UNable to install Windows XP updates

No error messages.  Just says unable to install

maylcy,

Do you receive any error message when the installation fails?

I would still try updating one by one, it may just be one of them causing the problem.

Have you tried downloading/installing one by one?

I note that you mention 905495. According to

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-044.mspx

that is not needed for XP SP2 (see list of non affected software) and should not have been offered to you by Windows update (I never was offered it, at least).

Maybe if that one was downloaded, it saw it was not needed and cancellled the others?

The status under my update history says they were cancelled (gray circle with minus sign)but I did not cancel them

Search for the text file WindowsUpdate.log on your PC. Open the file in Notepad and do a search (ctrl-f) for error codes "0x80240020" or "0x80240030", without the quote marks (" "). Close the file without saving any changes.

If you find either of them, post the code here for help.

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 01-05-2006 04:15 PM

I haven't tried installing each separately but these are the updates windows offers me

okay I will try that.  Thanks

Try jrosenfeld's suggestions to install one at a time, but you probably need a long-term fix for the problem. I posted 2 things that Microsoft instructed me to do to fix my system when downloaded updates refused to install. You can find them at the bottom of page 1 in this thread:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_winxp&message.id=159480&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

I ended up doing both fixes and haven't had any problems since.

Ron

RoHE,

I must have missed that thread, your post is very instructive, thank you. Out of curiosity, I checked my registry settings against that fix.reg listing. Of the subkeys that I have, they all have the same values and data as listed. But there were a couple of keys in your list that I don't have at all: igfxcui and SSOExec. The first points to igfxsrvc.dll, which I don't have on my system at all (it is part of intel graphics accelerator helper, not available for my i875P chipset, Dimension 8300); I have an ATIExtEvent key, maybe that is instead of the igfxcui key. The second (SSOExec) points to ssoexec.dll in the Windows\temp\SSO folder, also not on my system. I haven't found what that file is related to and find it odd that a reg key would point to a file in the temp folder. Obviously there would be no point in my adding those two subkeys, since the files aren't there.

So my question is: was the reg fix specific to your system, or did MS say it was generic?

I have automatic updates switched off, but the service is left on automatic because it is also needed for manual updates, and I find it easier to leave it on than to start it each time I check manually. I don't havbe any problems with manual updates (I use Microsoft Update rather than Windows update now, but I think it's the same, basically, except it also gives Office updates)

Message Edited by JRosenfeld on 01-07-2006 12:59 AM

JRosenfeld,
You ask good questions but I don't have answers. I followed method one (in other thread) to successfully install updates that had previously been downloaded but failed to install. (I downloaded again to be safe.) Subsequently noticed those 2 keys were missing from registry and MS advised running fix.reg to insert them.

For what it's worth, I also don't have either SSOExec or igfxsrvc.dll on my 8400 (XPpro SP2). I have Intel integrated graphics disabled in BIOS because nvidia card is installed. That said, I haven't had a failed update since I made these changes.

When I launch Spybot, click Tools button at lower left, and then click System Startup, those 2 items are listed on the startup list along with a number of other strange items that were apparently added when MS updated their update installer. None of them are on startup tab in msconfig or anywhere else that I can find. The command line for SSOExec shown in Spybot points to the temp\sso folder indicated in the fix.reg file and says they're part of system.ini. I don't get error messages at bootup because these files are missing, so I have no idea what-why-how...

I have MS updater set to Notify so I can choose time to download/install. That's all I know. It's just another MS black hole. Sorry I can't enlighten you further.

Ron
Trivia: I've run TuneUp Utilities 2006 a number of times since making those registry changes back in Sept and it never complains about these registry keys which point to nonexistent files, though it regularly reports unless keys for software that I've removed and reports shortcuts for files that have been deleted.

Message Edited by RoHe on 01-06-2006 06:31 PM

Did a bit of searching. It appears that SSO refers to Single Sign on, whose outline definition is here:

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci340859,00.html

Decided it's not something I need :-)

 

OK, sso is just more useless MS techspeak. ;)

For something useful, read this recent thread for additional suggestions from MS to fix failed updates:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_winxp&message.id=173365

Ron