IT Professionals

Follow-Up On My Windows Update Conundrum

Posted by on Jun 17, 2008 | 11 Comments

Last Wednesday (6/11/2008), I wrote a post about my Windows Vista PC having some major issues after auto-installing a batch of updates from Microsoft’s Windows Update service. Essentially, after these updates installed and my PC restarted itself, it lost its Internet connectivity (while maintaining LAN connectivity overall, which is peculiar in and of itself).

Shortly afterwards, and much to my surprise, a member of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) contacted me to see how they could help me resolve these problems. Microsoft actually provides no-charge support for issues related to security updates. You can find contact information for this support here.

He connected me with one of his engineers, and we started to run some more tests, applying an update, then restarting, then seeing how my machine behaved. After it came up with no Internet connectivity, they had me run the following command line:

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

Netsh is the command line network services shell, which allows you to display or modify network configuration at the command line. This particular instance, the command reset the network stack. After running the command and restarting, my PC once again could “see” that it had an Internet connection.

I did some more tinkering to see if I could pinpoint the issue to one particular update. The problem was, any update from the set issued this week did the same thing — after restarting, my PC would not see that it an Internet connection. Through a combination of manually uninstalling some updates and using System Restore, I could then coax my PC back to a state where it was recognizing the presence of an Internet connection.

So it would seem that there is something bigger going on here, because any attempt at installing any of the current batch of critical and recommended updates causes the problem. And, unfortunately for me, this is my “Production” PC that I use to support not only my household, but my own business. Any troubleshooting I do on it hampers me from doing my daily work tasks on it.

I have options — I can move my key data files back to the PC I’d used prior to this one, which is sitting right next to it. That might by me some time. I’m just worried that to truly rid myself of the problem, I might have to face the specter of doing a full-bore factory restore. But I haven’t come to that point yet. Right now, I’ll just keep the Windows Update settings on this PC “Download Only.” I do have a dialog going on with a couple Microsoft folks, which is helpful. Still, this is the most frustrating experience I’ve had on my Vista PC since I put into service a little over six months ago.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/theoracle/ the oracle

    After a second read (a read instead of a scan) it looks to me like sloppy programming on their part. (Kind of like not flushing a buffer you know will be read, and trusting the machine to clear the buffer memory upon reboot, and finding it just does not happen)

  • leftystrat

    I guess because I’m so used to it, I’d just put the important files elsewhere and blow out the pc. You will be able to get it back and functional in a reasonable amount of time (assuming you have the time).

    I’m betting you won’t have the same error the second time around. I could be completely wrong but this has been my experience with XP for years.

    Good luck.

  • http://www.justcallmatt.net/ Matt Wilkinson

    I’ll be posting Part III of this saga in the next day or so. I’ve got a functional work around that allows me to install updates and keep my network connectivity. What I now have to do, regardless it would seem of what update i install, is remove my LAN adapter from the Device Mgr, and then restart. The adapter reloads, and Internet connectivity comes back. More details to follow.

    Now the question is — do I just live with this “workaround” or do I rebuild the machine?

  • Tom

    I just had this very same thing happen at work on a seldom-used PC on our network. It’s on a domain and on XP. I had just loaded the 7/8/08 updates and lost connection. Never seen this before. Then, at home, on my home machine that I just recently reloaded onto a new HD (XP Pro), I had the same thing happen to me (so I don’t think a fresh reinstall of the OS will help you). At home, I got it back by using System Restore and turned off Automatic Update. Then I found your comments when I started researching what had happened…and ran into work and set the Automatic Update to off on our networked PCs … although my work PC had the updates and was having no problems. The original PC at work had no viable restore point to go back to, so I will try your other workaround deleting the network adapter and restarting the PC on that one. I’ve been working with PCs for years and never before had this particular problem…so I suppose that my PCs at work were maybe not in danger? I don’t know. Some have the updates downloaded but not installed before I turned the auto update off. Not sure where I go from here.

  • Tom

    One thing that was different. I could access the Internet if I ran the PC w/o loading ZASS. As soon as I reloaded ZASS, then I could no longer access the Internet…and yet it didn’t seem to be Zonealarm that was at fault. I uninstalled it clean and reinstalled it and specified manual settings, rather than automatic, and, for instance, Zonealarm asked me to allow Firefox access to the Internet, and yet Firefox would just timeout trying to access web pages after I allowed access. But like the problem outlined by Matt, the problem didn’t appear unitil after I had rebooted from installing Windows updates. I tried uninstalling the updates, but that didn’t fix the problem at the work PC.

  • Jonathan

    Had the same problem as Tom. Tried quitting Zonealarm, and presto The Internets was back. I was lucky I found this article. Thanks

  • Clark

    Sounds like this is going to be a common problem. Two computers on my home network lost connectivity immediately after 7/8 auto-updates. The other computer on the network has not downloaded the update.

  • Ragman

    I’m having the same problem. No internet access after downloading what appears to be Security Update KB951748 and Update KB951978. The Malicious Software Removal tool that’s up with them does not seem to be involved. I’ve two systems running XP Pro that installed the two updates and couldn’t find the net. I can turn off ZoneAlarm and see the net again.

  • Ragman

    Uninstalling KB951748 seems to fix the issue. As to any side effects, I’ll have to wait and see. One rig said the uninstall may affect SQL server, the other said Windows Update and Firefox may be affected.

  • robert

    googling july 8 windows update problem
    brought me here – I have xp pro on my dell m140 laptop and had exactly the same experience with yesterday’s update. Two cycles of updating (no internet) and restoring (all nornal) and full zonealarm virus/spy, spybot and adaware scans had no results. Interesting that this may be a zonealarm issue – hopefully they’re reading this blog.

  • robert

    called the MS Update free virus support line and was greeted by an EXTENSIVE explanation that this issue is all about zone alarm – ZA already has posted a version update for all their products to correct the problem – though, contrary to at least one person here on this board, they say vista isn’t affected.
    fwiw.