Hi Jim and Digerati,

What I am complaining about is the fact that Windows 7 has been issued so closely on the heels of Vista, which was supposed to be the cure all and now the experts seem to be telling us mortals that Windows 7 is the OS that Vista should have been.

If I told one of my clients that something I had designed for them wasn't technically up to the job they would expect me to sort out the problem, not sell them a new system.

Actually I don't have any problem using Vista, its just that my machine can't seem to update itself.

I bought on the 2 December 2007 so just two years old.

I am waiting for Zoostorm to come back with instructions how to reinstall the OS, will let you know how it goes.

The problem is that the computer is in constant use so I cannot afford to tear down the OS and risk it being out of commission for several days.

Many thanks again for your help.

Kind regards

Martin

Hi Riftvalley,

I can only offer suggestions for your windows Update problem at this stage as I think is is the base of your trouble.

Have you run through this link which may assist you?

Are there any specific error messages about WU that you can advise for further research.

Let us know after following this advice if your Windows updates improve.

Best regards,

Solved it at last (I think), this is what I did.

The symptom that I had was that my laptop computer, running Vista Ultimate would not update with the latest service packs, in particular I got an 80073712 error.
What this means is that I cannot update to SP1 or SP2 because of MS generated corrupt files.

(The issue is that the WUA 3.0 (7.0.6000.374) upgrade is corrupted, essentially the system reports the WUA to be 7.0.6000.374 but the files on the disk are still from the old version (you can check some of the DLLs like wups.dll, wuaueng.dll etc… in the windows\system32) … and you cannot install the WUA 3.0 even manually.)

Also some programs would not run on my machine, specifically Sony Picture Motion Browser, which is an excellent program delivered with a Sony HandyCam and manages all images on the computer in a very handy way (no pun). All I got was an arcane error message talking about side-by-side errors.

This is what I have done.
1. First I downloaded KB936330-X86 and KB948465-X86.
2. Fortunately I have an external docking station and SATA drive so I loaded these two files onto the docking station (alternatively I could have burnt them to disc – on any computer).
3. I then used a factory restore disc to do a complete factory reinstall (I could have used the MS Vista software in the absence of the factory disc).
4. As some of the literature says that AV software can interfere with the update process I deleted/uninstalled AV software that was part of the factory reinstall (I kept my laptop disconnected from the internet throughout the whole of this process!).
5. I then reconnected the docking station and transferred both files (KB936330-X86 and KB948465-X86) onto the laptop desktop.
6. I then ran KB936330 and successfully updated to SP1 (confirmed in the system window).
7. I then ran KB948465 and successfully updated to SP2 (confirmed in the system window).
8. In some literature I have read that the issue is that the WUA 3.0 (7.0.6000.374) upgrade is corrupted and a C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml file needs t be deleted however, I then checked in C:\windows\winsxs\ but the only files that I could find were cleanup (an XML file) and popexec a tiny text file.
9. I then connected the computer to the internet for the very first time and installed my Kaspersky 2010 AV software. I thought this a bit idiotic that Kaspersky demands that I connect to the internet before it will let me install the AV software!!
10. My computer then ran through some 37 additional updates and after a couple of restarts all is up to date.
11. I then started to load my specific software (MS Office, CAD software and graphics prog) with eventually Sony PMB and joy of joys it works perfectly!!!
12. The computer has never run so sweetly or as fast so although this was quite a journey and a fair bit of work I believe it was all well worthwhile.

Many thanks for your help, Jim23, Digerati and Tallin I could not have got this far without your assistance, I hope that it is now solved. I will helping DAL, in the usual way, to continue to help ingnorati such as I.

Kind regards
Martin

What I am complaining about is the fact that Windows 7 has been issued so closely on the heels of Vista, which was supposed to be the cure all and now the experts seem to be telling us mortals that Windows 7 is the OS that Vista should have been.

Well, I don't know about your timing issues - Vista was RTM - released to manufacturers (Dell, HP, etc) in November 2006, more than 5 years after XP, with Microsoft being slammed every minute of the way for something new, and for the delays. Then when Vista was released, it was not the independent experts who claimed it was the cure all, but Microsoft. I, for one, never migrated my systems to Vista.

Windows 7 was released almost 3 years after Vista - I would not call that "on the heels of Vista". But I do agree that Win7 is what Vista should have been - Vista 2.0 if you will. BUT - that said, I will state that MUCH (VERY MUCH) of the problems with Vista was due to the hardware and 3rd party software makers, especially security software makers failure to support Vista with drivers and versions for Vista until often more than a year after Vista was released (even though they had it in their mitts for almost a year before release). That was bad because XP was made when security was less of a concern and MS was getting slammed left and right for it - yet the industry would not let progress advance, and MS was getting slammed for that too. Granted, they could have done more, and did MUCH more with Win7 and that is part of why this transition is going much better - plus the fact Win7 uses Vista drivers, in most cases.

If I told one of my clients that something I had designed for them wasn't technically up to the job they would expect me to sort out the problem, not sell them a new system.

Well now that's not Microsoft's fault either. The state-of-the-art for hardware technology does not stand still while Microsoft's current OS is on the shelves. Neither does 3rd party software development. And significantly, neither do the bad guys.

So it is imperative Microsoft embrace and support new drive technologies (SSDs), graphics, games, CPUs, etc. - users demand they do. Patches and updates can only stretch the OS so far.

You should NEVER build a system for today and expect it to last for 3+ years without it showing signs of aging - not from wear and tear, but from the world advancing around it. Upgrading cards, CPUs, RAM, PSUs are all a part of the normal lifespan of a computer.

At any rate, I am glad that all appears to be working now - and thanks for the detailed followup!