System Update 2 problem

[Deckard]

Hello,

I have downloaded and installed "System Update 2" via Software Installer. Everything went fine.

But when I start it and click on the "Get new updates" button on the left, the sand clock appears next to the "Searching for agents" and I receive a "An error occured while gathering user information" error. This happens at around "6-8% completed" each time.

I'd like to ask a couple of questions to those, who have experienced similar problems:

1) Did anyone have the same problem?. If yes, how did you solve it?

I have read the Help file that came with it. The error message is listed there too, but no solution offered. Instead, it says that I'd have to export a part of the Registry along with a couple of Log files and send them to Lenovo How cool is that?

2) Is this new software something completely different, better, informative than our good ol' Software Installer? Will I be missing anything important if I uninstall it? Will life be the same again?


Thanks a bunch for taking time to answer my questions.

Cheers

[jfsmith]

That problem is almost always the result of a conflict with Internet Explorer 7 beta. Solution: uninstall IE Beta 7 and hope the problem is fixed when IE7 is officially released.

[christopher_wolf]

So I decided to take the plunge and install System Update 2; so far, so good. Everything works well and I do indeed have the latest version of the IE 7 Beta installed (for IE security purposes).

It looks pretty good and reminds me of a cross between the old IBM Update Connector, Software Installer, and the Away Manager.
In addition, I took a look at it with, err, various tools and it seems to me that it does have fairly clean execution as well as process management; given that it spawns a few background processes as well as some that are registered as SYSTEM utilities, that is a good thing. Overall, I like it.

Now I just have to wait for their update servers to come back online and then I can complete all the updates.

[Deckard]

That problem is almost always the result of a conflict with Internet Explorer 7 beta. Solution: uninstall IE Beta 7 and hope the problem is fixed when IE7 is officially released.

Hmm, I indeed have IE7 Beta (actually RC1).

Thanks for the heads up.

[Deckard]

So I decided to take the plunge and install System Update 2; so far, so good. Everything works well and I do indeed have the latest version of the IE 7 Beta installed (for IE security purposes).

It looks pretty good and reminds me of a cross between the old IBM Update Connector, Software Installer, and the Away Manager.
In addition, I took a look at it with, err, various tools and it seems to me that it does have fairly clean execution as well as process management; given that it spawns a few background processes as well as some that are registered as SYSTEM utilities, that is a good thing. Overall, I like it.

Now I just have to wait for their update servers to come back online and then I can complete all the updates.

Now I'm jealous

How come it works on your machine (with IE7) and not on mine?

[Nick Y]

Check to see if you are using a proxy internet connection. System Update 2 does not like my proxy (www-cache.demon.co.uk -probably the hyphen causing problems), but is fine if I remove it.

(BTW I am not using IE7, but occassionally using IE6.)

[strev]

Hmm, I am bombing when running SU2. When "searching for agents" it gets to about 9% then bombs with the dialog "An error occured while gathering user information." Ugh. I have IE7RC1 of course I cannot be completely sure IE7 is the culprit but based on what I read I guess it is. I have proxy settings turned OFF. Something else is going on here.

Btw, X1 (the great desktop search program) does not work with IE7RC1 either. It spawns a whole lot of empty IE7 windows every time it is launched. This is a problem that X1 acknowledges and there currently is no fix.

[christopher_wolf]

Now I'm jealous

How come it works on your machine (with IE7) and not on mine?

I don't know, Deckard; I am looking for what could cause the issue(s). Although, don't feel too jealous; the version of IE7 that I have is, according to the IE7RC1 installer and all the tricks MS recommends, *cannot be uinstalled*. It appears as if a total system backup, differential backup, and a sit-down session with RegEdit with some interrogation lamps is in order here.

[christopher_wolf]

Got it.

I was getting some hangs with the SU2 installer with IE7 installed; I didn't use it much so I decided to uninstall it. With a little futzing around in the Registry, I discovered that the only thing that prevented the total uninstall of my copy of IE7 Beta 2 was that it was missing the NT environ based uninstaller (spuninstall.exe) and wouldn't show up under Add/Remove programs no matter what, which is what most online guides rely on to have you uninstall IE7.

I then looked at the available Windows components and discovered that I could get rid of the system *thinking* it had IE7, then clean up the unassociated key links in the registry later. So I removed it as a component, then did a large scan/clean of the registry prior to a reboot. After that, everything worked smoothly, including SU2 and X1.

For whatever reason, some installs of the IE7 betas merely replace the IE6 program files and don't take care of placing the proper uninstall path to their own uninstall exes, ending up in an IE7 install that *cannot* be shown under Add/Remove programs, even with "Show Updates" checked, and resulting in the need for a manual uninstall. I tried installing IE7 RC1 in hopes that it would bring back the uninstall exe, but it said that since the previous IE7 Beta 2 was non-uninstallable, it too would be non-uninstallable as well. That must be a special form of logic that the MS IE7 dev teams follow, much like their "Put the URL address bar above the program menu bar" line of thinking.

[Deckard]

Now I'm jealous

How come it works on your machine (with IE7) and not on mine?

I don't know, Deckard; I am looking for what could cause the issue(s). Although, don't feel too jealous; the version of IE7 that I have is, according to the IE7RC1 installer and all the tricks MS recommends, *cannot be uinstalled*. It appears as if a total system backup, differential backup, and a sit-down session with RegEdit with some interrogation lamps is in order here.

I must admit that I didn't have any problem uninstalling IE7Beta2, but I didn't try uninstalling IE7RC1 yet. After reading on the net that quite a number of users had problems with uninstalling the Beta2, MS have released an Uninstall Toolkit. It can be found in the link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... layLang=en

I might try uninstalling IE7RC1 to see if I get the SU2 running.

Thanks for the reply.

[manthano]

I had the same problem as Deckard, i uninstalled IE7 RC1 and SU2 works now.

[MadManMund]

I have the same issues with system update 2 and do not have IE7 installed. I am a Firefox user exlcusively. I have tried re-installing system update with no improvement. I have been using software installer to keep up to date instead.

[christopher_wolf]

Are you sure you uninstalled *all* components of IE?

[MadManMund]

I have never installed IE7. I have no plan to ever install IE7. IE6 was preinstalled and I have never modified the installation.

[Nick Y]

I have never installed IE7. I have no plan to ever install IE7. IE6 was preinstalled and I have never modified the installation.

I mentioned above that I have problems with System Update 2, but found that it was to do with my proxy. I found out the cause by looking for a log file, created by System Update. It took a while to work out the actual cause, but at least the log file pointed me in roughly the right direction.

Try looking in C:\Program Files\Lenovo\System Update\logs and at the file tvsu_log.txt. It logs each step, so you can see where it falls over and then look at the previous step to see what it was trying to do.

I hope that this helps you...

[Deckard]

Update:

After installing IE7 Final, System Update 2 is working fine on my X31.

However, I have noticed that not all the updates are being shown. For instance Access Connections 4.21 is not being offered as an upgrade neither on System Update 2, nor on the Software Installer. It's not even on the X31 Driver Matrix on IBM's website. Without the notice on this forum, I wouldn't have heard about it.

[Tigsman]

Update:

After installing IE7 Final, System Update 2 is working fine on my X31.

However, I have noticed that not all the updates are being shown. For instance Access Connections 4.21 is not being offered as an upgrade neither on System Update 2, nor on the Software Installer. It's not even on the X31 Driver Matrix on IBM's website. Without the notice on this forum, I wouldn't have heard about it.

I think Lenovo has learned that its best to not push out ALL brand new software, letting others test it first to ensure its reasonably stable.

Give it a week or so and SU will probably start pushing AC4.21


T

[christopher_wolf]

Yeah, you won't see all the new updates as compared to the actual driver/software matrix they publish; it was the same way even when Software Installer came out, most of the time anyway.

[DAH]

I've found that I need to run both, System Update and Software Installer, to get most of the updates, but even running both will not guarantee that I'll get everything.

[ImSeeker]

I've also been having this problem (thinkvantage system update freezing with "an error occurred while gathering user information")

been having it for a while.

re IE - this computer had IE6 and did not go to IE7 until Windows Update gave it out.

I looked at the tvsu log file - but couldn't make much head or tail with it other than the updater program just kept cycling until it failed.

I did at one point download the system update program from the lenovo site and reinstalled - then it WORKED one time, but went back to the old error after that.

Any thoughts?

[o1sowise]

I run both every Friday at noon.

But before that (Friday at 11:30a), I visit Lenovo and download the latest and greatest. If I download and extract the new stuff before I run the System Updater and Software Installer, they will find the stuff I just downloaded and keep track of the installations. I like to be newer than either of those package servers.

Warning: this approach is not for everyone, only the most experienced and gutsy users

[pawkala]

I have made two things to fix my system updateing :
1. degrade IE form 7 to 6. - I used advices given from this forum
2. download from Lenovo latest TV System Update.
Now everything works fine .