I resurrected a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop with a new HDD. I installed a retail copy of Windows XP, updated it with Dell drivers and SP 1 and 3 and Explorer 8 from a Flash drive. It has wireless capability and a functioning Ethernet port, but Windows Update refuses to run. I can’t figure out why, because the Fix it for Me link is just a .cab file that I can’t do anything with.
Is there an easy fix or should I just keep this thing off the internet? It’s only got 1GB of RAM in it, so an OS upgrade isn’t likely.
Also, I dragged this back from the dustheap to let the four-year-old Dudeling have some occasional fun (e.g. Reader the Hallucinogenic Rabbit, Thomas the Psychopathic Engine, etc.). If I turn off wireless networking and only use it to download a file here and there (i.e. no surfing), can I stop all this troubleshooting folderol and just leave it in its currently stable state? It’d only connect to the internet behind a router with a NAT. Small protection, but will the very occasional connection to safe sites mean that I don’t have to use precious resources on Windows Security Essentials or further troubleshooting?
I don’t know if it has anything to do with it, but Microsoft ended mainstream support for XP on April 14, 2009 and the end of life date is April 8, 2014.
My Windows XP Media Edition still updates, and I reinstalled it last year, or two years ago at the most, and was able to get all the updates (a hellish lot of them), so I don’t think that’s the OP’s problem.
So let’s say that MS isn’t even hosting the updates anymore. On the off chance that that is indeed the issue (odd, though), do I care? I just want the Dudeling to lop the heads of illiterate bunnies and grow up fully ensconced in the British class system so he’ll be a Really Useful Engine.
Also, before the days of online validation, how did we get around having to insert the CD every time we wanted to play something. If he/we have to insert a disk each time, that’s really cutting their life expectancy way down.
Well, you have to be at least 13 years old to register here, so I guess I’ll leave the install as-is and never connect it to the Internet.
If I do, say because some game requires a connection or some other reason I can’t fathom, is there much risk of going online behind the router’s NAT? When does it become risky? Surfing beyond established commercial sites? Just sitting there? We’re absurdly wired in the house, so I can’t think of a reason we’d just surf with it, but who knows what I’ll think of tomorrow?
It’s not that bad of a security risk, IMHO. Just make sure it has a good anti-virus on it, and if you do choose to surf on it, don’t use IE. Use Firefox or Chrome with both an ad blocker and a script blocker. That is far more important than keeping XP itself up to date.
You can manually download the service packs from Microsoft’s web site.
I have an XP box here that runs games. It’s updated to SP3 and beyond that I have intentionally not installed any updates. I generally don’t surf the net on it (I have a linux box for that) but I do happen to be typing on it right now, so I do use it to connect to a few known sites (the SDMB plus a few sites to download mods for the games I have installed on it).
I had this problem when I reinstalled my netbook recently.
It seem this might due to the changes to Windows Update some months ago, IIRC I got it updated by setting it to automatic updates and leaving it to do its thing. Might need to manually update Windows Update first.
That doesn’t fix it either. I recently did a fresh install of XP, installed SP3 from disk, and it still won’t update, either through automatic updates, or on the Windows update website. What’s worse, automatic updates runs an svchost process that consumes 99% of the CPU time, rendering the PC unusable unless automatic updates is turned off.
I got a little farther. It seems this is a recent hiccup—I was surprised to find that most of the threads on it were from the past few months. Conjecture is that MS is screwing around with their servers in advance of the EOL.
Anyway, I found a few solutions by Googling “0x8024d001 windows update.” The solution that seems to have gotten me to the next stage was downloading/running WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe. Now at least it runs.
But that’s all it’s doing. It’s hanging on “windows is checking for updates…” I have yet to try any of the fixes out there (e.g. re-registering some dlls), so can’t say if it’s out of the woods.
I’d love to install Linux on it (I do most of my surfing on a Linux VM on my office machine), but most games for the Dudeling are PC only.
I have reinstalled WinXP recently and had some trouble updating at first. After some tinkering and maybe updating the Windows Update Agent the computer updates just fine.
I use and maintaing a few computers which are running WinXP Pro SP3 and for now they all update just fine.
I intend to keep using them well beyond April 2014. So what if XP is not updated by MS? I expect to get at least a couple years more out of them.
Make sure you have the latest version of Windows Update and that Automatic Updates Service is running. It should be able to update manually, no need to use “automatic” setting.