Windows XP Home - Critical Update 811493 is still not fixed

[tornadomaker]

It seems to me that despite the contrary statements from Microsoft the
latest version of fix 811493 is still causing severe problems on my
machine.

Does anybody know whether this is known to Microsoft and whether a new
version of the fix can be expected soon?

I have deinstalled 811493 as a circumvention but this does not seem to
be a suitable long-term solution - neither from a security perspective
nor from a stability perspective (I will get into trouble as soon as
Microsoft decides to include 811493 with its current content in the
next service pack ...) .

Some Background Details
I have experienced a freeze of my Notebook (with Windows XP Home)
about once a week since several months now. I cannot exactly tell when
this started but it was about April 2003. There was no clear pattern
what caused the freeze (I was working with different programs with or
without network or disk access and it happened also while the computer
seemed to be idle ...).

However I could reproduce the freeze by running a burnin program (I
used Passmark's BurnInTest). The freeze happened randomly after 10
minutes to 1 hour ... (no blue screen but just no reaction to any
input device, not even ctrl-alt-del).

I reinstalled Windows XP Home from scratch and run BurnInTest. No
problem.
I installed SP1 and run BurnInTest. No problem.
I installed the 21 critical updates shown by WindowsUpdate and run
BurnInTest. My machine freezed afer half an hour ... . Please keep in
mind that at that point in time I had jsut installed Windows XP Home,
the device drivers which came with my machine, an imaging program
(Acronis True Image) and the Burn In program. No other programs (e.g.,
no antivirus program, ...).
I reinstalled the disk image with XPHome + SP1 and run BurnInTest. No
problem.
I just installed 811493 on top of SP1 and run BurnInTest. My machine
freezed after 40 minutes. This should have been the updated version of
811493 according to the MS support web site (however I am a little
unsure as I have a German Windows XP and I am not sure whether the
update is just available for the US version at this time).
I de-installed 811493 and run BurnInTest. No problem.

Now I re-installed the disk image with my original configuration
(means all my data, lots of installed applications, anti-virus
program, ...).
I run burnintest and it froze after 1h 10 minutes (as expected).
I deinstalled 811493 and run BurnInTest. No problem ... .

 

[Unknown]

After uninstalling 811493 you don't say how long you run burnintest to
determine whether or no it hangs up. Could it be a simple coincidence? I run
a desk top and never had the problem.

 

[Larry]

I've been avoiding installing it, just because it is of no real consequence.

The security it fixes still required a user to have physical access to the
machine. That means that anyone that wanted to could own the machine with or
without this fix. A Linux boot disk with the NT admin PW reset program can
ownzer any windows machine in seconds.

Don't know what is going to happen with SP2 though. The "problem" with the
patch only affects (or used to affect) certain setups. It may be that it has
really been fixed or that when used in combination with other fixes it
works. I guess we'll find out then. But in the mean time, not installing it
seems pretty safe, considering you can;t possibly stop someone from
compromising the machine when they have physical acess to it anyway.

Larry

 

[Ted]

It seems to me that despite the contrary statements from Microsoft the
latest version of fix 811493 is still causing severe problems on my
machine.

Does anybody know whether this is known to Microsoft and whether a new
version of the fix can be expected soon?

I have deinstalled 811493 as a circumvention but this does not seem to
be a suitable long-term solution - neither from a security perspective
nor from a stability perspective (I will get into trouble as soon as
Microsoft decides to include 811493 with its current content in the
next service pack ...) .

Some Background Details
I have experienced a freeze of my Notebook (with Windows XP Home)
about once a week since several months now. I cannot exactly tell when
this started but it was about April 2003. There was no clear pattern
what caused the freeze (I was working with different programs with or
without network or disk access and it happened also while the computer
seemed to be idle ...).

However I could reproduce the freeze by running a burnin program (I
used Passmark's BurnInTest). The freeze happened randomly after 10
minutes to 1 hour ... (no blue screen but just no reaction to any
input device, not even ctrl-alt-del).

I reinstalled Windows XP Home from scratch and run BurnInTest. No
problem.
I installed SP1 and run BurnInTest. No problem.
I installed the 21 critical updates shown by WindowsUpdate and run
BurnInTest. My machine freezed afer half an hour ... . Please keep in
mind that at that point in time I had jsut installed Windows XP Home,
the device drivers which came with my machine, an imaging program
(Acronis True Image) and the Burn In program. No other programs (e.g.,
no antivirus program, ...).
I reinstalled the disk image with XPHome + SP1 and run BurnInTest. No
problem.
I just installed 811493 on top of SP1 and run BurnInTest. My machine
freezed after 40 minutes. This should have been the updated version of
811493 according to the MS support web site (however I am a little
unsure as I have a German Windows XP and I am not sure whether the
update is just available for the US version at this time).
I de-installed 811493 and run BurnInTest. No problem.

Now I re-installed the disk image with my original configuration
(means all my data, lots of installed applications, anti-virus
program, ...).
I run burnintest and it froze after 1h 10 minutes (as expected).
I deinstalled 811493 and run BurnInTest. No problem ... .

You not alone!
I have this same problem. I went a similar route to you. Clean install of
XP, no problems. Applied SP1 and IE6 update, no problems. Installed a
bunch of "Windows updates" (about 20 of them) and my PC crashes at random
after a few hours, regardless of what it may be doing at the time. Just a
sudden, complete and utter freeze (presumably a CPU crash). I used system
restore to remove the updates and the PC is ok again.

I did not know which of the 20 updates might be responsible, but I will
now try installing all updates apart from 811493 and see what happens...

Ted.

 

[tornadomaker]

I don't think it's a coincidence. All former freezes during burnintest
were between 15 minutes and 2h30min at max. In contrast I ran the
successful burnintest after removing 811493 for more than 15 hours
without any problems ...