

Perhaps clear all IE cookies?

I found that after installing Windows 7 with SP1 included, there were over 130 further/later updates to install, and they would never "take" in one batch, so I did them 30 or 40 at a time (a lot of tick-boxes), and after about the same number of reboots as batches, all was well...
John Gray

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stuck
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Re: XP sp3 won't update

Post by stuck »

OK, will try Ccleaner to tidy up things.

However, it's just given me a windows delayed write error. Think there might be something wrong with the hardware, perhaps a loose SATA cable as I think I've fallen foul of that on this PC before.

Ken

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stuck
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Re: XP sp3 won't update

Post by stuck »

No joy with a Ccleaner tidy up.

The basics on the PC work, IE and an ancient version of Thunderbird and that's all my parent's need really so I'm going to leave this for now. When I get a spare day or two I'll take the box home, check all the hardware, copy off all the data, hose down the HDD and do a clean re-install.

Ken

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Argus
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Re: XP sp3 won't update

Post by Argus »

Seems like a good idea, especially if you know that there have been some hardware related "problems" earlier, and you get problems with CCleaner.

However, after the "crash & reboot" and subsequent message from MU, have you checked that all that should be running is running? I.e. the BITS and AU services. Difficult, as you say; there can be several causes; services not running; dll files that are corrupt or not registered correctly (even odd ones such as wrong time, and hardware errors as you mentioned) etc. I don't know but in some cases there might be some "exit code", error code, which can help you solve the generic message "... has encountered a problem and cannot ...".

You receive a "Windows Update has encountered an error and cannot display the requested page" error message when you try to install an update [MSFT Win XP]

Here is blog post in the same vein, but also about updating the WU agent (the package mentioned in the post includes several files, but among them a dll file that has been mentioned in some cases as a good candidate to re-register).
http://blog.dabasinskas.net/solving-the ... ate-error/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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stuck
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Re: XP sp3 won't update

Post by stuck »

Thanks for the pointers Argus, they may yet prove useful but the error about WU not being able to display the page gave no further details, i.e. it didn't mention anything about service(s) not running/starting, it just said it couldn't display the page.

No doubt if I brought the PC back home I could then search the Internet / talk to everyone here via my own PC and eventually fix the machine but by far the quickest fix will be a clean install. I'll do that at my earliest opportunity.

Meanwhile, as I said the PC is not dead, it does email and IE can get to other websites, though I think the only one it gets used to visit is my personal webspace where I share pictures with them :laugh:

Ken

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Argus
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Re: XP sp3 won't update

Post by Argus »

stuck wrote:[...] it didn't mention anything about service(s) not running/starting, it just said it couldn't display the page.
I was thinking along the lines of an error code such as "0xXXX" etc. if any.
stuck wrote:[...] but by far the quickest fix will be a clean install. I'll do that at my earliest opportunity.
Yes, that's probably very likely.

An opportunity for a spring cleaning as well. :smile:
(We can at least pretend it's spring now, soon ...)
Byelingual    When you speak two languages but start losing vocabulary in both of them.