Windows Update Failure

[Wijono]

I have written about this problem in another thread, but piece by piece and up to now got no response, hence I try to start a new thread with the hope to get positive response.

In a PC running WinXP SP2, whenever I tried the Windows Update with the file size of the installer less then 1MB, then as soon as I double-click the installer, the screen goes immediately black and the PC restart right away. Example of those Windows Updates are the following:

- WindowsXP-KB919007-x86-ENU.exe -> 554KB

- WindowsXP-KB922819-x86-ENU.exe -> 837KB

- WindowsXP-KB923414-x86-ENU.exe -> 709KB

- WindowsXP-KB925486-x86-ENU.exe -> 784KB

Trying to find out more clue, I turned off the “Automatically restart” in the “Startup and Recovery” panel. When trying again to run those installer, I then got BSOD with following memory dump:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xEFEECBEF, 0xEEE02A20, 0x00000000)

Those that are printed bold can change from time to time, but the rests are the same all the times.

All other Windows Updates with the file size of the installer greater than 1MB run smoothly, no problem at all.

In trying to isolate the problem, I did the extraction of the problem updater in a good PC by double-clicking the updater, then stop at the “Software Update Installation Wizard” popup, copy all the extracted files into the problematic PC, double-click the <update.exe>, the update is implemented flawlessly in the problem PC. That way I could do the KB919007, KB 923414, KB925486 and KB922819 (All less than 1MB) mentioned above. With other words, the offending part is the extraction part, not the updating part.

One more point, the problem is only encountered with KB###### type of Windows Updates as mentioned above, dot NET update NDP20-KB917283-X86.exe which has less then 1MB (755KB) could run flawlessly. Checking deeper by opening this update with WinZip shows that it contains following 2 files:

- manifest.ini

- NDP20-KB917283-X86.msp

Whereas opening those problem updater with Winzip reveals following contents:

_sfx_0000_.p_; _sfx_0001_.p_; _sfx_0002_.p_; _sfx_0003_.p_; _sfx_0004_.p_; _sfx_0005_.p_; _sfx_0006_.p_; _sfx_0007_.p_; _sfx_0008_.p_; _sfx_0009_.p_; _sfx_0010_.p_; _sfx_0011_.p_; _sfx_0012_.p_; _sfx_0013_.p_; _sfx_0014_.p_; _sfx.dll; _sfx_manifest_; update.ver

Only this package structure with less than 1MB that has the problem. KB updater with more than 1MB has similar structure but has no problem.

Any clue or hint that will lead to the solution to this weird problem will be highly appreciated.

[Wijono]

Additional information that may help solve this problem.

In the Device Manager > System devices > System board Properties, under the Resource settings I see two unwanted Memory Range (not there in the same type of good PC):

- Memory Range: 000C0000

- Memory Range: 000F0000

The first one looks in line with the STOP: error message I mentioned earlier.

The problem is now that the “Change setting” button is greyed out, so how can I get rid of those unwanted Memory Range?