Windows Update KB2859537

Microsoft seem to be having a poor time with their monthly Windows updates in 2013.  August's monthly updates included several security patches including one for the kernel - KB2859537 - which seems to be causing a few problems.  Reported symptoms include application freezes and BSODs, but many systems are are unaffected.

Based on superficial evidence, problems may be affecting systems that have:

• Windows 7
• IE10 installed
• more than 3 cpu cores
• Avast antivirus installed
• third-party apps that directly alter the kernel.

Trouble with Service Pack 1

So at last it was time to install Service Pack 1 on the Windows 7 PC.  That's when more trouble started.

SP1 was released in February 2011, yet it was now January 2013 - why the delay?  Reasons were:

•  SP1 initially had issues - let others prove its stability first
•  the target system is critical to the users
•  the target system had hardware issues: backup drive, memory
•  no pressing drivers exist until support for Win7 RTM ceases in April 2013
•  techie time is scarce.

Following Microsoft's recommendations to prepare before installing SP1, the SP1 box was ticked in Windows Update 'important updates' and off we went.

After about ten minutes, this fateful error message appeared:

Installation was not successful
Error E_FAIL (0x80070002)

It's at times like this you realise how useful the world-wide-web is.

Murphy Strikes

For those not familiar with Murphy's Law, it states "if anything can go wrong, it will".  No more true than with IT things!

One day a week (mostly) I assist in the archives of a local museum.  In late 2010, we spent time migrating the archive database to ModesXML - lots of planning and test runs, finally completing the task in early 2011.  Ideally we should have dedicated a server to the database; its resource demands will grow as data and user access grow.  But money is tight, so we took the opportunity to put the database onto a lightly-used PC - which also happened to be the newest so it was quite well specified.  Worth a mention here is that it runs 32-bit Windows 7 for legacy reasons.

All was well after initial migration.  Subsequent customisation took place, along with creation of templates, lists of object terms, many new entries, and so on. It was gratifying to see the system settle in and moulding to our needs.

During the early weeks of 2012, some odd behaviour had been noted on the backup drive - a Samsung 1.5TB USB Story Station.  Some days it would fail to start, requiring manual switch off, a pause and then on again.  Then it started throwing errors during backups.  Running CHKDSK would usually fix it for a few days, then it reverted.  This went on for many weeks as investigation was hampered by more serious issues: broadband internet faults, viruses in other PCs on site - oh, and an incapacitating leg injury!