Crashing rather involved.

sobranie · Jan 24, 2009, 14:11:14

Had no less than 5 computer crashes reported to me over the last week or so.
All computers running XP.
Symptoms vary from no os start up (hanging at the welcome screen) to no start up at all.
I also had this prob on mine and Romy' computer a little while back. R's computer had all the usb software deleted btw.?*?*
jftr I'm on sp3 and R's on sp2 'cos sp3 crashes her computer completely.
I've actioned the following on 1 machine (Dell laptop)
Reset the machine to factory condition (ctrl/F11)
Refused sp3 update and installed 101 updates. Computer fine at this stage.
Win update advises a further 7 updates so installed and .... machine crashes!!
So, back to factory condition etc and all fine until 7 updates done and same result.
Updates are KB938127,960714,928366,920213,932823,926251,908250.
So, back to factory condition, installed 101 updates & when advised of the further 7 have blocked them on the update site.
Machine now runs perfectly.
So, seems a bug exists on one of these updates. Question is which one??? Damned if I'm going to re-install another 7 times to isolate it!
Q. Haa anyone experienced a similar prob. of late??
I've googled on each update but can't see anything obvious but may have missed something of course.
jftr safe mode was achieved on another computer but froze after cont.panel selected (every time)

Thanks for reading.

David · Jan 24, 2009, 14:21:43

I cant help Sobranie but good luck with it

someone will be along in a while hope you get it sorted

sobranie · Jan 24, 2009, 14:27:19

Mein Gott! Just had another one, computer crashes to switched off stage after dvd burning (10 minutes in). This could be a gummed up processor fan block of course so have instructed owner to try a spring clean.
So that's 6 'puters down in less than a week .... more than coincidence methinks. Perhaps MS are sabotaging XP in some way!!

Sebby · Jan 24, 2009, 14:53:53

Strange... All our XP computers are fully patched and I haven't had any trouble. Whilst it's almost certainly a patch that's to blame, it must be something else (hardware or software) that's conflicting with the patch.

cavillas · Jan 24, 2009, 15:12:37

Quotesomething else (hardware or software) that's conflicting with the patch

Possibly windows xp.

sobranie · Jan 24, 2009, 15:52:42

Quote from: cavillas on Jan 24, 2009, 15:12:37
Possibly windows xp.

The possibility exists! I've often contemplated SP3 window updates on a SP2 machine having undesirable effects. However, I am fully convinced that MS need to get their act together re.OS in general. I still remember the dreaded Win ME superseding W98 and, of course,Vista. I consider both OS's to be 'stop gap' measures and sincerely hope that Win 7 goes some way towards convincing the masses that as long last MS has got something right!!!
Afterthought .... Have MS written SP1 for Win 7 yet in order that all the faults are ironed out???

Simon · Jan 24, 2009, 16:41:27

I can only say that I've had no such problems on my machine, and it's got all the available updates. As others have said, I guess it must be to do with something, software or hardware, on those machines, Rick. Is there any common factor to them all (apart from the crashing!)?

john · Jan 24, 2009, 16:50:34

I'm using a Dell laptop with Windows XP SP3 and all updates are up to date and I'm also not experiencing any problems.

sobranie · Jan 24, 2009, 16:59:19

Quote from: Simon on Jan 24, 2009, 16:41:27
I can only say that I've had no such problems on my machine, and it's got all the available updates. As others have said, I guess it must be to do with something, software or hardware, on those machines, Rick. Is there any common factor to them all (apart from the crashing!)?

Common factors? NOD32/Commodo .... that's about it I think.

john · Jan 24, 2009, 17:13:20

It might be worth doing a search on Nod32/commodo for any problems with incompatibility with Windows updates, I'm not using either of them myself so it may be a problem with these apps.

Simon · Jan 24, 2009, 17:14:26

Or try installing the updates with one of both of them disabled.

sobranie · Jan 24, 2009, 18:58:13

Food for thought, thanks chaps.

Lance · Jan 24, 2009, 23:50:17

You could always change to vista...

D-Dan · Jan 25, 2009, 00:37:08

Quote from: sobranie on Jan 24, 2009, 16:59:19
Common factors? NOD32/Commodo .... that's about it I think.

You missed one - the other common factor is .............. Sobranie

Baz · Jan 25, 2009, 08:36:16

sorry cant help much here Sobranie but it reminds me of a similar fault I had years ago on one of my systems. I was getting crashes and failed starts like you, sometimes it would just show a black screen then kick back into life some seconds later. Turns out it was a dodgy connection to the HD. when I looked inside I could hear it clicking and making a weird sound when I moved it, even very slighty it would cause the system to turn off.bought a new lead and it sorted it.

Like I say it might not be this for you but could be worth a look.

Ive often wondered that about MS updates, is it best to do one at a time or all together.Yeah a bit tedious when you have loads as Sobranie did but once you get the size of the list down any future ones could be done one at a time in case of bother. I dont do it this way though just a thought

Glenn · Jan 25, 2009, 09:16:24

The only was to isolate which update is causing the problem is to install them one at a time, tedious I know, but it will be quicker in the long run.

Sebby · Jan 25, 2009, 11:56:33

Quote from: Lance on Jan 24, 2009, 23:50:17
You could always change to vista...

Now why on earth would anyone want to do that?

David · Jan 25, 2009, 12:25:10

Because its not just an os its MS Vista

Rik · Jan 25, 2009, 15:04:49

I think it has to be a driver conflict with an update, is there any common hardware between the machines?

David · Jan 25, 2009, 15:14:20

sobranie · Jan 25, 2009, 21:01:53

Tks for all your replies folks.
Going to take machines, one at a time and dig dig dig.
btw the machine switching off I mentioned earlier had enough grunge in the processor cooling system to plant a field of spuds. Suffice to say, all clean now and m/c works perfectly.
m/c with dumped updates continues to work perfectly too.

Lance · Jan 25, 2009, 21:12:58

Maybe disk imaging software would be helpful. Make an image as is now, and then install updates 1 by one making an image each time. If you leave a few days between them to properly test for the problems it should be relatively easy to find. If you get the problems back, it shjould only take a few mins to go back to the 'good' image.