More System Update Rubbish

[Chuck-TX]

Hello all--

On a Lenovo 3000 V100 w/ XP SP2 and all updates, I was running System Update 3 without trouble until Tuesday. When I start the program, the splash screen comes up, then disappears, without starting the program (nothing shows up in Task Manager, for instance).

I uninstalled all the Lenovo support programs, such as Lenovo Care and System Update, and reinstalled them manually, but the same problem continues. All the other Lenovo Care programs work from the Lenovo Care taskbar; System Update does not work from any shortcut or link.

Then, after reading around on here, I tried installing Software Installer, but what happened there, immediately after installation, was that it provided the message that it was obsolete, and would automatically delete itself, and install System Update. So I let it, and afterwards, same problem--System Update 3 splash screen appears, then nothing.

I even attempted a system restore through XP, but it would not allow a restoration to any restore point/date before I noticed this problem occurred. What's going on? Everything else on my computer appears to be ok. In fact, XP has been so much more pleasant than Vista B32.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Chuck
El Paso, TX

Lenovo 3000 V100
Intel Core2 2 GHz
2 GB RAM

[USSS]

Welcome to the forums from a fellow Texan (Houston).

As you've noticed, there's a lively debate that continues over the problems with System Update 3. The consensus seems to be that Software Installer was a much more stable and robust application, but SU3 is probably here to stay, for better or worse.

Try performing a System Restore in SAFE MODE. I learned this the hard way when trying to clean up a mess associated with PC Doctor 5 a number of months ago.

If you have Windows Update set to automatically download and install updates, you might want to change those settings to "Notify, Download but Do Not Install" (or something like that). There've been reports within the past 6 weeks that Microsoft had reconfigured Windows Update to push certain new updates onto systems without the users' knowledge or permission. See http://windowssecrets.com/comp/071025/ and scroll down to "Users surprised by change to AU settings".

As a result, you may have some kind of DLL, OCX or driver conflict that is preventing SU3 from working properly as it did before. Also check the Event Viewer for any error codes associated with SU3 and any other software you may have installed recently. That might also provide some clues for a solution.

Good luck, and post back your findings.

[ryengineer]

Few members presented some solutions for splash screen prroblem in the following thread:

System Update Broken.

[Chuck-TX]

Thanks guys. Good information, but no solution.

I checked out the other thread, and some of those problems do sound like mine. But everything's in order, so far as I can tell. I could do that one post's suggested delete-a-bunch-of-updates and reinstall SU3.0, but there seems to be other stuff going on, now that I am checking more closely.

XP will not let me do any system restoring, even in safe mode. I have no idea what happened. I have never had this problem before.

Event viewer has no SU3 mentions. But it does have error messages concerning my virus software (AVG). When I went to shut off AVG as another person suggested, I discovered it's not running. But the AVG updater is--hmmm... When I tried to restart AVG, I got an error message, saying some system resource wasn't available. Until this problem, I thought the only problem I had was with SU3, but apparently the disease is more widespread.

This is beyond me. I think I'll give the computer a bath and a nap. Later I'm going to reinstall XP. I looked into an XP repair install, but a clean install seems to be less risky (if I back up first), and probably less effort. I always keep a folder for backup, with a subfolder of all my essentials, like bookmarks, outlook files, and basic drivers. It'll take a couple hours, and I can update with one hand and drink beer with the other.

Thanks again. --Chuck

[USSS]

Chuck,

One other thing you might try is running System File Checker. Also run an online virus scan if AVG is no longer working. I think you can run a scan at the Kaspersky Labs site. Try a registry cleaner, too, such as jv16 PowerTools.

Another option, if you've not tried it: Boot into Safe Mode and select "Last Known Good Configuration."
See: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=30241

Just throwing a few more ideas out as I know Windows reinstalls aren't much fun.

Otherwise, looks like a 6-pack Saturday night. Good luck.

[GomJabbar]

XP will not let me do any system restoring, even in safe mode.

If you use Norton, see the following.

Message: "Restoration Incomplete. Your computer cannot be restored . . . " when you run Windows System Restore

[Chuck-TX]

Howdy again.

I don't use anything like Norton Utilities (its motto should be "All your computer are belong to us"). A friend just had a computer disaster featuring NU and a failed restore attempt, and ended up losing everything (he has been able to recover some files with file-recovery utilities, but still). So I try to keep my computer simple, with a clean install of the OS, and programs that I know and can operate, and somewhat regular backups.

But I think I found the root of the problem. When I attempted to use the system file checker, it kept finding corrupt networking files. So this looks like a network problem. And my computer knowledge doesn't include much about network troubleshooting, so I did a clean reinstal of everything, and everything's working alright, including AVG and System Update.

Thanks for everything.