Updates or Virus?

[GD]

Hello,
"New updates are already to install...." message from systray prompted me to
update Windows 2000 Server this morning, I clicked it and it installed
(without going to Microsoft site) quite a bit files on the server as I could
see that the install progress bar moving for about five minutes. Once it
finished installing, the computer restarted automatically and the nightmare
started from here: it takes forever to start the window. "Preparing network
connection...." message is displayed without any sign of progress except I
can see the hard drive activities and the light of the flopy drive flashes a
few time . Two hours later, I manually shut down the computer and started it
by pressing F8, and choosing "Last known good configuration.....(Cann't
remember the exact text)". As usual, this menu option has never worked as it
is supposed to be in my case. I reboot the machine and tried safe mode. It
took much longer to open the safe mode window. When I was going to uninstall
the update, it took 2 minites to popup "Start Menu" after I clicked the
"Start" button. I can figure out how long I might take to go to "Add/Remove
programes" utility and fix the problem.

Can some points out what was going? Are there any viruses in the updates? Or
any hacker's program hacked into the update function of the windows and
installed any viruses?

Thanks for any solution.

GD

 

[Paul]

There are know problems with one of the recent updates.
I'm not sure which update caused it but if you remove that
update by going into safe mode all should be fine.

 

[Sue]

This happened to me just last night.

Only I can't even go into Safe Mode. What can I do?

Thank you!

Sue

 

[Frank]

The same thing happened to me yesterday. Everything takes
forever and the CPU usage is at 100% constantly. I
rebooted in safe mode and tried to remove the updates but
I can't get any application to run, including "Add/Remove
Programs". Help!

 

[Frank]

I had a similar problem after installing updates to W2K.
If you have installed KB835732 recently, that is probably
the problem. To uninstall it, do the following (I got this
off another newsgroup discussion):

After installing Security fix KB835732, the SYSTEM.exe
procress uses up 99% of CPU time, and make the system non-
responsive.

To unistall it, I did the following
(1) Boot into Safe mode.
(2) Run TaskManager - and noticed that the SYSTEM process
was using 99% of the CPU time.
(3) From TaskManager set the Priority of the EXPLORER
process to REALTIME, so that I can get to the control
panel.
(4) Run ADD/REMOVE PROGRAM from control panel.
(5) Go back to TaskManager and set the Priority of
MSHTA.exe to REALTIME, so that the ADD/REMOVE PROGRAM can
get some CPU time.
(6) Select and Remove "Windows 2000 Hotfix - KB835732".
(7) Go back to TaskManager and set the Priority
of "SPUNIST.exe" to REALTIME, for the uninstall program to
run.
(8) Wait a few minutes, and the uninstall program will
eventually ask you to click FINISH to reboot the machine.
It took a long time for the system to shutdown and I just
unplugged the power.
(9) The machine should become normal after reboot.

 

[Frank]

I found a solution. I had already tried to uninstall the
update, but couldn't get "Add/Remove Programs" to respond.
I got the following off of another newsgroup page:

After installing Security fix KB835732, the SYSTEM.exe
procress uses up 99% of CPU time, and make the system non-
responsive.

To unistall it, I did the following
(1) Boot into Safe mode.
(2) Run TaskManager - and noticed that the SYSTEM process
was using 99% of the CPU time.
(3) From TaskManager set the Priority of the EXPLORER
process to REALTIME, so that I can get to the control
panel.
(4) Run ADD/REMOVE PROGRAM from control panel.
(5) Go back to TaskManager and set the Priority of
MSHTA.exe to REALTIME, so that the ADD/REMOVE PROGRAM can
get some CPU time.
(6) Select and Remove "Windows 2000 Hotfix - KB835732".
(7) Go back to TaskManager and set the Priority
of "SPUNIST.exe" to REALTIME, for the uninstall program to
run.
(8) Wait a few minutes, and the uninstall program will
eventually ask you to click FINISH to reboot the machine.
It took a long time for the system to shutdown and I just
unplugged the power.
(9) The machine should become normal after reboot.