Replies

satrow – OK. Good point.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

It was an older laptop with me as well – a 5 1/2 year old Sony. Slowly got worse over the last 6 months, or thereabouts, but never got as bad as you until just now.

I found the GWX Control panel blocked most of the W10 nag problems.

As for the time of running – here is a thread on MS’s own site dating to Aug 2010. What more can I say?

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-update/windows-update-wont-download-just-stays-at-0/8e858a10-9629-4bb0-bf8f-4c27ef4e8ce5?auth=1

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Sudo15

Thanks. I harbour the hope that this will have solved it for me, but if it comes back I will try your solutions.

Given there are reports of this problem on the internet dating back to 2010, you would have thought Microsoft would have sorted it out by now. Heigh Ho!

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Sudo15 – not sure if you are responding to me or another poster.

I set WU to download 3161664 and went off to cut the grass. Three hours later (sic) it finished downloading and installed this one successfully. I then set it to download the rest of the updates (that Susan had given the OK to), which it did in less than 15 mins, and installed successfully.

So, it looks as if Susan’s surmise on 3161664 was correct. Let’s hope the fix is permanent.

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

I have also been having some problems with Windows Update on one of my machines. In this case (a Win 7 64 bit home premium system) WU goes into downloading updates, but never get beyond 0%, even after several hours. There are quite a few posts on the internet on this problem, and lots of possible solutions. I have tried restarts, switching WU off and back on again, deactivating antivirus, MS’s hotfix in kb971058 (which just went into stasis for 1 1/2 hours) without any success. I also tried unsuccessfully to install 3161664 from the MS catalog – the installer failed. The interesting thing is that another system, also on the identical OS, has not got the problem.

I have better things to do with my life than waste it trying to debug MS’s OS problems, so I have given up, for the time being at least. It does mean I can’t patch that system, however.

Just wanted folks to know there are more problems out there!

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

I endorse what others have recommended. Many years ago I registered my own domain (xxx.co.uk) and have navigated many ISP changes without a hitch. I use 1&1 and for £10 per year for the email plus £8.38 every two years for the domain I get 5 independent mail boxes and as many aliases as I want. this way, I provide email for the whole family of 4 adults. One of the best value purchases I have made.

I strongly recommend using IMAP, particularly once you start to look at email on several devices. I switched from POP quite easily (there are several tutorials on the web, e.g. from Zen, and I am sure there will be one for Thunderbird. I use Outlook). The beauty of that is that the process downloaded all my data into IMAP, and I kept it all through the change.

I have several legacy ISP accounts that I pick up with POP. Amazingly, given that they are many years old, I still get any incoming email. Since everything of import comes in via my domain, I have not paid attention to what the detailed rules are for those old accounts – it really does not matter to me.

Good luck

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

I agree with your comments on using an external target for backups with a second mirrored drive. However, even that can fail. I was shocked a few years ago to find both drives of the RAID formation fail at abut the same time. Researching the problem, I found that simultaneous failures are far more common than one would think, particularly if the drives come from the same batch or have been subject to the same environment. The research found far higher multiple failure rates that uncorrelated random events would suggest.

That time I was saved by the fact that I had a second backup of the NAS itself. I now use a 2 bay NAS, Raid mirrored, with Seagate NAS rated HDDs for the main backup target, and every month I back up the whole NAS to a separate USB3 HDD that otherwise lives in a fireproof datasafe.

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

The iTunes problems can go rather further than reported in today’s column. I ran into all these issues and reinstalled broadly as Susan had described. However, once done I found my DVD drive was inoperable with the description:

“Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)”

This problem is described, together with its solution, in the following thread:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/0c39bd2a-3949-4c25-8e01-4ec10fed3965/cdrom-drive-code-19-on-windows-7?forum=w7itprohardware

That restored the DVD drive, but then iTunes, when restarted, complained that the registry settings for its disc burning function had been tampered with and asked me to reinstall. Unsurprisingly, I have not and will not, since I blame iTunes for the problem in the first place.

Hope this helps anyone else with similar problems.

Regards

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Microsoft offered me KB2850079 for Office 2010 and KB2837593 for Word 2010. However, the write-up says you must have Office 2010 SP2 install, and I do not (just have not got round to it). I am not sure why WU offered these two patches in that case, but I held off in case it creates problems installing on a SP1 system. The writeups give no indication as to what the patches comprise.

Just a heads up for other Loungers.

Chris B

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Susan

Thanks – I’ll look forward to it.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Susan please can you let us know, perhaps in your next column, whether Office 2010 SP2 is still on hold, or good to go.

Many thanks

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Oakdale – my largest file set is 22.6MB and I have not had a file size problem yet, in case that makes you feel any better.

acbeaton – at least you got a reply out of Intuit on your VAT issue, even if it was a lie. I could not even get that! In the end I stuck with Quicken, rewrote the VAT reports to make them work properly, and checked everything manually. After all that grief, it was against my religion to give them more money for Quickbooks. For charity work I have used TAS or MYOB, but not SAGE.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

I am also using Quicken 2002 on Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium, and have been for over a year without any problems (bar an inability to print to an old printer not supported by W7). Installation and operation all worked fine without any specific adjustments.

My backups and switches of files (I have several sets) all work fine since I just copy the whole file group for the account concerned. I no longer use the built in backup but use Acronis or move/copy the files with Windows Explorer.

As for the comment about being exposed without support, I am not sure that is any loss, given the total lack of support Intuit gave me when Quicken started calculating incorrect VAT liability. Luckily I picked that up before HMRC creamed me.

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Yes Bruce – 2735855 was the one I was wondering about.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Is there a reason why the latest patchwatch table does not include any Sept 2012 patches?

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A