Inspiron 3891, Event Viewer error - Usbupdate.exe fails

I just did a reboot and watched the event log while running a manual check for updates on Dell Update. The error populated while Dell Update was checking. I know I have no proof that it is what triggered the error, but I thought it might be worth mentioning. It could be just a buggy Dell Update/SupportAssist version after all, let's not panic.

One more thing to mention, Dell installs many different components and apps that may function independently but also communicate with one another. Which means uninstalling, say, SupportAssist or Dell Update alone may not entirely remove all of their components from the system. What I'm trying to say is uninstalling these apps perhaps isn't a very effective measure to test whether they cause the error because they might still leave some other components installed. Someone from Dell please correct me if what I'm saying is inaccurate/wrong.

I see. In my case, no, I never installed anything like the one you mentioned.

No panic here, just a serious curiosity and desire to find the issue source and a fix. That's me. I think it isn't too early to drawn some limited conclusions. Dell Update has developed a bug. "Why" is a very different question. Answering that is above my pay grade (skill level). How many systems are affected is anybody's guess. I would imagine that the vast majority of users that are affected have no idea that they are as this issue is likely invisible to anyone not checking for system errors. I'll be watching the support pages for my two systems to see when and if a new version of Dell Update is released. I am assuming that Dell engineers monitor these threads. I may uninstall Dell Update and reboot to see if that accomplishes anything. It seems to reason that if Dell Update create the error, uninstalling it would prevent the error (I hope). 

@Ramy.a I'm not running anything.  This is a fresh install with current dell and windows updates. I also have Virtualbox and BlueIris programs running.  That's about it. 

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand your point. So, are you suggesting that the computer is infected or that SupportAssist is just misbehaving? I don't have malware-bytes installed on my system, never did.

Support assist will crash because malware-bytes interferes.  There are also malware that hijack the support assist application which will lead to access denied errors as well.

C:\Program Files\Dell\SARemediation
C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssistAgent

I uninstalled Dell Support Assist a couple of days ago. Doing so had no impact on the issue. The error still appears. Question for all following this thread: Are you running any software that would alter the Start Menu such as Open Shell (formerly known as Classic Shell)??

Yes, I hugely suspect this has to do with Dell SupportAssist or Dell Update. I check the event log regularly and can't tell I ever encountered this error prior to today or maybe yesterday maximum, which is right after the lastest automatic update for SupportAssist.

Little Maui - Did uninstalling Dell Update and rebooting fix the issue? You mentioned you were going to try that.

I rebooted twice after uninstalling and haven't got the error. Waiting a while to confirm. 

I pinged my Dell contacts about this.

If PC is working normally, I wouldn't be too concerned, for now, especially since it's affecting multiple PC models. So it has to be something that's common to them, like a Windows or other software update.

I agree, @AustinEd. The Event Log isn't something that every Windows user checks, and since (so far) I didn't see anyone reporting an actual performance issue paired with the error, so it's very likely the error would easily go unnoticed or undetected. I don't have an answer either, only speculations based on my personal experience and usage of my own device and trying to connect the dots and see where that leads to. I hope it's nothing serious, but let's keep an eye on this thread and see how it goes. Good luck!

I am seeing this same issue on my Alienware Aurora R13 with Win11.

It started yesterday, according to the Reliability Monitor, which is when I applied the latest Dell updates using the SupportAssist utility.

BTW:

Try disabling SupportAssist and Dell Update services in Start>Run>services.msc by setting each one's Startup type to disabled. Don't change anything else in services.msc. Then reboot see if that puts an end to these error messages.