Yellow Horror

There is some reports on a russian forum, that KB4056615 cause multiple software failures on certain PC configurations: with old one-core CPUs. Multi-thread and multi-core CPUs aren't subject to the problem. Deinstallation of KB4056615 solve the problem in all the cases.

If it have DVD drive and you don't need it, you may replace it with a HDD/SSD drive. Search for "HDD caddy" for additional info.

There may be booting issues if converting a bootable MBR drive to GPT. Check if your motherboard and OS support EFI boot. Converting data storage drive is much safer. The full backup is highly recommended in any case.

I can see two reasons to use Win'98 today: retro-gaming and utilize very special hardware that has 9x-specific driver only. There is no need in web browsing in both cases. For all other tasks that i can imagine, it is better to use another OS (DOS, a sort of Windows NT or *NIX).

Long time ago i installed Windows'95 on a 40 MB HDD using Stacker disk compression utility. There was even some space left for user applications. When i see a new OS running on a new hardware that is at least 100 times faster, i wish to ask a single question: "What it does all the other time after perform the same tasks?"

As far as i understood your MB specification, it use strict settings "AGP video" or "PCI video" during boot (not "AGP first" or "PCI first" as some other MoBos do). And the default setting is "AGP". So, you may be right. I hope that your build will start normally with an AGP video card installed. You may also try to test your PCI video card in a modern build (supporting PCI) as a second video card. To be sure that it isn't the cause.

"1 long 2 short" beeps mean "video card failure". Some video cards report failure if a display isn't found. So, it may mean display or cable failure also.

There is a riddle: "What weighs half a ton and runs Windows XP?"

On my system with PosReady hack it autoupdates on daily basis.

Official versions of MSE after 4.4.304 don't work under XP. There exist a modded version of MSE based on v.4.8.204 that works under XP. The only limitation is that Widows Security Center don't recognize that it is working and issue warning. The warning may be disabled easily but then you don't receive any further MSC warnings if something vents wrong with your MSE. I use v.4.8 on one of my PCs without any issues, but i don't know which benefits it has comparing to v.4.4. If you interested in the modded version, try to contact its author, http://www.msfn.org/board/profile/402904-heinoganda/

KB3213644 was unnecessary to solve "endless search". You may check it by uninstalling it and do search again. KB4011199 replace 29 previous updates, and KB4011266 replace 36, so another another confirmation of my theory. But my installation of Office 2003 SP3 + Office compatibility pack SP3 don't request these updates from MU.

There should be a working Windows 7 driver. I see a few reports of successfully installing Windows 7 on Acer ES1-131. UPD: Russian Acer-related forum users suggest to switch off UEFI boot (set a supervisor password, then SecureBoot -> Disable, then BootMode -> Legacy) and convert drive to MBR before installing Windows 7 on it.

Do the SATA controller hardware ID changes if you change AHCI settings in BIOS setup? UPD: After thoroughly search i am sure that there is no official XP compatible driver supporting [8086:22a3] SATA controller. I found one unofficial driver (based on iaStor v.11.2.0.1006 with modified .INF file) that may support it. But one user reported that the driver didn't help him, just changed BSOD from 0x7b to 0x7e. I suggest you to try the driver as a last chance (registration on the win-raid forum is required to download it).

I can't find any positive examples of installing Windows XP on Acer ES1-131. Probably its chipset is not supported by Intel drivers suitable for XP. But this is a good advice to help in finding a suitable driver or make the final conclusion that this is impossible. You may use Windows PE version 8.1 or 10, or a Linux based "Live disk". Linux command to list PCI devices with their hardware IDs is: lspci -nn

I read a little more about the Acer ES1-131. Are you sure that your model has SATA SSD drive? Typically Acer ES1-131 have builtin eMMC memory only, which is incompatible with Windows systems before 8.

Can you explain a little more? Do you experience problem with integrating the driver into XP installation image, or receive the same error when installing XP after the driver integration?

Try to integrate this driver into your XP installation image. The NLite is suitable for this task.

Not to a graphic card, but to a specific motherboard chipset.

They both are, because they share the search routine. The difference is that WUA don't try to search Office updates while MUA do. So installing KB4047206 is enough to avoid the bug while using WUA, but more updates are troublesome for MUA. Sorry, i don't use Office 2010 so don't know which of its updates are troublesome. If you can isolate them, we may check my "updates with 29 or more replacements list are bad" theory. UPD: i think that KB4011268 should be one of troublesome Office 2010 updates because it replace 34 of previous updates.

Not any, but only a few of these updates cause the delay if they are missing. For now, only KB4011265 and KB4011205 of the Office Compatibility Pack updates cause the delay. I double-check this on my system: The first time i install them manually and do a search for missing updates. I found all other of the November Office Compatibility Pack updates in a few minutes. For the second test i install all the current Office Compatibility Pack updates then remove updates one-by-one. Any of the last Office Compatibility Pack updates being removed don't cause the delay - except for KB4011265 and KB4011205. The same behavior i notice before from the KB4011265 and KB4011205 predecessors - KB4011064 and KB3213647. Note that KB4011265 and KB4011205 replace 30 previous updates each (and KB4011064 and KB3213647 replace 29). If you doubt my conclusions, you may easily check: Install clean Office 2003 with SP3 on a fully updated Windows XP. Install the Office Compatibility Pack. Install the Office Compatibility Pack SP3. Install KB4011265 and KB4011205 (do not install any other updates). Search for updates.

In short, XP version of Windows Update Agent is buggy, so any update that replace a big number (as far as i can see, the critical number is 29) of older updates is hard to find with it. Internet Explorer cumulative updates are an example, because they are released every month and each new cumulative update replace all its predecessors. While the bug in WUA isn't fixed (i hope that MS fix it before XP Embedded support ends), the only workaround is to download and install troublesome updates (IE cumulative and some other) or all updates suitable for your system manually. You can read more about the problem on the last pages of this topic.

Is there any new files in the %SYSTEMROOT%\Minidump directory?

It takes about 1.5 hours on a 3.2 GHz CPU to find missing KB4047206 (IE Cumulative update) only. Assuming that other "bad" updates would take the same time, a PC with XP and Office 2007 installed needs more than 7 hours to finish its search this month.

Just as I expected, manually installing KB4047206 (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer), KB4011064, and KB3213647 (new Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack updates) was enough to stop "endless search" for me. I do not use MS Office 2007, so don't know which (if any) of its updates are troublesome also, sorry. Counting replaced updates for each one manually is a little hard task because MS Updates catalog website shows only 4 rows of the "this update replaces these:..." list at a time and i do not know a better way of retrieve this information. UPD: I found the way - to copy-paste all the list to any text editor. Now i can put forward a hypothesis: KB4011266 and KB4011199 are "bad" and need to be installed manually (in addition to the three other "bad" updates i mention above). KB4011203 and KB4011276 are "good", so they may be founded and installed automatically after you install all the "bad" updates that your system needs. Will someone check this?

These two updates replace troublesome KB4011064 and KB3213647 i mentioned before. So i think, now they must be installed manually (along with IE cumulative update) to stop "endless search for updates". I'll check this today. BTW: these two updates replace 30 older updates each, and the new IE cumulative replaces 31. Let me mention that "endless search" started with IE cumulative two months ago. So, i assume proved that any update that replace 29+ older updates is troublesome for the current version of XP WUA.