Unable to Update

  • Thread starter William Sean Geoghegan
  • Start date
W

William Sean Geoghegan

Hi folks,

I'm working at a small business (100 emp) who received a bunch of
refurbished Dell computers, and unfortunately they don't seem to be in the
best shape. The following is a letter I wrote to customer service
(Microsoft), who in turn directed me to several resources including this one.
It explains the problem, for the most part. Hopefully, someone will be able
to help:
"The terminal originally received an error (c000021a) resulting in a blue
screen on start up and shut down. I was able to get to the explorer, but it
was extremely unstable. When I tried updating the computer on the website, I
initially received an error (0xc80003fa) that, when I searched for a
solution, told me to stop the update service, rename a folder
(SoftwareDistribution > SDold), start it up again, clear IE data, and try
again, with no success. I also started getting some weird display issues, so
I updated the driver (the adapter is an INTEL 82865G onboard graphics card).
That seems to have cleared that up, unrelated really. I tried again and
again to resolve this issue, but now I am getting additional error messages
when attempting to update (history of errors: 0xc80003fa; 0x8007043c;
0x800703e6, and then I stopped trying). The computer is hooked up to a
"server" (running sql), and there are about 70 computers tied to that server
hub. The computer itself is a shoddy Dell, I say that because about 7 other
computers (same distributor) have problems that appear to be due to a sloppy
install (old drivers, missing dlls), which would be fine if it came with
installation disks (I would just repair it or format and reinstall), but they
did not. Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated."

I've since been able to restart the computer without receiving an error, and
just for diagnostic purposes I installed Windows Defender to see if there was
any suspicious files, but nothing that alerted the program, and I am unable
to update it for the same reason as above (same error, 0xc80003fa). Sorry
for the long post, any help would be greatly appreciated, though it is no
longer an emergency, I'de like to know what to do if the problem occurs on
another terminal.
 
W

William Sean Geoghegan

Update: The terminal is still returning a blue screen with the c000021a
error. If I restart it after that, it goes to the desktop.
 
P

PA Bear [MS MVP]

Tip: Temporarily disable real-time protection by your anti-virus and/or
anti-spyware applications (e.g., CounterSpy, Spysweeper, Spybot Tea Timer,
AVG Anti-Spyware) and/or any third-party firewall (e.g., ZA) before
attempting to install the update(s). If you disable the third-party
firewall, make certain that you enable the Windows Firewall!

=====================

How to troubleshoot Windows Update, Microsoft Update, and Windows Server
Update Services installation issues:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=906602

1. See the "Need more help? Tell us what problem you are having" section of
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=ph;en-us;6527

2. You cannot install some updates or programs
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822798

3a. Check Windowsupdate.log (%windir%\Windowsupdate.log) for errors
associated with the download/install.

How to read the Windowsupdate.log file
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902093

3b. Compare errors to those listed here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/blogs/mowgreen/index.php?showentry=1122
and/or go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com > click on Help and Support
link in left pane > Solve problems on your own.

4. Windows Update Checklist:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/updtcl.htm

5. Windows Update-specific newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windowsupdate

Archive of Windows Update newsgroup:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsupdate

===========================

Start a free Windows Update support incident request:
https://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?gprid=6527

Support for Windows Update:
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/wusupport
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads


Top