Updates on Shut Down

[MJOLNIR]

Why does my “1 of 1” updates take at least 24+ hours to finish? Keep in mind these updates have never finished and I was always forced to hold down the power button to shut off my computer…

Also what’s even weirder, is that the one time I shut down my computer and it did this kind of update…there wasn’t a yellow shield installation symbol next to the “Shut Down” button in that Start menu…and it STILL tried to install and update…wtf? I thought shut-down updates only occur when that yellow symbol is there, yet it still did it anyway. Anyone know any possible explanation for this?

Thanks. My OS is Windows 7 and 64-bit.

 

[TrainableMan]

You might try running this Window Fix-it tool

 

[MJOLNIR]

Did that and everything (the troubleshooter) ran quickly and easily, though what I found strange was, at the end, it asked me to try out the thing I was trying to do earlier and then confirming in the same window they had up, that the problem has been fixed...except that particular activity was update-restart the computer...and I obviously can't confirm in that window that the problem went away, since what I have to do to test my pc involves restarting it!

So I just chose "I don't know if it has been fixed" and then it prompted me to try other solutions, then I just exited the window.

Well it ran it and it said it fixed something...that something being "Windows Update Components" or something like that. Hopefully the update-restarts now take only as long as they should...which is like 5-10 minutes right? How long do your update-shut downs take?

 

[bassfisher6522]

Check your system for any bugs and virus's and use more than one brand of software. They all don't find the same bugs. There are known "fake" MS updates that infiltrate PC's. They are very sneaky and to a lot of novice users they look just like the real thing. Not saying you're a novice user...just saying it happens. It happened to my wife (novice) and it was hell trying to remove the damn thing.

 

[TrainableMan]

It depends on the update but most "updating" restarts are a couple minutes, I don't recall any longer than 15 minutes.

 

[MJOLNIR]

Yeah, they take like 1 minute for me now, thanks, and bass I have McAfee that came with the computer so i never really have viruses or infiltrations of the sort on this laptop.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Yeah, they take like 1 minute for me now, thanks, and bass I have McAfee that came with the computer so i never really have viruses or infiltrations of the sort on this laptop.

You'd be surprised at what malware, spyware and adware is on ones system, if it's not cleaned on a regular basis. Good luck.

 

[MJOLNIR]

Isn't it the AV's job to detect viruses as soon as they try to jump in and make scheduled scans anyway?

By the way this thread was solved until earlier this morning...wow a "1 of 1" update took at the very minimum TWELVE HOURS to complete! I would rather have it that it never actually finished. Why? Because that would at least give me the impression that it is actually done (taking it's usual expected time of a few minutes, but just not shutting down for some reason) and I would just need to force-restart. Now. it is actually taking long hours, and then is finished (indicated by it shutting itself off after those longs hours).

Crap...I thought that fix above somewhere solved it but now it's back. Help forum guys.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Virus and malware are completely different because they do different things to your system.

http://lifehacker.com/5560443/whats-the-difference-between-viruses-trojans-worms-and-other-malware

Have you tried a restore point to a time before this all started.

 

[MJOLNIR]

I pretty much meant infections of all kinds since it doesn't make sense McAfee would single out one kind of them and ignore having to deal with the rest, though I think I've gotten your point which is that I probably have something malicious that my McAfee isn't doing anything about or detecting, and that's why I have the problem mentioned in the first post?

Anyway you said to check for these bugs on my computer. What do you suggest I use, then? I really thought McAfee was enough. It's huge software after all and one of the most relied on. What does it not handle?

About the restore point, that would be to a time like some time last year...or even more. Have no idea when it happened actually, not even roughly.

Besides there really needs to be a fix for this problem...a true one. I'll try the above one, one more time and see what happens...or if you have a better suggestion, please give.

 

[bassfisher6522]

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

http://www.lavasoft.com/

These are what most of use and they are all free, in conjunction with our preferred AV. If you ask, the preferred AV is MSE.

System restore point....http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-windows-vista-system-restore/

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

 

[MJOLNIR]

Yeah hi bass, again.

I'm back to ask a question. Generally speaking, how am I supposed to tell when an update is taking too long? I guess this also depends on how many parts to the update there is...

Well in my case, today, my computer was running a "1 of 1" update...and I gave it say between 5-10 minutes. Is that too long? I'd imagine so. I mean, I personally don't see why it should take more than a minute to do each "1" of the update, so tell me what you all think.

Either way I shut it down before it ended, and let me tell you from experience, it hardly EVER finished its stupid "1 of 1" updates anyway.

But now I fear all this shutting down when my laptop runs updates like these might cause some harm.

I was Google searching and stumbled upon someone on Yahoo Answers asking what will happen if a computer is shut down when it's not finishing an update, and someone replied with:

"You can turn off it. It will redo the updating from where it has stopped. Nothing will harm your computer, coz windows itself takes a precaution of system restore before it does every updating. So, even you can run a system restore if you think something is wrong. Nothing to worry at all"

Personally I don't know which he means - is it restarting the computer, shutting it down by "tapping" the power button (which in my case means the computer shuts down, but as soon as you turn it back on, you'll see the update screen again meaning it still isn't going anywhere) or holding down the power button so that when you restart it, it reboots Windows. I did the latter of the three.

Anyway just in case I did something wrong I'm going to do a system restore before that point...*sigh*

 

[MJOLNIR]

By the way, in the System Restore's menu, where you can check for the complete list of things that will be deleted, and things that will be restored (depending on the date you choose to restore back to...), and there isn't anything listed under the "things that will be restored" list...is there then a point to do that restore, if your concern is only that something might have been screwed when you force-restarted your computer while it was updating (I had to do this since the "Installing update x of x" screen just never went away)?

Please reply back.

 

[MJOLNIR]

........

 

[TrainableMan]

MJOLNIR, I believe that refers to applications, etc that would be restored & deleted. There are still system settings that would be reverted back to that restore point.

If you try a restore and it doesn't do what you want then there is always the option to come back to today.

 

[MJOLNIR]

Ok thanks man. I just don't understand why a Windows 7 PC would by crappy in this manner. I mean, I have a 360 and PS3 and never once experienced a technical problem with them (that I can remember), but the more popular and expensive W7 PC has a different problem by the week. So strange...

 

[TrainableMan]

I'm not sure what you mean by "be crappy to you." Microsoft updates are primarily to improve security or to install new .NET functionality. It is generally the .NET installs that, in my experience, seem to take an unusually long amount of time and seem to have the most install issues.

But you force shutting off the machine adds an extra bit of complexity because the updates end up in a partially installed state. I have noticed that updates can be quite a pain on laptops because unlike my desktop they aren't on all the time so you need to allot time for updates. My personal choice is to have updates notify but not download or install so I control when and where updates happen but this requires a proactive decision; if you want the convenience of automatic updates then plan to leave your computer on all night Thursdays.