Microsoft Update horribly broken, how do I uninstall/reinstall?

Hi all,

Microsoft Update is badly broken on my computer. I am seeing the
following:

On bootup, I get a popup message: "svchost.exe has generated errors
and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program.
An error log is being generated"

In the event viewer, I see the following:

System Log: Service Control Manager: Event ID: 7031: "The Automatic
Updates service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s).
The following corrective action will be taken in 0 milliseconds: No
action."

Application Log: Source ESENT: "wuaueng.dll (848) Unexpected Win32
error: 0x79"

If I try to sign into Microsoft Update, either through the icon in the
Start menu, or through browsing to windowsupdate.microsoft.com or
update.microsoft.com, IE 6 hangs, and I must close it through the task
manager.

Does anyone know how I can manually uninstall Microsoft update? I have
seen a lot of answers here saying to browse to the MS Update page, and
there is a "disable" function there, but as I have stated above, I
can't even get that far If I can manually remove it, hopefully then
I can reinstall it afterwards by going back to microsoft update...

BTW, this is happening on Windows 2000 Professional SP 4. In addition,
as you may have already guessed, automatic updates have also stopped
working.

Thanks.

Chances are that hijackware is the cause of these problems, Brad.

Checking for/Help with Hijackware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=5878
http://wiki.castlecops.com/Malware_R...:_Introduction
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/prevention.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/tshoot.html
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware

When all else fails, HijackThis v1.99.1
(http://aumha.org/downloads/hijackthis.zip) is the preferred tool to use.
It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware. **Post
your log to http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30,
http://castlecops.com/forum67.html,
http://forums.subratam.org/index.php?showforum=7, or other appropriate
forums for expert analysis, not here.**

If the procedures look too complex - and there is no shame in admitting this
isn't your cup of tea - take the machine to a local, reputable and
independent (i.e., not BigBoxStoreUSA) computer repair shop.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)


Brad Navarro wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Microsoft Update is badly broken on my computer. I am seeing the
> following:
>
> On bootup, I get a popup message: "svchost.exe has generated errors
> and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program.
> An error log is being generated"
>
> In the event viewer, I see the following:
>
> System Log: Service Control Manager: Event ID: 7031: "The Automatic
> Updates service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s).
> The following corrective action will be taken in 0 milliseconds: No
> action."
>
> Application Log: Source ESENT: "wuaueng.dll (848) Unexpected Win32
> error: 0x79"
>
> If I try to sign into Microsoft Update, either through the icon in the
> Start menu, or through browsing to windowsupdate.microsoft.com or
> update.microsoft.com, IE 6 hangs, and I must close it through the task
> manager.
>
> Does anyone know how I can manually uninstall Microsoft update? I have
> seen a lot of answers here saying to browse to the MS Update page, and
> there is a "disable" function there, but as I have stated above, I
> can't even get that far If I can manually remove it, hopefully then
> I can reinstall it afterwards by going back to microsoft update...
>
> BTW, this is happening on Windows 2000 Professional SP 4. In addition,
> as you may have already guessed, automatic updates have also stopped
> working.
>
> Thanks.

Just to follow up, it turned out I did in fact have a "rogue" program
that was crashing MS Update, however, it wasn't a virus or hijackware.

It turned out to be something called "Intel Application Accelerator"
that came on a CD with my motherboard.

This program didn't show up in the Hijack This! analysis, so I'm
guessing that this installed some kind of driver that talked to the
mobo chipset somehow to eek out extra performance for processes. Well,
I never saw much of a difference in performance, so I'm not sad to see
it go.


PA Bear wrote:
> Chances are that hijackware is the cause of these problems, Brad.
>
> Checking for/Help with Hijackware
> http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
> http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
> http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=5878
> http://wiki.castlecops.com/Malware_R...:_Introduction
> http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
> http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/prevention.htm
> http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/tshoot.html
> http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
> http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware
>
> When all else fails, HijackThis v1.99.1
> (http://aumha.org/downloads/hijackthis.zip) is the preferred tool to use.
> It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware. **Post
> your log to http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30,
> http://castlecops.com/forum67.html,
> http://forums.subratam.org/index.php?showforum=7, or other appropriate
> forums for expert analysis, not here.**
>
> If the procedures look too complex - and there is no shame in admitting this
> isn't your cup of tea - take the machine to a local, reputable and
> independent (i.e., not BigBoxStoreUSA) computer repair shop.
> --
> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
>

It's always something. Thanks for posting back.
--
~PA Bear

Brad Navarro wrote:
> Just to follow up, it turned out I did in fact have a "rogue" program
> that was crashing MS Update, however, it wasn't a virus or hijackware.
>
> It turned out to be something called "Intel Application Accelerator"
> that came on a CD with my motherboard.
>
> This program didn't show up in the Hijack This! analysis, so I'm
> guessing that this installed some kind of driver that talked to the
> mobo chipset somehow to eek out extra performance for processes. Well,
> I never saw much of a difference in performance, so I'm not sad to see
> it go.
>
>
> PA Bear wrote:
>> Chances are that hijackware is the cause of these problems, Brad.
>>
>> Checking for/Help with Hijackware
>> http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
>> http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
>> http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=5878
>> http://wiki.castlecops.com/Malware_R...:_Introduction
>> http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
>> http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/prevention.htm
>> http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/tshoot.html
>> http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
>> http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
>> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware
>>
>> When all else fails, HijackThis v1.99.1
>> (http://aumha.org/downloads/hijackthis.zip) is the preferred tool to use.
>> It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware.
>> **Post your log to http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30,
>> http://castlecops.com/forum67.html,
>> http://forums.subratam.org/index.php?showforum=7, or other appropriate
>> forums for expert analysis, not here.**
>>
>> If the procedures look too complex - and there is no shame in admitting
>> this isn't your cup of tea - take the machine to a local, reputable and
>> independent (i.e., not BigBoxStoreUSA) computer repair shop.
>> --
>> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
>> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)