Staging errors during shutdown/reboot in Windows Update

I wonder if anybody on this forum has some knowledge on this matter, as MS
support has proven unresponsive.

During the December update process the IE7 patch failed to complete on my
computer. The installation itself completed OK, but then it was declared
"failed" after thereboot, with numerous errors in the event log pointing to a
failure to put it into the staging state. I was not able to resolve this, but
finally succeeded in implementing the patch using a manual install, rather
than the windows update process.

Just now I completed the windows update run containing the January patches,
which also required a reboot. Again I observed a slew of "failure to put into
the staging state" entries in the event log. However, in this case after the
restart the "installed updates history" reported all updates to have
installed successfully, and WUS reports the system to be "up to date".

Two questions:
(1) Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
(2) Any wisdom on what these error message actually mean? The knowledge base
does not seem to contain relevant information on the point, nor does MSDN.

I trust some real wizards may have the necessary insights.

Windows version?

Are you updating via WSUS?

Did the log contain 0x8007007b errors?

Did you open a free support incident?

What anti-virus and third-party firewall (if any) is installed?

> Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?

If Windows Update website says the machine's fully patched, we'll have to
take its findings at face value.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/


Willem Overbeeke wrote:
> I wonder if anybody on this forum has some knowledge on this matter, as MS
> support has proven unresponsive.
>
> During the December update process the IE7 patch failed to complete on my
> computer. The installation itself completed OK, but then it was declared
> "failed" after thereboot, with numerous errors in the event log pointing
> to
> a failure to put it into the staging state. I was not able to resolve
> this,
> but finally succeeded in implementing the patch using a manual install,
> rather than the windows update process.
>
> Just now I completed the windows update run containing the January
> patches,
> which also required a reboot. Again I observed a slew of "failure to put
> into the staging state" entries in the event log. However, in this case
> after the restart the "installed updates history" reported all updates to
> have installed successfully, and WUS reports the system to be "up to
> date".
>
> Two questions:
> (1) Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
> (2) Any wisdom on what these error message actually mean? The knowledge
> base
> does not seem to contain relevant information on the point, nor does MSDN.
>
> I trust some real wizards may have the necessary insights.

I am on VISTA ultimate. I am using "Windows Update", not "MS Update". There
were no errors in the install log file (only these entries in the event logs,
which I would not even have noticed, had I not expressly looked for them
after last month's experience). I did not open an incident this time, as my
December incident was never resolved and has not even been serviced after the
initial response in spite of almost daily reminders.

I am using ZoneAlarm for VISTA, but again: the events did NOT occur during
download, did NOT occur during install, ONLY occurred during the
shutdown/reboot sequence, so I doubt my firewall or malware protection is
involved in any way.

I hope this meets your queries.

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

> Windows version?
>
> Are you updating via WSUS?
>
> Did the log contain 0x8007007b errors?
>
> Did you open a free support incident?
>
> What anti-virus and third-party firewall (if any) is installed?
>
> > Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
>
> If Windows Update website says the machine's fully patched, we'll have to
> take its findings at face value.
> --
> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>
>
> Willem Overbeeke wrote:
> > I wonder if anybody on this forum has some knowledge on this matter, as MS
> > support has proven unresponsive.
> >
> > During the December update process the IE7 patch failed to complete on my
> > computer. The installation itself completed OK, but then it was declared
> > "failed" after thereboot, with numerous errors in the event log pointing
> > to
> > a failure to put it into the staging state. I was not able to resolve
> > this,
> > but finally succeeded in implementing the patch using a manual install,
> > rather than the windows update process.
> >
> > Just now I completed the windows update run containing the January
> > patches,
> > which also required a reboot. Again I observed a slew of "failure to put
> > into the staging state" entries in the event log. However, in this case
> > after the restart the "installed updates history" reported all updates to
> > have installed successfully, and WUS reports the system to be "up to
> > date".
> >
> > Two questions:
> > (1) Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
> > (2) Any wisdom on what these error message actually mean? The knowledge
> > base
> > does not seem to contain relevant information on the point, nor does MSDN.
> >
> > I trust some real wizards may have the necessary insights.
>
>

> ...my December incident was never resolved and has not even been serviced
> after the initial response in spite of almost daily reminders.

Willem, can you please give me the SRX number assigned to your support
incident? I'd like to escalate this with the Update and Vista teams, with
your permission. Thank you.

> I am using ZoneAlarm for VISTA, but again: the events did NOT occur during
> download, did NOT occur during install, ONLY occurred during the
> shutdown/reboot sequence

I have to tell you that we're seeing more and more cases where ZA settings
were indeed the cause of such problems, Willem. Disabling or uninstalling
ZA doesn't make any difference because doing so doesn't undo the changes
made by ZA to the Registry that are responsible for causing the behavior.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/


Willem Overbeeke wrote:
> I am on VISTA ultimate. I am using "Windows Update", not "MS Update".
> There
> were no errors in the install log file (only these entries in the event
> logs, which I would not even have noticed, had I not expressly looked for
> them after last month's experience). I did not open an incident this time,
> as my December incident was never resolved and has not even been serviced
> after the initial response in spite of almost daily reminders.
>
> I am using ZoneAlarm for VISTA, but again: the events did NOT occur during
> download, did NOT occur during install, ONLY occurred during the
> shutdown/reboot sequence, so I doubt my firewall or malware protection is
> involved in any way.
>
> I hope this meets your queries.
>
> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Windows version?
>>
>> Are you updating via WSUS?
>>
>> Did the log contain 0x8007007b errors?
>>
>> Did you open a free support incident?
>>
>> What anti-virus and third-party firewall (if any) is installed?
>>
>>> Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
>>
>> If Windows Update website says the machine's fully patched, we'll have to
>> take its findings at face value.
>> --
>> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
>> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
>> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
>> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>>
>>
>> Willem Overbeeke wrote:
>>> I wonder if anybody on this forum has some knowledge on this matter, as
>>> MS
>>> support has proven unresponsive.
>>>
>>> During the December update process the IE7 patch failed to complete on
>>> my
>>> computer. The installation itself completed OK, but then it was declared
>>> "failed" after thereboot, with numerous errors in the event log pointing
>>> to
>>> a failure to put it into the staging state. I was not able to resolve
>>> this,
>>> but finally succeeded in implementing the patch using a manual install,
>>> rather than the windows update process.
>>>
>>> Just now I completed the windows update run containing the January
>>> patches,
>>> which also required a reboot. Again I observed a slew of "failure to put
>>> into the staging state" entries in the event log. However, in this case
>>> after the restart the "installed updates history" reported all updates
>>> to
>>> have installed successfully, and WUS reports the system to be "up to
>>> date".
>>>
>>> Two questions:
>>> (1) Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
>>> (2) Any wisdom on what these error message actually mean? The knowledge
>>> base
>>> does not seem to contain relevant information on the point, nor does
>>> MSDN.
>>>
>>> I trust some real wizards may have the necessary insights.

Dear Mr Bear,

CRN (I hope this is the same as SRX) is 1052286666.

As far as ZA is concerned, what is your advice: get rid of it, or await the
upcoming update that they have been promising for some time. I do like the
product as such.

By the way, as the updates seem to have installed OK (both according to the
"installation log"and according to "system up to date" can I be reasonably
sure that this is indeed the case?

Sorry to keep on bothering you

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

> > ...my December incident was never resolved and has not even been serviced
> > after the initial response in spite of almost daily reminders.
>
> Willem, can you please give me the SRX number assigned to your support
> incident? I'd like to escalate this with the Update and Vista teams, with
> your permission. Thank you.
>
> > I am using ZoneAlarm for VISTA, but again: the events did NOT occur during
> > download, did NOT occur during install, ONLY occurred during the
> > shutdown/reboot sequence
>
> I have to tell you that we're seeing more and more cases where ZA settings
> were indeed the cause of such problems, Willem. Disabling or uninstalling
> ZA doesn't make any difference because doing so doesn't undo the changes
> made by ZA to the Registry that are responsible for causing the behavior.
> --
> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>
>
> Willem Overbeeke wrote:
> > I am on VISTA ultimate. I am using "Windows Update", not "MS Update".
> > There
> > were no errors in the install log file (only these entries in the event
> > logs, which I would not even have noticed, had I not expressly looked for
> > them after last month's experience). I did not open an incident this time,
> > as my December incident was never resolved and has not even been serviced
> > after the initial response in spite of almost daily reminders.
> >
> > I am using ZoneAlarm for VISTA, but again: the events did NOT occur during
> > download, did NOT occur during install, ONLY occurred during the
> > shutdown/reboot sequence, so I doubt my firewall or malware protection is
> > involved in any way.
> >
> > I hope this meets your queries.
> >
> > "PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
> >
> >> Windows version?
> >>
> >> Are you updating via WSUS?
> >>
> >> Did the log contain 0x8007007b errors?
> >>
> >> Did you open a free support incident?
> >>
> >> What anti-virus and third-party firewall (if any) is installed?
> >>
> >>> Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
> >>
> >> If Windows Update website says the machine's fully patched, we'll have to
> >> take its findings at face value.
> >> --
> >> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
> >> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
> >> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
> >> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
> >>
> >>
> >> Willem Overbeeke wrote:
> >>> I wonder if anybody on this forum has some knowledge on this matter, as
> >>> MS
> >>> support has proven unresponsive.
> >>>
> >>> During the December update process the IE7 patch failed to complete on
> >>> my
> >>> computer. The installation itself completed OK, but then it was declared
> >>> "failed" after thereboot, with numerous errors in the event log pointing
> >>> to
> >>> a failure to put it into the staging state. I was not able to resolve
> >>> this,
> >>> but finally succeeded in implementing the patch using a manual install,
> >>> rather than the windows update process.
> >>>
> >>> Just now I completed the windows update run containing the January
> >>> patches,
> >>> which also required a reboot. Again I observed a slew of "failure to put
> >>> into the staging state" entries in the event log. However, in this case
> >>> after the restart the "installed updates history" reported all updates
> >>> to
> >>> have installed successfully, and WUS reports the system to be "up to
> >>> date".
> >>>
> >>> Two questions:
> >>> (1) Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
> >>> (2) Any wisdom on what these error message actually mean? The knowledge
> >>> base
> >>> does not seem to contain relevant information on the point, nor does
> >>> MSDN.
> >>>
> >>> I trust some real wizards may have the necessary insights.
>
>

You're not bothering me. This is what we do as an MVPs
(http://mvp.support.microsoft.com).

Thank you for your CRN number. I'll keep you informed as to what I find out
about the incident. Can you please send an email to me so I might contact
you privately, should the need arise? Send to pabearmvp[AT]gmail.com.
Thank you.

> As far as ZA is concerned, what is your advice: get rid of it, or await
> the
> upcoming update that they have been promising for some time. I do like the
> product as such.

If you encounter problems (e.g., during or after installing updates) that
you suspect are related to ZA, I'd recommend posting your queries in the
appropriate forum here: http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/


Willem Overbeeke wrote:
> Dear Mr Bear,
>
> CRN (I hope this is the same as SRX) is 1052286666.
>
> As far as ZA is concerned, what is your advice: get rid of it, or await
> the
> upcoming update that they have been promising for some time. I do like the
> product as such.
>
> By the way, as the updates seem to have installed OK (both according to
> the
> "installation log"and according to "system up to date" can I be reasonably
> sure that this is indeed the case?
>
> Sorry to keep on bothering you
>
> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
>
>>> ...my December incident was never resolved and has not even been
>>> serviced
>>> after the initial response in spite of almost daily reminders.
>>
>> Willem, can you please give me the SRX number assigned to your support
>> incident? I'd like to escalate this with the Update and Vista teams,
>> with
>> your permission. Thank you.
>>
>>> I am using ZoneAlarm for VISTA, but again: the events did NOT occur
>>> during
>>> download, did NOT occur during install, ONLY occurred during the
>>> shutdown/reboot sequence
>>
>> I have to tell you that we're seeing more and more cases where ZA
>> settings
>> were indeed the cause of such problems, Willem. Disabling or
>> uninstalling
>> ZA doesn't make any difference because doing so doesn't undo the changes
>> made by ZA to the Registry that are responsible for causing the behavior.
>> --
>> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
>> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
>> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
>> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>>
>>
>> Willem Overbeeke wrote:
>>> I am on VISTA ultimate. I am using "Windows Update", not "MS Update".
>>> There
>>> were no errors in the install log file (only these entries in the event
>>> logs, which I would not even have noticed, had I not expressly looked
>>> for
>>> them after last month's experience). I did not open an incident this
>>> time,
>>> as my December incident was never resolved and has not even been
>>> serviced
>>> after the initial response in spite of almost daily reminders.
>>>
>>> I am using ZoneAlarm for VISTA, but again: the events did NOT occur
>>> during
>>> download, did NOT occur during install, ONLY occurred during the
>>> shutdown/reboot sequence, so I doubt my firewall or malware protection
>>> is
>>> involved in any way.
>>>
>>> I hope this meets your queries.
>>>
>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
>>>
>>>> Windows version?
>>>>
>>>> Are you updating via WSUS?
>>>>
>>>> Did the log contain 0x8007007b errors?
>>>>
>>>> Did you open a free support incident?
>>>>
>>>> What anti-virus and third-party firewall (if any) is installed?
>>>>
>>>>> Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
>>>>
>>>> If Windows Update website says the machine's fully patched, we'll have
>>>> to
>>>> take its findings at face value.
>>>> --
>>>> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
>>>> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
>>>> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
>>>> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Willem Overbeeke wrote:
>>>>> I wonder if anybody on this forum has some knowledge on this matter,
>>>>> as
>>>>> MS
>>>>> support has proven unresponsive.
>>>>>
>>>>> During the December update process the IE7 patch failed to complete on
>>>>> my
>>>>> computer. The installation itself completed OK, but then it was
>>>>> declared
>>>>> "failed" after thereboot, with numerous errors in the event log
>>>>> pointing
>>>>> to
>>>>> a failure to put it into the staging state. I was not able to resolve
>>>>> this,
>>>>> but finally succeeded in implementing the patch using a manual
>>>>> install,
>>>>> rather than the windows update process.
>>>>>
>>>>> Just now I completed the windows update run containing the January
>>>>> patches,
>>>>> which also required a reboot. Again I observed a slew of "failure to
>>>>> put
>>>>> into the staging state" entries in the event log. However, in this
>>>>> case
>>>>> after the restart the "installed updates history" reported all updates
>>>>> to
>>>>> have installed successfully, and WUS reports the system to be "up to
>>>>> date".
>>>>>
>>>>> Two questions:
>>>>> (1) Can I be sure that the updates indeed have been successful?
>>>>> (2) Any wisdom on what these error message actually mean? The
>>>>> knowledge
>>>>> base
>>>>> does not seem to contain relevant information on the point, nor does
>>>>> MSDN.
>>>>>
>>>>> I trust some real wizards may have the necessary insights.