XP KB908531 update

[Guest]

I need some information. What number would I use to call Microsoft and let
them know about a corrupted XP KB908531 update? I have windows XP with SP2
and 6.0 IE. My IE was working find Night before last. When I turned off my
computer night before last, there were (5) Microsoft XP KB updates being
installed on my computer. I turned on the computer the following day and I
noticed I was having trouble wilth IE. When ever I clicked on the downward
pointing arrow at the end of the address bar in IE to get to my history of
recent website I had opened, the mouse would freeze and IE Explorer would not
respond. I had to close IE and then send an error report to Microsoft.
Another thing, when I would type a website into the address bar and hit
enter, nothing would happen. I finally did a restore and got things working
normally again. Last night when I shut off the computer again, I received
these updates again, probably the result of doing a system restore. After
these KB updates I tried my IE again and the same thing had happened as I
described above. I uninstalled each update and then would retest my computer
to see if that would correct my problem with IE. Finally after uninstalling
update XP KB908531 that took care of my problem. I have never had that
trouble before this update was installed. I just need to know if anyone has a
telephone number or how I could advise Microsoft of this bad update. At the
current time, I am keeping the automatic updates turned off so that
particular update will not be installed again. Any help would be appreicated.
Thanks

 

[Malke]

I need some information. What number would I use to call Microsoft and
let them know about a corrupted XP KB908531 update? I have windows XP

(snip rest of rant)

Yes, there apparently is a problem with KB908531. Uninstalling this
update seems to fix the issue for people. I'm sure MS is working on
fixing their update, but if you want to contact them:

Customers in the U.S. and Canada can receive technical support from
Microsoft Product Support Services at 1-866-PCSAFETY. There is no
charge for support calls that are associated with security updates.

MS International Support -
http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx

Malke

 

[Alias]

(snip rest of rant)

Yes, there apparently is a problem with KB908531. Uninstalling this
update seems to fix the issue for people. I'm sure MS is working on
fixing their update, but if you want to contact them:

Customers in the U.S. and Canada can receive technical support from
Microsoft Product Support Services at 1-866-PCSAFETY. There is no
charge for support calls that are associated with security updates.

MS International Support -
http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx

Malke

That update hasn't caused any problems for me, that I know of, anyway. I
just tried doing what the OP says he is having problems with and my IE
has no problems doing that.

Alias

 

[Guest]

Thanks Malke and Alias for the good information. I am keeping my automatic
updates turned off until they get that update corrected. How will we know
when Microsoft gets this corrected and it will be safe to turn our auto
updates back on again? Also I am a little confused about the telephone # for
Microsoft. It seems like there is one to many number in it. Thanks

 

[Malke]

Thanks Malke and Alias for the good information. I am keeping my
automatic updates turned off until they get that update corrected. How
will we know when Microsoft gets this corrected and it will be safe to
turn our auto updates back on again? Also I am a little confused about
the telephone # for Microsoft. It seems like there is one to many
number in it. Thanks

Hmm, you are quite right about the phone number. Don't know where I got
that one from, sorry. Here are current contacts for MS:

For Windows Update (what you want now)
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?&gprid=6527&

Unlimited support requests are included at no charge
(866) 834-8317 (This would be for US/Canada)

Link to other contact information
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS

Malke

 

[MAP]

That update hasn't caused any problems for me, that I know of,
anyway. I just tried doing what the OP says he is having problems
with and my IE has no problems doing that.

Alias

This is NOT confirmed yet but it might have something to do with HP
programs,(seems they dont play well together) perhaps their "share to the
web" program. I'm courious do you have this installed? or maybe an HP
scanner or printer?

 

[Guest]

Wayne,

This update has caused the identical problem on one machine we have;
prevented Windows Explorer from expanding drive lists on another (no + at
all); loaded w/o incident on a third; bombed on a 4th until MS Messenger was
allowed to load; another won't boot; other results on the balance of the
network. My purpose listing all of this is to show we have experienced a
wide variety of results and the troubles are very real.

How do we know when it is fixed? Forgive my cynicism, this implies it was
in need of repair and by what we have experienced, this hotpatch/fix/update
has broken that which was working. Secure network settings do what this
attempts to fix. At least for some, the space-time continuum skewed; for
those impacted, they need to go back in time to change this new alternate
reality path (uninstall XP KB908531). We have also discovered PaintShop,
Adobe Creative Suite and other programs aren’t happy w/ this; we may discover
it is non-Microsoft software that causes the problems; I won’t travel that
path – ensuring only MS products work…

To your question about "Reporting a Bug", the link & number listed; we gave
up on after an hour on hold waiting to get thru & suggest the fax number

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/contactbug

Report a Microsoft Product Bug
If you think you have found a bug in a Microsoft product, contact our
Microsoft Product Support Services department.
(800) MICROSOFT (642-7676)
Fax
Please include the recipient's first and last name.
1-425-93-MSFAX (1-425-936-7329)

Randy & Suzanne – www.PC-Guru.Biz

 

[Guest]

Mike, the only thing I have is a HP printer and scanner connected to my pc.
I do not have the "share to the web" program. Thanks to all for the helpful
replies.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Suzanne for your post. Whow! I did not realize that this update caused
this much of a problem. Hopefully Microsoft will get it fixed before to long.
I just hope that they do not blame it on other programs beside their own
update and neglect to fix it. As soon as I deleted that KB update, IE worked
fine again, so to me that means that it is definitely their problem. I will
turn my auto update back on when I know that this problem is taken care of. I
am hoping that they will post something on their website about this
situation. Thanks again Suzanne.

 

[Guest]

This is NOT confirmed yet but it might have something to do with HP
programs,(seems they dont play well together) perhaps their "share to the
web" program. I'm courious do you have this installed? or maybe an HP
scanner or printer?

 

[Guest]

You are most welcome - we are all passengers on the XP ship

What we have done is manually run Windows Update, selecting Custom. Here
you will see this update waiting (after uninstalling it); expand (+) and a
wonderful box appears - don't show me this again! Auto Update is then safe
to turn back on.

On one unit that failed, there is nothing but XP Pro; our repair/cloning
unit. No programs, no HP printers/scanners, PhotoShop, etc. We tend to
concur, MS needs to review this update, changing probably one small section
of code.

 

[HeyBub]

How do we know when it is fixed? Forgive my cynicism, this implies
it was in need of repair and by what we have experienced, this
hotpatch/fix/update has broken that which was working.

Okay, can you think of a better way to insulate IE from nasty worms,
viruses, trojans, and other malware?

 

[Alias]

This is NOT confirmed yet but it might have something to do with HP
programs,(seems they dont play well together) perhaps their "share to the
web" program. I'm courious do you have this installed? or maybe an HP
scanner or printer?

No HP printers or scanners on my machines except one which is an HP
Pavilion computer with an ASUS MB but I wiped the hard drive clean. No
problems on it either.

Alias

 

[Guest]

Depending on how you would classify yourself as a computer user, indeed...

Selecting individual Companies/software that specialize in each area produce
these results. This XP update must cover a wide range of machines, installed
software and unknown network security. For the beginner to intermediate
user, this MS update does provide the protection needed, this I won’t contest.

For the advanced to highly technical users, they tend to select the best
software designed to manage each area. Today, most 2006 antivirus programs
like AVG, Norton, McAfee, handle the “nasty worms, viruses, trojansâ€; so much
so, they shut down the MS Firewall. Spyware, Malware, Tracking and others
are handled with programs such as Ad-Aware (still free for person use) as is
SpyBot. Millions of users download these programs by visiting:
http://www.download.com – changing the sort to most often downloaded paints a
great picture of how people are voting w/ their wallets.

Better than a software firewall, major Companies use a router (a hardware
firewall). For most home users, devices like LinkSys (Cisco Systems),
Netgear and dLink offer all that is needed; in Corporate settings, investing
in higher priced routers/firewalls allows IT to block addresses, control what
goes in & out of the ports, and so much more. Home users that have a single
machine, where the DSL or Cable is directly connected, do well spending
$50-$70 on a router (again, a hardware Firewall vs. software one).

For software Firewall, like MS Firewall, the industry leader, ZoneLabs
allows the user to block any program for Internet access; disable/enable
ports and a host of features far beyond the basic MS Firewall. Their 2006
suite now comes with AVG AntiVirus, Privacy Controls, Spyware
scanning/removal and a host of other features. To check what they offer:
http://www.zonelabs.com

Again, the above is what advanced to highly technical users tend to do. For
those still learning, again, I DO agree with you - the MS updates offer the
best way to protect the malicious harm that does happen. Much like
all-in-one-print units, to get the best results, individual devices always
are best as they perform one task great. The all-in-one-units do a good job
with the 4 functions yet to produce what individual devices offer, these
units would be far larger in size and cost a great deal most.

Hope this provides the answer(s) you sought & some additional insight.

 

[witan]

After seeing the 14 posts, I thought I should put in mine, for whatever
it is worth, although I am not an expert.
Soon after installing the bunch of updates, I found I could not save
any newly created or modified Word documents -- File Manager, opened
from inside Word, would not even let me navigate to any desired
directory. I could not close Word normally, and had to do it through
Task Manager. I tried to "repair" Word, but that didn't help. There
were also problems with IE, and with Windows explorer. A specific
problem was that even after closing programs or folders forcibly with
Task Manager, they would continue to display. I thought (perhaps
naively) video memory was not getting cleared. At that time I did not
connect all the trouble with the "updates".
On the off chance, I restarted Windows in safe mode and deleted all
files in "Temp" and "Temporary Internet Files" folders. Then restarted
in normal mode. There has been no problem after that. I am not sure the
problem was solved by what I did, but it may be worth trying.

 

[Guest]

I had my pc fixed by ms today because of the kb908531. I called them
yesterday & got a case # and they called back today.The guy had to do
something to my registry.Everything is working fine now with the update above
installed The #I called was 1-800-642-7676 good luck

 

[All Things Mopar]

Today =?Utf-8?B?YWw=?= commented courteously on the subject
at hand

I had my pc fixed by ms today because of the kb908531. I
called them yesterday & got a case # and they called back
today.The guy had to do something to my registry.Everything
is working fine now with the update above installed The #I
called was 1-800-642-7676 good luck

Great! I sure hope you learned a valuable object lesson here
....