Problems with "Windows Genuine Advantage" module after today's upd

This morning, I found a substantial group of Windows XP, Media, and Explorer
updates indicated as needing download in the tray. I duly ran these.
Immediately after rebooting, my machine (a Dell Dimension 5150) became
unstable. Upon booting into my desktop, an error message appeared indicating
that there was an error in the Windows Genuine Advantage Module. More
distressingly, I was from then on unable to run *any* programs.

I went into safe mode and rolled back the system 24 hours. I restarted and
my machine ran in a stable fashion. I then re-downloaded only the four
specific Windows XP patches, as I consider these to be the most crucial since
I don't use IE or Media. These are (KB936021), (KB938828), (KB921503), and
(KB938829). After downloading these and rebooting, the instability
immediately returned, with the same error message. FWIW, my Windows XP Pro is
indisputably genuine (it came from Dell with the machine, over a year ago), I
have not changed my machine configuration an iota. Something in one of these
four patches seems to be causing a serious issue.

This has caused me a good deal of stress (my first reaction was, sorry to
say, to yell at my daughter, who had gone onto my machine subsequent to patch
installation without letting me know). Is anyone able to tell me how these
patches may be safely added? Right now, I have instructed Windows Update not
to download them, but that leaves several vulnerabilities, which I dislike. I
have not tried to isolate which patch is at fault (as I don't like repeatedly
rolling back the system). Thanks in advance.

Edward

I'm not a tech, just a wary user. In my experience, patches cause
trouble about three times a year. Sometimes just annoying, other
times so severe they prevent me from working and take up hours -- even
days -- of my time to fix.

Thank god you have a restore point. That may be your best course of
action, unless you want to stop using Automatic Updates and learn to
download each update, navigate through the MS links to the KB & MSO
articles, read them, figure out the techno-speak, and make a guess as
to which one will cause trouble.

For now, you can try installing each update, one at a time, with a
restore point before each, and see if you can ID the troublesome one.
Then you can install the others, and post here about the one that
causes a glitch.


Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Great Legs!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:14:00 -0700, Edward Ripley-Duggan
<> wrote:

|This morning, I found a substantial group of Windows XP, Media, and Explorer
|updates indicated as needing download in the tray. I duly ran these.
|Immediately after rebooting, my machine (a Dell Dimension 5150) became
|unstable. Upon booting into my desktop, an error message appeared indicating
|that there was an error in the Windows Genuine Advantage Module. More
|distressingly, I was from then on unable to run *any* programs.
|
|I went into safe mode and rolled back the system 24 hours. I restarted and
|my machine ran in a stable fashion. I then re-downloaded only the four
|specific Windows XP patches, as I consider these to be the most crucial since
|I don't use IE or Media. These are (KB936021), (KB938828), (KB921503), and
|(KB938829). After downloading these and rebooting, the instability
|immediately returned, with the same error message. FWIW, my Windows XP Pro is
|indisputably genuine (it came from Dell with the machine, over a year ago), I
|have not changed my machine configuration an iota. Something in one of these
|four patches seems to be causing a serious issue.
|
|This has caused me a good deal of stress (my first reaction was, sorry to
|say, to yell at my daughter, who had gone onto my machine subsequent to patch
|installation without letting me know). Is anyone able to tell me how these
|patches may be safely added? Right now, I have instructed Windows Update not
|to download them, but that leaves several vulnerabilities, which I dislike. I
|have not tried to isolate which patch is at fault (as I don't like repeatedly
|rolling back the system). Thanks in advance.
|
|Edward

I have done so. It's KB921503 that's the offending update. I'll place a
separate post on this list, as that's more likely to be picked up by MS
members.


> >
> > For now, you can try installing each update, one at a time, with a
> > restore point before each, and see if you can ID the troublesome one.
> > Then you can install the others, and post here about the one that
> > causes a glitch.
> >
> >
> > Lady Dungeness
> > Crabby, but Great Legs!
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >

Thank god (and any other appropriate deities) indeed! This has been a
cautionary lesson, one which your remarks reinforce. While I don't have
updates set totally on automatic, I usually accept them without too much
thought or concern. I shall probably install these updates individually, as
you suggest, though I'm not in a rush to do so. Meanwhile. I have to
apologize to my daughter...

"" wrote:

> I'm not a tech, just a wary user. In my experience, patches cause
> trouble about three times a year. Sometimes just annoying, other
> times so severe they prevent me from working and take up hours -- even
> days -- of my time to fix.
>
> Thank god you have a restore point. That may be your best course of
> action, unless you want to stop using Automatic Updates and learn to
> download each update, navigate through the MS links to the KB & MSO
> articles, read them, figure out the techno-speak, and make a guess as
> to which one will cause trouble.
>
> For now, you can try installing each update, one at a time, with a
> restore point before each, and see if you can ID the troublesome one.
> Then you can install the others, and post here about the one that
> causes a glitch.
>
>
> Lady Dungeness
> Crabby, but Great Legs!
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>

You sound like a pretty good father. :-)


Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Great Legs!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:11:32 -0700, Edward Ripley-Duggan
<> wrote:

|Thank god (and any other appropriate deities) indeed! This has been a
|cautionary lesson, one which your remarks reinforce. While I don't have
|updates set totally on automatic, I usually accept them without too much
|thought or concern. I shall probably install these updates individually, as
|you suggest, though I'm not in a rush to do so. Meanwhile. I have to
|apologize to my daughter...
|
|"" wrote:
|
|> I'm not a tech, just a wary user. In my experience, patches cause
|> trouble about three times a year. Sometimes just annoying, other
|> times so severe they prevent me from working and take up hours -- even
|> days -- of my time to fix.
|>
|> Thank god you have a restore point. That may be your best course of
|> action, unless you want to stop using Automatic Updates and learn to
|> download each update, navigate through the MS links to the KB & MSO
|> articles, read them, figure out the techno-speak, and make a guess as
|> to which one will cause trouble.
|>
|> For now, you can try installing each update, one at a time, with a
|> restore point before each, and see if you can ID the troublesome one.
|> Then you can install the others, and post here about the one that
|> causes a glitch.
|>
|>
|> Lady Dungeness
|> Crabby, but Great Legs!
|> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|>