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 Post Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:13 pm 
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Hi folks. Seems I'm one of the first here. All the best with the new site. A friend's employer recently gave all his old computers to staff following a general IT upgrade. My friend has acquired a HP Compaq dc7700p running XP Pro...ideal for sending messages to her daughter and looking up recipes for rhubarb jam, etc! I got rid of about 25GB of "dubious" material...(this one had been with the boys in the storeroom!)...and used Malwarebytes and Superantispyware to clean up several trojans, etc, after the installed Trend Micro Titanium had found nothing! I then defragged...long overdue! Went to windows Update and got error 0x80070424. (Cannot update...something wrong!). In security centre, tried to alter settings to update automatically. Dialog box advised Security Centre could not alter settings....try in System. Did so, moved radio button to Auto, clicked apply, but it will not change from Do Not update. I read about settings in Admin Tools > Services. Background Intelligent Transfer Serevices was started OK, Workstation was running OK, but Windows Update did not appear. Assuming it was missing, I downloaded the latest Windows Update Agent from MS, but it would not instal, advising it was already there. and it was...in Windows Prefetch folder, where it should be, but it does not appear in Services. I asked my friend about previous updates and she advised "a tech used call every few weeks to service the computers and he would then update Windows from a USB flashdrive". Is there, perhaps, a "hidden" setting to prevent updating direct from MS. any addvise would be very much appreciated.


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 Post Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:26 pm 
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I would suspect that the system was under IT control and that there would be a second account with admin access and the account being used does not have such access.

To be honest in such a case I would wipe the drive and do a clean install if possible.

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 Post Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:34 pm 
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Thanks Jay. There is another admin account there. Will give that a go. If no good, it looks like the clean instal option. Thanks for your fast response. I'll let you know how we go.


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 Post Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:49 pm 
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With all the malware you cleaned up, I'd do a clean install even if you get Windows Update working.

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 Post Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 7:58 pm 
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Double check that the date and time are correct on the system too. This can cause an issue with Windows Updates.


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 Post Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 1:18 am 
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Thanks for all your suggestions, folks! I checked date and time, dvair, all OK. I was waiting to speak to my friend (who inherited the computer) about a clean instal of XP, then realised that, though I had installed Superantispyware last night, I had not run it. Full scan is still running now...so far 147 items of malware including 7 items labelled Rogue System Tool and 3 called Disabled Security Centre Option. I'll get more detail when the scan completes and will let you know. If we do go for the clean instal option, I have an OEM copy of XP Pro, and the serial No. of this computer, but the copy of XP is quite ancient...I think it includes SP1. I do have both SP2 and SP3 on CD...do I have to run both, or does SP3 cover both? I also realise there will be about 7864 other updates to download! Ain't computing fun???!!!


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 Post Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 3:33 am 
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My understanding is that it is best to install all service packs in order.

That said I have installed service pack 3 on a system with no service packs without issue.

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 Post Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:13 am 
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Service Pack 3 will only install if you already have Service Pack 1 or 2 already installed. If you have 1 installed it is not necessary to install 2 if you are going to install 3.

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 Post Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:31 am 
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According to SAS, the nasties were System Tool 2011 and Security Center Anti-Virus/Firewall/Updates Disable Notify. Apparently they are all from the same family as Windows/XP/Vista Security alarm generators. Even though I don't like throwing in the towel it looks like the clean instal option is fast approaching. The system is now "allegedly" clean, but still cannot update and other odd things are happening...eg all desktop icons are now permanently blue, as if highlighted! Thanks for all your help...I'll let you know how the clean instal goes tomorrow.


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 Post Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:52 am 
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Job is all done. I suddenly realised that as it is a HP desktop, I was able to use HP Recovery. This formatted the C: drive, reloaded XP Pro even to the point of reloading all drivers. it turned out that SP2 was included so ran the SP3 CD, then downloaded 138 updates from MS. All is now well. Thanks for your help.


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 Post Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 7:04 am 
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Glad to hear it! :) Make sure to go back to Windows Updates again to make sure there are no more updates for the updates.

Having to go back to update again and again can be a pain but there are reasons. Say you go to Win Updates and it installs a Net Framework package. Go back again and there will be updates for that package. The thing is that it can't offer updates for the package until the package is on your system.

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 Post Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:14 am 
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Thanks Jay. In fact the 138 updates I mentioned earlier "arrived" in three bursts! And as IE8 was included in the last batch, I expect more tomorrow morning when I reboot.


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 Post Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:17 am 
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Now is the time to image your system, while fully updated, in case you need to return. It will eliminate all the updating stuff. Do it again after you install your software and you should be covered.

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 Post Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:49 am 
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Nicely done! :geek:

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 Post Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 7:08 pm 
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Interesting point Manny. As this is the third or fourth computer with major probs I've had in during recent months, and clean instal has been necessary, I had thought of buying an external HDD and imaging the "cleaned-up" drives to it. That way, I have the images should they be needed again. (I'll just have to make sure I label them properly so I know which image belongs where! We dont want the butcher getting back a computer with all the doctor's patient records on it!) :oops:


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