Windows Update

[SPOFF]

I'm scrupulous about applying "Windows Updates" using the "Custom" option, so MS doesn't install something that I don't want....Like IE7....Been there, done that. IE6 works just fine.

SO: The other day, I'm perusing the latest downloads available for my computer and AGAIN I see a hardware (driver) update for my ATI 9600 Series Video Card. I've been ignoring this driver update for a year and a half. I don't do driver updates. My Video Card works fine as originally installed.

So I say to myself... what the hell SPOFF? Just DO IT. Maybe it will improve things for FSX. So I LET Windows Update download and INSTALL the Video Card update. ....I want to be open minded, that's why I did it.

After the whole thing is finished and my computer is Totally "FUBAR"....THEN I remember the Video Driver thingy that NOELL has posted on the top of this forum. OH Freakin No. BEWARE those that do not pay attention.

I did three System Restores. Each one earlier. I'm still working on cleaning up the damage. At the Low Point it was BSOD or B/W Screen. NOTHING ELSE. NO WAY to get back in. Finally, something I did allowed me to get back in and I imediately went to my old "AdAware SE" Personal......AND "AdWare Alert", which I had just installed. I UNINSTALLED BOTH. I'm still having a problem with Norton/Symantec. I occasionally get a yellow banner telling me my "File System Realtime Protection is DISABLED"...even though the Shield in the toolbar says it'e enabled.

OH: What was the big problem??? MS Windows Update installed the driver Update ON TOP OF THE ORIGINAL Driver.

Since then, I printed out NOELLS instructions..AND went to ATI to see what they say. BOTTOM LINE: Like Noell said...REMOVE OLD Drivers before installing new ones. DOH!

PS: Anyone had any problems updateing their "Ad-Aware SE Personal" from LavaSoft? I kept getting "File Corrupt Can't Read" when trying to update it..SO I went to "AdWare Alert" (Note the spelling). After I UN-Installed "AdWare Alert", SPYBOT S&D picked it up as a problem. Just Wondering. SPOFF

[bberson]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Generally when Microsoft provides updates for hardware device drivers, those drivers are meant to supercede the drivers provided on the Windows installation media. Most often those updates should be avoided since in most cases, we are using drivers that came with the hardware, not from the CD. I've seen video driver problems like you have experienced, LAN settings get lost, tape device problems because software like Veritas uses its own drivers, etc.

If that happens to anyone reading this in the future, best option is to use Safe Mode (assuming that still works) to un-install the MS video driver, then un-install the vendor driver set, then reboot and re-install the vendor driver set. Much less disruptive overall than using system restore points.

As far as malfunctioning software, best advice is un-install and re-install. Most of what is giving you headaches right now is software that updates itself regularly. Going back in time with system restore points tends to give you a registry image that's out of synch with the files that the software has downloaded. If forcing a new update doesn't help, there's no other easy fix.

-B

[angels355]

Hi SPOFF,

Oops, pressed wrong button and posted my message before I even got started! Any way, misery must love company!

Are you using the Ad-Aware SE previous version, or the new version Ad-Aware 2007?? Most of my computers are running on 98/se/me so I kept the previous version Ad-Aware SE, as the new version 2007 won't work on 98/se/me. The new version Ad-Aware 2007, made for xp and vista, works fine, it is fully supported and updates at the touch of a button.

Ad-Aware SE however has been orphaned! It will not automatically update, correct me if I'm wrong, but I have not been able to get an automatic update for the definition file in around nine months or so. I have to manually update it, making 98/se/me more difficult to use. What I do is go to www.download.com do a search for Ad-Aware, and they list the latest definition file. I download that, unzip it, then copy and paste the defs.ref file into the lavasoft/adaware program file folder, just like as if I'm installing a new aircraft in fs. Start it up and run a scan.

I feel sorry for you running Norton, yuck, I don't think I've spoken to anyone who likes it much. I use AVG Free edition, one of the very top rated programs is Kapersky, supposed to be one of the very best. I think loki likes NOD32.

If your xp gets really messed up in the future, here's a reinstall method that works really good for me. First, never reinstall windows on top of the old installation, very bad news. I had a totally corrupted windows, reinstalled on top of it to recover my vital data, and while I was able to get my data out, in the process I noticed that I got one error after another. I had so many errors before reinstalling that windows would not even boot up, then installed windows on top of the old windows, and while I was able to boot it up fully, I got many errors. If you want a good install you have to start from a clean slate. To illustrate, I got the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic dos tool, used it to do a "zero fill", then installed windows from there. The result was as if it were a new computer.

To illustrate further, a friend of mine had a corrupted xp, he called Dell and asked them to help him reinstall xp. I think they directed him to just install xp without erasing the hard drive first. The result, he still gets regular errors--bad news!

[SPOFF]

UPDATE: ALL issues seem to be resolved...... eccept Symantec. The Symantec "LiveUpdate" IS now getting new updates (I always do this manually so I can see whats going on) and downloading and installing them. The little Shield Icon down by the clock on the screen says that protection is Enabled.....This morning the YELLOW banner slid up from the bottom of my screen warning me that protection is NOT Enabled.

The "Configure" pages in the program WILL NOT RETAIN the check marks I put in which would "Enable" protection. I check the boxes, click OK, then go to the next page.. then return, and the boxes are again empty.

I downloaded "AVG Free Edition" this afternoon. (31 Mb) Two and a half hours on Dial Up while I read a book. (One eye on the screen) I am ready to install it if Symantec does NOT "Heal Thyself" soon. The last time I had problems with Symantec, it DID Heal Thyself. OR, ...it got over it's little "Hissy Fit" and got back to business.

I have been sitting in front of the computer all day and the YELLOW banner has NOT reappeared since the one time this morning. This is GOOD...Right? SPOFF

EDIT: When my previous "Ad-Aware SE Personal" would not accept it's own update, (mine definitions were 18 days old), I Un-Installed it, then went online and got a new copy and installed it. The New copy said my definitions were 789 days old. So I went for the new ones. Same thing. It would download 98% of the file, then: Corrupt. SO: I uninstalled that one two.

I noticed the NEW "AdWare Alert" was VERY PUSHY in their presentation of the so called FREE product. You have to REGISTER before it will work. Give them your emaill, etc. I Un-installed that one to.

[angels355]

Hi SPOFF,

"I noticed the NEW "AdWare Alert" was VERY PUSHY in their presentation of the so called FREE product. You have to REGISTER before it will work. Give them your emaill, etc. I Un-installed that one to."

Ya they are much more pushy now. I don't think you have to do anything to use the free edition, if you reinstall ad-aware 2007 again, simply select to not register anything as that will give you the free version. I don't think registration of any kind is necessary. Only the payware version requires registration. They both come in the same package, to use the freeware version, just select "no", and by default it will go to the freeware version. My Mom and I were watching an old Doris Day movie and were commenting that that was back when life was "normal", when people tended to make common sense.

If you want to use the old adaware se, you can continue to do so but it just takes more work, they no longer offer automatic updates, you have to install the updates manually by copying and pasting them into the adaware folder as I described previously.

You have dialup also? I've become an expert on using dialup, and a connoisseur of fine dialup modems, pci and isa. I like both, ISA modems always work, when I become fed up with trying to track down a driver I plug in the ISA modem and it just works. However some of them at 33 kb are too slow, some are 56 bps which is ok. I have a conexant pci modem on one of my computers and it is faster, v92 56k. I think it downloads 18 mb's in an hour, versus 3 hours for the 33 kb modem. I simply object to handing over $55/month to the cable company that continuously advertises how cheap they are compared to the "BOE" Big Old Exspensive phone company. They are hypocrites, I've watched their prices for 7 years and they have always been too expensive. Those companies inundate you with endless commercials to get you to pay such high prices, but what happens when you give in, the bank account goes down the drain with surprising efficiency! And yet the cable company doesn't feel sorry for you in the slightest.

I am reinstalling everything on a new acquisition computer, saved it from the dumpster, repaired it, took several days, now I'm getting it up to speed. Tonight I'll be downloading AVG most of the night.

If you get spybot 1.5, make sure that you defrag your hard drive a couple of times, for some reason it's a resource hog of some sort. Spybot 1.4 works ok.

The good old days when everything was normal, now days you have to make your own good old days by saying no to all kinds of crazy offers. I hope you had a great Christmas, and that 2008 will be a very happy new year and a prosperous one too!

[SPOFF]

Click: .... "355......? ...SPOFF ...Over....Do you read??" (A little pilot lingo)

Symantec showed no signs of healing thyself. SO: I had to take things into my own hands. I did the last thing one can do when in distress...and nothing is working: UN-INSTALL Symantec...and RE-INSTALL. GOODY GOODY. It seems I'm back in business...and Again Secure. Check boxes are checked. SPOFF

PS: I think "bberson" suggested this early on...but I don't like to give up right away. Thanks "BB".

[bberson]

Click: .... "355......? ...SPOFF ...Over....Do you read??" (A little pilot lingo)

Symantec showed no signs of healing thyself. SO: I had to take things into my own hands. I did the last thing one can do when in distress...and nothing is working: UN-INSTALL Symantec...and RE-INSTALL. GOODY GOODY. It seems I'm back in business...and Again Secure. Check boxes are checked. SPOFF

PS: I think "bberson" suggested this early on...but I don't like to give up right away. Thanks "BB".

Awesome, glad it's all back in fine fettle again. Yeah, I don't give up right away either, even when experience tells me I should. Such is the life...

-B

[angels355]

Hi SPOFF,

Glad you have that program working again. I can sure relate, I've had a day where nothing works. I have fs98 on an older economy computer, I tried to upgrade the video card tripling the size of video card, but that made it worse and knocked out the sound too. So, put it back the way it was before so now it is working and everything is functioning. The only thing that seemed to improve things was more ram and a processor upgrade.

On my other computer, I spent several days installing windows etc, I finally finished, but now I try to use it, and it seems like maybe the hard drive has gone bad. That was a lot of work just to have to start over again. Diagnosing these problems is extremely intuitive from experience, nothing jumps out saying this or that is bad, and all the diagnostic tests have said it's good except for one test in which the hdd didn't even show up, but sometimes that could indicate that the mobo is too old to recognize a newer hdd.

On the bright side, one of my new acquisitions, in which I got most of the components by intercepting them from the garbage, then I think actually paid $10 for the rest of the components, I turned on that computer this morning and took fs2000 for a quick spin around Chicago. It might be very old and slow, however it runs fs2000 well, everything works very well on that computer. Good to remind myself that computers CAN function properly. I think tomorrow I'll crank up my sims and do a little flying.

Heading for the hangar!

[CessnaFlyer]

i know this is a 2 yearold topic. but i have to put my two cents in. any time i get an update from microsoft. i can't post the other words for there updates id get into trouble. but i have had to reformat many times because of them updates. and i have a lot of time and work and money invested in my computers/games. and believe me when i say i get really when i have to reformat my system. i9 look at it this way. my computer is running with no troubles at all. no need to fill it with non sense from microsoft. it's working lets keep it that way. i do not and will not take updates at all. they know it messes up pc's why keep telling pepole they need them? what for job security?

[bberson]

The topic might be two years old but it is still quite relevant.

And you sir, may be in a classic catch-22. If only the updates were just nonsense...

If you don't take any of security updates, you risk vulnerability to an amazingly huge virus and malware landscape. If you do no web-surfing at all and stay behind a firewall, no worry. But even perfectly innocent web sites can present dangers. Someone can post a corrupt image to this forum for example, which exploits the well-known Windows GDI vulnerability. Or someone else could find and exploit a vulnerability in the forum software and gain access to the web server and plant any kind of worm they please. This happened to the Storage Review web site a few years ago and quite a few of their site's visitors ended up having to scrub their systems.

What has me curious is, what updates have gotten you into trouble in the past and, what sort of trouble?

I do this stuff for a living and am surrounded by PCs. I had a PC running Windows 2000 until just a few years ago, that never gave me issues even though it was built with the original Win2K CD and had SP1, SP2, SP3 and SP4 added with all the intermediate updates in between. My only aggravation on that one was due to sucky motherboard support drivers (thanks for nothing Gigabyte). I have Windows XP PCs now on SP3 that have been built up likewise, which are no more or less reliable than builds from "slipstreamed" CDs.

In my experience most of the times that issues have cropped up it was because of third party software or drivers, or malware, or stuff which folks don't realize is malware, like a bonehead friend of mine who installed "PC Antispyware 2010". D'oh! And another catch-22 is that perfectly legit and respectable antivirus software does occasionally screw up too.