Vista: The update does not apply to your system

Hello Locutus,

Everything looks pristine inside. No bulging caps, nothing. The way I get the BSODs (on start up, when the PC hasn't been used for a while) perhaps suggests a hardware fault, but I can't see anything obviously wrong. I think, as GWN suggests, the way forward now is to work on the next BSOD, if and when it happens. And then get a new PC, obviously.

Thanks.

Hello GWN,

Thanks for all your help with this problem. Next time I get a BSOD, I'll start a new topic on bleepingcomputer. Strangely, I haven't had one for some time, but I've been using the PC almost every day recently and, as I say, they generally seem to happen when the PC has been dormant for some time.

Ultimately, I need a new computer, but just want to keep this one going a few months longer. It's not that I'm particularly attached to Vista (it's probably the worst version of Windows I've used, and I go back to 3.0!) it's more that I need a new car more than I need a new computer at the moment (it's on its last legs) so want to stick with the PC a bit longer. It might also give the chance for these phenomenally expensive 4k computers to come down in price a bit.

I've tried running the WSUS Offline Update tool, just to see what happened. It claimed to have installed a few things (kb3191203, for example), but I can't see any evidence for it. The files the patch is supposed to update haven't been updated. It then started checking for updates, but I killed it off after about 4 hours. I guess that's just a manifestation of the general Vista / Win 7 slow update problem. At some time over the next few weeks, I'll try running WSUS overnight to see if that gets me anywhere.

Once again, thanks for your help.

Norton has never reported any malware, and I don't have any ESET software installed.

Hi JL3008:

I don't want to take this thread off topic, but I only referenced the ESET support article Blue Screen Error (BSOD) on Systems with ASUS/Gigabyte Motherboards with Chipsets H87/Z87 and H97/Z97 because it explains how ASUS/Gigabyte utilities can cause your system to crash or become unstable.  See the following threads in the Norton forum where users experienced BSODs when their Norton antivirus ran a scan (I post in that forum as user lmacri).  The BSODs stopped when they uninstalled Norton, but an analysis of their dump files showed that the crashes were actually caused by a poorly written ASUS/Gigabyte driver gdrv.sys used by the EasyTuneEngine utility.  The problem just became more noticeable when they ran a virus scan with Norton because of the intensive read/writes and memory allocated to Norton during a scan.  The third thread discusses a problem with the ASUS Network iControl utility that resulted in dropped network connections after a Norton upgrade.

     Phoenix365: Norton Security Blue Screen From Background Tasks

     bahadir:       BSOD on Norton AntiVirus Security

     Cico66:        NIS 2014 Problem Internet Navigation in Windows 8 Pro

From the ESET support article:  "AI Suite (ASUS) and APP Center (Gigabyte) applications use drivers thatcreate memory-mapped I/O to access hardware ports in a non-standard way. If the memory is subsequently read by another process utilizing aW indows API function (for example, during a memory scan by ESET), it may have unpredictable results on the system and the system may crash..."

I have no idea if the chipset on your ASUSTeK M2N8-VMX motherboard came with utilities like EasyTuneEngine or ASUS Network iControl, but the moral of the story is don't assume your antivirus is responsible if your system crashes during a virus scan or your network connection becomes unstable after an antivirus upgrade, and don't assume a Windows Update component is corrupted if you see a 8000FFFF error message when Windows Update runs.  Run the proper diagnostics first and make sure you understand the root cause of the problem before you start making changes to your system that could do more harm than good.

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v51.0.1 * NIS v22.9.0.68 * MBAM v2.2.1

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

> I have 32-bit Vista Home Premium (but with a 64-bit processor...don't know why the manufacturer did that)

because every Intel CPU beginning with P-IV has been 64-bit capable (only first gen P-IV are not)

and every AMD CPU since Athlon 64

but not all system configurations support x64 installations

eg.

an Intel Atom based netbook with max 2GB RAM

can install x64 but it doesn't run well at all

as to the boot time start up BSOD

look on the Motherboard for blown caps

if there are blown caps then it's a lost cause

I do get occasional BSODs, but only ever on boot up, and usually when the PC hasn't been used for a few days. In these cases I just do a hard reboot and it invariably boots up second time. The error it reports isn't always the same (and sometimes it doesn't report any error at all). I don't recall ever having a BSOD once it's up and running.

How much of a risk is involved in running an unpatched OS? Does having Norton installed significantly lessen that risk?

Hi JL3008:

Any intermittent BSOD should be investigated, regardless of whether it occurs during or after boot-up, and your BSODs could be related to the "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation" errors you see when you run System File Checker (sfc /scannow).  Please start a new topic in the bleepingcomputer Windows Crashes, BSOD, and Hangs Help and Support board and have one of the experts there analyze your past crash dumps - jcgriff2 has pinned instructions <here> at the top of that board on the information you should include in your initial post.  Once you've isolated and repaired the cause of your BSODs and sfc /scannow reports there are no issues with your system files come back to this thread and we'll see if we can get Windows Update working again.

I would strongly advise against continuing to use your Vista SP2 computer after extended support ends on 11-Apr-2017, especially if you have any important or confidential information stored on your computer or do any sort of online banking or shopping.  After 11-Apr-2017 it is inevitable that more and more software manufacturers will start withdrawing support for Vista.  Your Firefox browser is the last major browser that is fully supported and patched for security vulnerabilities on Win XP SP3 and Vista SP2, and Mozilla has already announced end of support for Firefox on these operating systems (see the Firefox support article Important - Firefox is Ending Support for Windows XP and Vista).

Your Norton Security v22.9.0.68 will provide some additional layers of security (click the "?" icon next to items like Exploit Prevention and Browser Protection at Settings | Firewall | Intrusion and Browser Protection to view related support articles) but your best protection is always a fully patched operating system.

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One comment about your Windows Updates going forward.  Even if you have a damaged Windows Update component, Torsten Wittrock's WSUS Offline Update tool mentioned in Note 6 of m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hoursmight still be able to install missing updates for your Vista SP2 OS as well as MS Office 2007.  I doubt that tool will run correctly on your system at the moment, given that every standalone .msu installer you manually download and run is currently failing, but it's something to keep in the back of your mind after you've repaired your Vista SP2 system files.

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v51.0.1 * NIS v22.9.0.68 * MBAM v2.2.1

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS