Windows XP and auto updates crashing computer repeatedly.

[JKD]

Hello,.

I've got a problem I can't figure out. I've had my Windows XP home Pentium
4 machine set to download automatically (Windows update) and then notify me
to install them for a long time now and all of a sudden my computer started
acting funny. I boot the machine up and it would crash, getting the dialog
to send or not to send the error report to Microsoft. This would happen
just booting up and doing nothing. If I tried to do anything, it would slow
the computer down to a crawl and crash repeatedly. I looked at one of the
log files it was going to send to Microsoft and I saw that Windows update
seemed to be the culprit. So, It took me about 15 minutes to get into the
control panel and shut down automatic updates and now the computer is
running flawlessly. Its perfect! What the heck is that all about? If I
turn auto update on again, the computer starts slowing down and crashing
when I try to do anything. Its weird because turning auto updates on
really doesn't do anything except have it check every once in a while for
updates, but it just slows the system down to a crawl and crashes it anytime
I try to open or do anything. If I click on windows explorer, it sits there
spinning the hour glass for five minutes, crashes and gives me the send a
report dialog to Microsoft, then opens windows explorer. It does this all
the way, where ever I go whatever I do. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks

P.S. I don't know if this matters or not but the last 4 or 5 small updates
that were there for me to download I couldn't get them to download and
install on my system. The computer started acting this way, working really
slow during the attempt to install these updates. It took me a couple weeks
and many attempts to get them installed and I'm still not certain if they
are installed now or not.

Jim

 

[Trevor]

Looks like a system restore is needed.

 

[JKD]

Hi Trevor,

Well, I just did a system restore and the problem still exists. The error
message that comes up with the buttons to either report the problem to
Microsoft or not indicate the problem is with auto-update. I've gone in and
turned auto update OFF and the thing still blows up two or three times right
after I boot up to the desktop, and now it stops after that and I can use
the computer fairly unimpeded. So far anyway. I'm stumped. Id like to fix
this thing without formatting if I can........

anybody? Any MVP's got any ideas?

Thank You

Jim