Generic Host Process - MSI.DLL - Windows is no longer functional

On September 27th, when I was shutting down my PC, there were pending windows
updates and it shows a progress 1 of 1 installing updates during shutdown.
Some time into the process I got an svchost.exe - Application Error.

The instruction at 0x745f2780 referenced memery at 0x00000000. The memory
could not be read. After that errror the machine would no longer respond.

Now every time I boot, about a minute after windows boots, regardless if I
login or just leave the login prompt up, I get the same error. If I send the
bug report or click OK or Cancel to the error, windows stops respond and will
not even shut down.

My system is no longer usable.

"NickR" wrote:

> On September 27th, when I was shutting down my PC, there were pending windows
> updates and it shows a progress 1 of 1 installing updates during shutdown.
> Some time into the process I got an svchost.exe - Application Error.
>
> The instruction at 0x745f2780 referenced memery at 0x00000000. The memory
> could not be read. After that errror the machine would no longer respond.
>
> Now every time I boot, about a minute after windows boots, regardless if I
> login or just leave the login prompt up, I get the same error. If I send the
> bug report or click OK or Cancel to the error, windows stops respond and will
> not even shut down.
>
> My system is no longer usable.

"NickR" <> wrote in message
news:A17E7AB5-B208-46E0-AD5C-...
> On September 27th, when I was shutting down my PC, there were pending
> windows
> updates and it shows a progress 1 of 1 installing updates during shutdown.
> Some time into the process I got an svchost.exe - Application Error.
>
> The instruction at 0x745f2780 referenced memery at 0x00000000. The memory
> could not be read. After that errror the machine would no longer respond.
>
> Now every time I boot, about a minute after windows boots, regardless if I
> login or just leave the login prompt up, I get the same error. If I send
> the
> bug report or click OK or Cancel to the error, windows stops respond and
> will
> not even shut down.
>
> My system is no longer usable.

Hi Nick
Can you get into your system at all - if yes can you answer the below.
Are you up to SP2 - what AV do you run - do you have a CD/DVD burner like
Nero - are you set to auto-receive updates and auto download and install
without any input from yourself - what are the KB numbers offered in this
download.
Rgds
Antioch

NickR,

Have you tried either booting the system to Safe Mode and/or utilizing
System Restore to roll the system back to just before the update
attempted to install ?

You fail to mention where msi.dll fits into the error message. Please
see this : The Automatic Updates service may stop responding
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914810

There is a Hotfix available for an issue with msi.dll. Please see the
info on that page concerning obtaining it, if that is the issue.


MowGreen [MVP 2003-2006]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============


NickR wrote:

> On September 27th, when I was shutting down my PC, there were pending windows
> updates and it shows a progress 1 of 1 installing updates during shutdown.
> Some time into the process I got an svchost.exe - Application Error.
>
> The instruction at 0x745f2780 referenced memery at 0x00000000. The memory
> could not be read. After that errror the machine would no longer respond.
>
> Now every time I boot, about a minute after windows boots, regardless if I
> login or just leave the login prompt up, I get the same error. If I send the
> bug report or click OK or Cancel to the error, windows stops respond and will
> not even shut down.
>
> My system is no longer usable.

NickR wrote:
> On September 27th, when I was shutting down my PC, there were pending windows
> updates and it shows a progress 1 of 1 installing updates during shutdown.
> Some time into the process I got an svchost.exe - Application Error.
>
> The instruction at 0x745f2780 referenced memery at 0x00000000. The memory
> could not be read. After that errror the machine would no longer respond.
>
> Now every time I boot, about a minute after windows boots, regardless if I
> login or just leave the login prompt up, I get the same error. If I send the
> bug report or click OK or Cancel to the error, windows stops respond and will
> not even shut down.
>
> My system is no longer usable.

As has now been reported in many places, this very frustrating problem
appears to have started sometime after the July updates.

See this thread in the
"microsoft.public.windows.server.update_servic es" newsgroup:

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...4-e79c86974dce

You can read the many suggested solutions, but to see what I've tried
you can start with my responses to Lawrence Garvin on 9-15-2006.

There are apparently many manifestations of this problem, with some
folks like you experiencing it at boot time, some while Windows is
running, and others at shutdown time when an update is pending (which
is the problem I'm experiencing on numerous computers). The common
factors are that it started after the July updates, and it occurs when
or after an update is attempted.

As I explained in detail there, to troubleshoot this I have disabled
all non-Microsoft startup programs, services, drivers, handlers,
components, BHOs, shell extensions, toolbars, etc., as well as many
Microsoft services I don't need. With Windows running at bare minimum,
I still have this problem. I also tried several suggested solutions,
all to no avail.

I am convinced this is a Microsoft problem induced by a recent update,
and may very well involve MSI.DLL. However, the suggested hotfix 914810
does not fix it, but instead changes the error to '0x476122d0'.
Uninstalling that hotfix makes it revert to the '0x745f2780' error. Of
course MSI.DLL did not get replaced recently, so there is obviously
some other factor involved.

For many of us this is becoming a critical situation, and we need a fix
very soon. The extremely frustrating thing about it is that no one can
tell us if or when Microsoft might even start to look at it, or how we
can get their attention to do so.

John Gruener
Americomp, Inc.

Same thing happend to me.
Just after installing last update I got SVCHOST.EXE error and my system stop
functioning.
After working arround the problem for three days I have found out that if
you have "Automatic updates service" enabled you get the error, but if you
disabled the service the system function but you cannot update your system.
Any more ideas?

"NickR" wrote:

> On September 27th, when I was shutting down my PC, there were pending windows
> updates and it shows a progress 1 of 1 installing updates during shutdown.
> Some time into the process I got an svchost.exe - Application Error.
>
> The instruction at 0x745f2780 referenced memery at 0x00000000. The memory
> could not be read. After that errror the machine would no longer respond.
>
> Now every time I boot, about a minute after windows boots, regardless if I
> login or just leave the login prompt up, I get the same error. If I send the
> bug report or click OK or Cancel to the error, windows stops respond and will
> not even shut down.
>
> My system is no longer usable.

Javier wrote:
> Same thing happend to me.
> Just after installing last update I got SVCHOST.EXE error and my system stop
> functioning.
> After working arround the problem for three days I have found out that if
> you have "Automatic updates service" enabled you get the error, but if you
> disabled the service the system function but you cannot update your system.
> Any more ideas?

I'm out of ideas.

Are you saying that you get the error even when you update manually
from the Microsoft update site?
http://update.microsoft.com/microsof...6/default.aspx

Updating manually from the automatically-downloaded hotfixes, or from
the Microsoft update site, appears to work for most folks. However, in
a corporate environment with tens or hundreds of PCs, this is not a
viable solution.

We need help from Microsoft on this.

Does any MVP here have access to a Microsoft employee that can tell us
if they are working on this problem, or that they will work on it if
they are not already doing so?

JohnG

Reply contextualised/intertwined for brevity

"JohnG" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...


> I'm out of ideas.
>
You are not alone- but then I didnt have that many of my own.
>
> We need help from Microsoft on this.
>
> Does any MVP here have access to a Microsoft employee that can tell us
> if they are working on this problem, or that they will work on it if
> they are not already doing so?

Alas, no. My recent understanding is that some MVPs did have the ear of
some MS employees, but that this link does not exist :-(. Well only in a
very few cases.
One did pop into this group from MS with a suggestion re svchost.exe
Worked for some but not others.

They may pop back.

Rgds
Antioch

Yes, that's right.
To manually update from the microsoft update center I got to have the
Automatic updates service started and the type of service in automatic, even
though I have disabled automatic updates in Security Center.
I can update manually from the general download center, but I think that not
all the updates are there because the last one that crashed my system was a
windows defender update (I know because I could repeat the faliure situation
several times and always crashed trying to install this update). This update
does not apear at general download center.
Unisntalling windows defender everything seems to be alright, but there are
not updates to install at this moment. I don't kown what can happend the next
time I have to update anything. I think it'll crash again.

I read your previus post and read the posts in the link you mention, they
were very useful to get to a better situation than I was. Thanks for your
help.

Javier

"JohnG" wrote:

> Javier wrote:
> > Same thing happend to me.
> > Just after installing last update I got SVCHOST.EXE error and my system stop
> > functioning.
> > After working arround the problem for three days I have found out that if
> > you have "Automatic updates service" enabled you get the error, but if you
> > disabled the service the system function but you cannot update your system.
> > Any more ideas?
>
> I'm out of ideas.
>
> Are you saying that you get the error even when you update manually
> from the Microsoft update site?
> http://update.microsoft.com/microsof...6/default.aspx
>
> Updating manually from the automatically-downloaded hotfixes, or from
> the Microsoft update site, appears to work for most folks. However, in
> a corporate environment with tens or hundreds of PCs, this is not a
> viable solution.
>
> We need help from Microsoft on this.
>
> Does any MVP here have access to a Microsoft employee that can tell us
> if they are working on this problem, or that they will work on it if
> they are not already doing so?
>
> JohnG
>
>

I just wipe out a client's computer and reinstalled XP Pro from scratch.
Install SP2 and then started installing all the updates. On the second set of
updates, the computer rebooted and I received the same error message. This is
a clean machine with nothing but Microsoft on it. It definitely is related to
the Microsoft updates. This is happening two other clients as well, one on
their 2003 server and the other is xp pro.

"Javier" wrote:

> Yes, that's right.
> To manually update from the microsoft update center I got to have the
> Automatic updates service started and the type of service in automatic, even
> though I have disabled automatic updates in Security Center.
> I can update manually from the general download center, but I think that not
> all the updates are there because the last one that crashed my system was a
> windows defender update (I know because I could repeat the faliure situation
> several times and always crashed trying to install this update). This update
> does not apear at general download center.
> Unisntalling windows defender everything seems to be alright, but there are
> not updates to install at this moment. I don't kown what can happend the next
> time I have to update anything. I think it'll crash again.
>
> I read your previus post and read the posts in the link you mention, they
> were very useful to get to a better situation than I was. Thanks for your
> help.
>
> Javier
>
> "JohnG" wrote:
>
> > Javier wrote:
> > > Same thing happend to me.
> > > Just after installing last update I got SVCHOST.EXE error and my system stop
> > > functioning.
> > > After working arround the problem for three days I have found out that if
> > > you have "Automatic updates service" enabled you get the error, but if you
> > > disabled the service the system function but you cannot update your system.
> > > Any more ideas?
> >
> > I'm out of ideas.
> >
> > Are you saying that you get the error even when you update manually
> > from the Microsoft update site?
> > http://update.microsoft.com/microsof...6/default.aspx
> >
> > Updating manually from the automatically-downloaded hotfixes, or from
> > the Microsoft update site, appears to work for most folks. However, in
> > a corporate environment with tens or hundreds of PCs, this is not a
> > viable solution.
> >
> > We need help from Microsoft on this.
> >
> > Does any MVP here have access to a Microsoft employee that can tell us
> > if they are working on this problem, or that they will work on it if
> > they are not already doing so?
> >
> > JohnG
> >
> >