"Automatic Update" Problem

Factual Questions
1

It keeps turning itself off. I have run several scans and my machine is virus free. I run Spybot daily and I don’t have any malware on board.

Here’s my system:

Operating System
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP2
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 55 °C
Brisbane 65nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 387MHz (5-5-5-18)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. M2A-VM (Socket AM2 ) 40 °C
Graphics
LCD TV (1360x768@60Hz)
512MB GeForce 9600 GT (EVGA) 55 °C
Hard Drives
488GB Hitachi Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 ATA Device (SATA) 43 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S202H ATA Device
Audio
C-Media CM106 Like Sound Device

Anyone know a fix for this?

Thanks for any help!

Q

2

I don’t use automatic updates because I want to see what is going into my computer. Microsoft offers things I don’t want or need. The malicious virus scan is a large file and processing I don’t need for example. Also, some updates don’t always work or they may not work in the sequence that the automatic updates runs them.

So to address your problem if you have not tried this already. Try to update manually and see if there is one update that automatic is having trouble with. It may have turned itself off for this reason. If you get past that single troublesome file, turn on AU and go your merry way.

3

When you say “turns itself off” do you mean it crashes? Or shuts down properly?

387 MHz is an odd memory speed.

First port of call is as Al Bundy suggests, one update at a time.

If you still get one that shuts down the PC then I suggest a RAM test.

Download Windows version 4.0a from

http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

Unzip and use your favourite program to burn the resulting .iso to CD

Boot from the CD. Let it run for at least 3 passes, preferably overnight. If your computer crashes, hangs or you see red warning messages then you probably have a RAM problem. (could be CPU)

Let us know how you get on.

4

Hey guys

Thanks for the advice.

lurcio, it doesn’t crash the machine, it just shuts itself off. I see this when I come out of “Sleep”, or sometimes I see that red shield when I take a look at the bottom right, where the icons are. For instance, I just looked and saw the shield, clicked on it and chose the top option to get it back.

Al, I checked update and I had two which were optional: one was parental control, and the other was security definitions for Microsoft Essentials. I downloaded the latter just to see what would happen. So far so good.

I then went into my update history, and checked to see if all updates were successfully downloaded, and they were. Not one has failed.

lurcio, I’m going to have D (my wife) do all what you suggested if you think I still need to. She’s the IT person in the family ;).

Thanks again to both of you.

Quasi

5

I found the “culprit”: Game Booster. I use it to cut lag when I play Warcraft. I noticed that once I launch WoW from the Game Booster window, as soon as it launches, the “automatic update is turned off” message appears.

Once I exit the game, no problem, I just change settings and reactivate auto update.

Would you guys say it’s okay to do it that way? Game Booster really does keep my game moving smoothly.

Thanks

Q

6

If you’ve found the culprit and can work round it then all’s good. No need to do anything else really.

Would check periodically to see if there is an update to Game Booster and if the behaviour carries on once it is updated.

Glad you got it sorted.