Installed Microsoft Updates destroyed 4 PC's

I installed Miscrosoft Update ("upgraded" from Windows Update on four Dell
PC's tonight - 2 PowerEdge SC600 servers running Win2K, 1 Precision
workstation running XP Pro, and one older Dimension desktop running Win2K.

All four machines are now wrecked. The Precision WS won't even boot, the
Dimension and the PowerEdge servers boot but oddly enough can now access ANY
website except MS Update. When trying to access a MS site they hang for about
45 minutes between screen refreshes. Google, CNN, and numerous other sites
work fine!

They also hang completely when I try to open network connections in Control
Panel, or when I try System Restore, or any of the usual tools to get me out
of this fix.

XP System Restore didn't work and the Win2K repair console also didn't work.
All machines were otherwise up-to-date except the things that MS Update tried
to load tonight, and all have up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware
signatures and are behind a firewall.

NOTHING ELSE changed - just running MS Update did this.

Any ideas greatly appreciated. Thanks.

cidjcd wrote:

> I installed Miscrosoft Update ("upgraded" from Windows Update on four Dell
> PC's tonight - 2 PowerEdge SC600 servers running Win2K, 1 Precision
> workstation running XP Pro, and one older Dimension desktop running Win2K.
>
> All four machines are now wrecked. The Precision WS won't even boot, the
> Dimension and the PowerEdge servers boot but oddly enough can now access ANY
> website except MS Update. When trying to access a MS site they hang for about
> 45 minutes between screen refreshes. Google, CNN, and numerous other sites
> work fine!
>
> They also hang completely when I try to open network connections in Control
> Panel, or when I try System Restore, or any of the usual tools to get me out
> of this fix.
>
> XP System Restore didn't work and the Win2K repair console also didn't work.
> All machines were otherwise up-to-date except the things that MS Update tried
> to load tonight, and all have up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware
> signatures and are behind a firewall.
>
> NOTHING ELSE changed - just running MS Update did this.
>
> Any ideas greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Hi,

You haven't by any chance PowerChute 6.x UPS software installed on the
servers?

Also if Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 SP4 (KB891861) was installed
during your update process, I suggest you uninstall it and see if that
helps.



--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scr...r/default.mspx

Thanks for the reply Torgeir.

I spent a few hours on the phone with Dell after I had tried all the usual
things to restore the systems and they also had no idea what else to try.
This whole thing made me very cranky - how cruelly ironic that attempts to
update the OS to keep it secure would trash 4 completely different systems
for some unknown reason. Anyway, I've been investing the past few days
rebuilding from scratch...

Curious why you ask about Powerchute 6.x - I did indeed have it installed on
each of these machines that went down. Why??

Thanks again.

Jcd

"Torgeir Bakken (MVP)" wrote:

> cidjcd wrote:
>
> > I installed Miscrosoft Update ("upgraded" from Windows Update on four Dell
> > PC's tonight - 2 PowerEdge SC600 servers running Win2K, 1 Precision
> > workstation running XP Pro, and one older Dimension desktop running Win2K.
> >
> > All four machines are now wrecked. The Precision WS won't even boot, the
> > Dimension and the PowerEdge servers boot but oddly enough can now access ANY
> > website except MS Update. When trying to access a MS site they hang for about
> > 45 minutes between screen refreshes. Google, CNN, and numerous other sites
> > work fine!
> >
> > They also hang completely when I try to open network connections in Control
> > Panel, or when I try System Restore, or any of the usual tools to get me out
> > of this fix.
> >
> > XP System Restore didn't work and the Win2K repair console also didn't work.
> > All machines were otherwise up-to-date except the things that MS Update tried
> > to load tonight, and all have up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware
> > signatures and are behind a firewall.
> >
> > NOTHING ELSE changed - just running MS Update did this.
> >
> > Any ideas greatly appreciated. Thanks.
> Hi,
>
> You haven't by any chance PowerChute 6.x UPS software installed on the
> servers?
>
> Also if Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 SP4 (KB891861) was installed
> during your update process, I suggest you uninstall it and see if that
> helps.
>
>
>
> --
> torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
> Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of
> the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scr...r/default.mspx
>

cidjcd wrote:

> Thanks for the reply Torgeir.
>
> I spent a few hours on the phone with Dell after I had tried all
> the usual things to restore the systems and they also had no idea
> what else to try. This whole thing made me very cranky - how
> cruelly ironic that attempts to update the OS to keep it secure
> would trash 4 completely different systems for some unknown reason.
> Anyway, I've been investing the past few days rebuilding from
> scratch...
>
> Curious why you ask about Powerchute 6.x - I did indeed have it
> installed on each of these machines that went down. Why??
>
Hi,

There is a 99.9% chance that it was PowerChute v6 that caused your
issues, triggered by the reboot you did after installing the updates
from Microsoft.

A lot of people with similar issues that you had, have been posting
to the newsgroups lately, and it has come down to having Powerchute
6.x installed every time. Removing/disabling Powerchute 6.x solved
their problems.


PowerChute 6.x cases a lot of issues, much more than what is described
here:

PowerChute Business Edition - Customers Using 6.x Must Upgrade to 7.x
due to Java Runtime Environment expiration
http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en...p?p_faqid=7202

If you still want to use PowerChute, upgrading PowerChute to 7.x
is what you need to do.


--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scr...r/default.mspx