What the Hell is going on a Microsoft?

[Guest]

My boss and I have identical notebooks from HP, Windows Update informed us
that updates where available, when I checked it was an optional update for a
device I did not have...ATI PCI (3GIO) Express filter driver???

I ignored it, my boss did not, thinking (with some reason) that if it came
up in Update I must need it or at least be better off with it.

Oh...how misplaced was that trust!

First, am I correct in remembering that previously Update only showed
RELEVANT updates for YOUR system? (Off topic-FYI MS: I don't have Office 2003
so why would I need to update it?)

Well after rebooting this is what happened:

* No sound drivers AT ALL...no sound and no apps to control the sound (he
had Realtek HD Audio)
* Only the most basic display properties. The Intel 965 drivers were gone.
* No internet or network, no NIC card showed in device manager
* No modem showed in device manager
* No printers showed up
* Non of the USB ports worked (so no mouse) (thank God the touchpad still
worked)
* No wireless or Bluetooth devices showed up
* The card reader was gone

Actually about half of his drivers where gone!

I had to uninstall the drivers that the update did install from device
manager (5 minutes with the reboot), then Vista started to reinstall the
right drivers (though some of them where old drivers still in the system
rather than the updates ones) that took another 20 minutes with reboot.

Luckily I had backed up all the drivers just a few days before using
DriverMax (a great free app http://www.drivermax.com/) and was able to update
everything back to as was before the mess. That took another 15 minutes with
reboot.

Now add another few minutes to reset all the configs back to the desired
settings and nearly an hour lost and having to listen to my boss bitch for
the whole time and we are back where we started.

MS was never perfect, but lately...geez! You can't even trust Update
anymore...

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Well, can you at least do a System Restore to restore your system to a
previous state? Optional updates are intended to provide users with software
for devices they know they might have. For instance, I get all the world
wide languages through Ultimate Extras as optional updates, but that does
not necessarily mean I want every single language provided, just the ones I
know and I use.

 

[Guest]

I'm interested in your statement that you ignored the update. How do you do
that? I've been searching Vista's help on updates. Seems you can hide
updates so Vista will quit trying to install them, but I can't find anything
telling you how to hide an update from the system.

 

[David B.]

Just to add, never, ever install driver updates via Windows update, get them
directly from the hardware or PC mfg.

 

[Brian W]

My boss and I have identical notebooks from HP, Windows Update informed us
that updates where available, when I checked it was an optional update for
a
device I did not have...ATI PCI (3GIO) Express filter driver???

I had this update appear today, I didn't install it. I have Nvidia graphics
and Intel chipset, no ATI anywhere in my system!

 

[Charlie Tame]

My boss and I have identical notebooks from HP, Windows Update informed us
that updates where available, when I checked it was an optional update for a
device I did not have...ATI PCI (3GIO) Express filter driver???

I ignored it, my boss did not, thinking (with some reason) that if it came
up in Update I must need it or at least be better off with it.

Oh...how misplaced was that trust!

First, am I correct in remembering that previously Update only showed
RELEVANT updates for YOUR system? (Off topic-FYI MS: I don't have Office 2003
so why would I need to update it?)

Well after rebooting this is what happened:

* No sound drivers AT ALL...no sound and no apps to control the sound (he
had Realtek HD Audio)
* Only the most basic display properties. The Intel 965 drivers were gone.
* No internet or network, no NIC card showed in device manager
* No modem showed in device manager
* No printers showed up
* Non of the USB ports worked (so no mouse) (thank God the touchpad still
worked)
* No wireless or Bluetooth devices showed up
* The card reader was gone

Actually about half of his drivers where gone!

I had to uninstall the drivers that the update did install from device
manager (5 minutes with the reboot), then Vista started to reinstall the
right drivers (though some of them where old drivers still in the system
rather than the updates ones) that took another 20 minutes with reboot.

Luckily I had backed up all the drivers just a few days before using
DriverMax (a great free app http://www.drivermax.com/) and was able to update
everything back to as was before the mess. That took another 15 minutes with
reboot.

Now add another few minutes to reset all the configs back to the desired
settings and nearly an hour lost and having to listen to my boss bitch for
the whole time and we are back where we started.

MS was never perfect, but lately...geez! You can't even trust Update
anymore...

Well maybe there is a chip on the MB that shares some driver signature
and that's why the update was offered, however if you do not have that
full chipset, or there is a version error then when the driver came to
install it probably mangled something.

You may find some info in the Update newsgroup but you are right, if at
all possible MS update should not offer any incompatible updates ever,
of course nothing is perfect.

The system restore Andre refers to is in my opinion a total cop-out as
far as MS update is concerned, it may be fine for something you broke
yourself but it is a poor answer to something MS inflicted upon you, it
is getting to the point where if you don't do a full backup of
everything every day you are taking a big risk, and this used not to be
the case. I think it negates any "Security" benefits gained (Allegedly)
by using Vista. It is worrying that where one used to be able to rely
upon MS update that seems to be much less so these days.

Glad you managed to find a solution this time around.

 

[Charlie Tame]

Just to add, never, ever install driver updates via Windows update, get
them directly from the hardware or PC mfg.

Agreed, I don't think it is because there is anything wrong with or
different about the actual software, I think the problem is caused by
the fact that the driver install is attempted while things are running,
I am sure this is the case with NVidia video drivers and it seems unwise
in general to try changing the tires on your car at 60 MPH.

 

[David B.]

The drivers on Microsoft Update can be 1 or 2 versions older than what you
already have installed on your PC as well.

 

[Marco Desloovere]

I'm interested in your statement that you ignored the update. How do you do
that? I've been searching Vista's help on updates. Seems you can hide
updates so Vista will quit trying to install them, but I can't find anything
telling you how to hide an update from the system.

In Windows Update, uncheck those available updates, which you refuse.

Marco

 

[Cal Bear '66]

Right click on the update and select "Hide".


I Bleed Blue and Gold
GO BEARS!

 

[Charlie Tame]

The drivers on Microsoft Update can be 1 or 2 versions older than what
you already have installed on your PC as well.

Well I guess so but I've not seen that, what I have seen is that
sometimes it works, sometimes not, more often it fails and corrupts
things when there's more than just the driver update, but of course that
will be hardware dependent so cannot speak for all variations