Windows Vista SP1: unable to install updates, SP2 or SURT

Hello again!

That's really great! You may have noticed that there are loads of "corruption" lines in that logfile. They are absolutely nothing to worry about. The BitShift:: directive is very new, and I am currently trying to balance up the exclusion lists. All of those corruption reports are actually false positives i.e. no real corruption.

I just wanted to check that there was no damage outside of your schema hive. There isn't, and that's a good thing! Now we move onto our next step. This one can be tricky, but it will hopefully be the last difficult step. Don't hesitate to ask for clarification on any part.


Export registry as hive

  1. Click on the Start
    Start%20Orb.jpg
    button and in the search box, type regedit
  2. When you see regedit on the list, right-click on it and select Run as administrator
  3. When regedit opens, using the left pane, navigate to the following registry key and select it by clicking on it once.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SCHEMA
  4. Once selected, click File > Export....
  5. Change the Save as type: to Registry Hive Files (*.*)
  6. Name this file SCHEMA.DAT and save it to your Desktop.

[If there is no key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SCHEMA, instead copy to desktop file C:\Windows\System32\SMI\Store\Machine\SCHEMA.DAT]

Now right click on SCHEMA.DAT from your Desktop > Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder.

Then please upload it to your favourite file sharing website (it will be too big for here). If you have a Microsoft Account, SkyDrive could be a good choice: https://skydrive.live.com/, but any other will do just fine. Make sure to set the file as publicly accessible.

Then send me a link to the file.

Thank you!

Richard
 
Hi Richard

I couldn't find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SCHEMA so followed the second part of your instructions (I hope).

I am hopeful that the followng link contains what you asked for but If not I am happy to try again.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73550371/schema.zip

Regards
Noel

P.S. Having checked the file created it just looks like a jumble of information so I am not as confident that I have done what is required.
 
Last edited:
NJamesD said:
Hi Richard

I couldn't find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SCHEMA so followed the second part of your instructions (I hope).

I am hopeful that the followng link contains what you asked for but If not I am happy to try again.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73550371/schema.zip

Regards
Noel

P.S. Having checked the file created it just looks like a jumble of information so I am not as confident that I have done what is required.
Click to expand...

Well done, you've done it absolutely perfectly!

The file itself cannot be read by a human, it's in a computer friendly format at the moment. Fortunately, I have tools to help me convert it back to plain text.

I need a short whilst to analyse it and then I will get back to you.

Richard
 
Hello again :)

Can I please have a little more time to analyse your files? <-- that means I'm confused by what I've found :p

Thank you very much.

Richard
 
Hi Richard
Thanks for getting back to me.
Please take as long as you need (although it sounds a little ominous that my files are proving to be confusing - sounds serious).
Thanks again for all you are doing and for your time,

Noel
 
Hello again Noel :)

Things are less confusing today. I have some new ideas as of last night, I just didn't have time to post until this morning. Your problem is isn't that I've found corruptions that I can't fix, it's that I haven't found the corruption at all.

Somewhere there's a corrupt character which shouldn't be present (something like a --> á). Unfortunately, neither CBS.log nor CheckSUR.log has managed to say *where* this corruption is actually located (which is very rare). Looking at what CBS.log was processing at the time it found the corruption led me to believe that it was located in the SCHEMA hive. Long story short, it isn't.

So, I've got my haystack (every file, folder, and registry key on your computer), I've got my needle (a corruption somewhere), but I don't know where the corruption is, what it looks like, or even what type it is. This, as you can probably guess, is a tiny bit problematic :p

However, we have some stuff to go on now. CheckSUR hasn't found it, nor has SFCFix, and it's not in your SCHEMA hive. That rules out a whole raft of possibilities. So I've been questioning: what's actually left to search - where is it?

Anyway, I have another idea based off CBS.log.


Open an Elevated Command Prompt: https://www.sysnative.com/forums/wi...-prompt-window-windows-windows-vista-7-a.html

Carefully copy-and-paste in the following, then press enter: dir %SystemRoot% /S > %UserProfile%\Desktop\fileListing.txt

This may take ~two minutes to complete. When it has, zip up and upload (to Dropbox again) fileListing.txt from your Desktop.

Thank you.

Richard
 
Hi Richard,

Could you please just confirm if the information I attached via Dropbox is what you need? If not I can try again. If it is what you need I will just leave you in peace to have a look when you get chance.

Thanks,
Noel
 
Hi Noel,

I'm just popping in quickly for Richard. That file is exactly what Richard asked for, great job! :)

Tom
 
Hi Tom,
Thanks for getting back to me on this.
I'll wait for Richard to get back to me when he has had chance to look again at this issue. I appreciate how busy you all all from all the new posts on the forum.

Regards,
Noel
 
Hi Richard,
Just a query. Does the version of .net Framework make a difference to the ability to download updates or to update to Vista SP2? I am currently running .net Framework 3.5. I am unable to update to 3.5 SP1 and I get the error in the attachment below when I try.

Additionally, I am not sure if this is related at all but when I try and connect my son's new gaming mouse the PC recognises the device but will not download the driver. It is fine on my laptop.

The message I get is,

"An illegal character was encountered. For a multi-byte character set this includes a lead byte without a succeeding trail byte. For the Unicode character set this includes the characters 0xFFFF and 0xFFFE."

I am not sure if any of this is related to my original problem or if I am taking things completely off-piste.

Regards
Noel
 

Attachments

NJamesD said:
Hi Richard,
Just a query. Does the version of .net Framework make a difference to the ability to download updates or to update to Vista SP2? I am currently running .net Framework 3.5. I am unable to update to 3.5 SP1 and I get the error in the attachment below when I try.

Additionally, I am not sure if this is related at all but when I try and connect my son's new gaming mouse the PC recognises the device but will not download the driver. It is fine on my laptop.

The message I get is,

"An illegal character was encountered. For a multi-byte character set this includes a lead byte without a succeeding trail byte. For the Unicode character set this includes the characters 0xFFFF and 0xFFFE."

I am not sure if any of this is related to my original problem or if I am taking things completely off-piste.

Regards
Noel
Click to expand...

Your framework update issues are not the cause of the Vista update issues, but they may well be connected. With .net framework, the situation varies on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes the problems are entirely independent, sometimes a single corruption causes problems with both .net & Windows Update. Here it's pretty clear that all of the issues you describe, including your gaming mouse problem are caused by a single corrupt character somewhere. The problem is, I still don't know where.

I have been testing loads of stuff, but unfortunately, I just can't fix some problems. I'll keep working on it until tomorrow, and then I'll talk you through a Repair Install and other alternatives. Unfortunately, when I haven't seen a problem before, it often takes more than just a couple of days to figure it out. I'll keep working on it so that I know for next time, and maybe I'll find the solution in two months time, but by then it will be too late for you :(

I'm really sorry, and I'll come back with the final answer tomorrow.

Richard
 
Hi Richard
Thanks for getting back to me and for all your efforts to try and resolve this.

With regards to a possible Repair Install, if you are referring to Vista I am afraid I do not have a copy of the media as it came pre-installed.

It's starting to look like a trip to Currys-PC World for a new PC or a return to a quill pen and ink! :-(

Regards,
Noel
 
Hello again,

I'm really sorry, but I cannot fix this :(

What is the make and model number of this computer? Modern computers now often come with no recovery CDs/DVDs, but with the recovery media embedded on the hard disk drive itself. The chances are fairly good that I can at least reinstall this machine for you, if you can give me the make and model number.

Ricard
 
Hi Richard,
Thanks for getting back to me and for all your effort trying to resolve this problem.
I think you have done enough and I will have to live with the issue a bit longer. Truthfully, it's probably time to get a new PC - my son is nagging for one that is better for gaming!

Somewhat bizarrely I just tried to download and install the 90 updates that my computer tells me are needed and I am told they cannot be installed because they are not needed! I then tried again because this seemed odd and it went back to not being able to install because of the 80070246 error!!

Thanks again, have a great life.

Noel
 
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