Vista x86 SP2 WU = never ending core saturation?

[mikeymikec]

I'm seeing an issue on two computers running Vista x86; one was freshly installed six months ago and not used since (no AV or any other software installed), the other has been used daily the whole time but began having the problem in approximately Feb this year IIRC.

When the Windows update check is triggered, the machine will spend a few minutes with varying levels of CPU usage, but after that point a single core will be saturated without ever reaching a resolution. The service can be stopped easily enough, but it basically means that machine won't get any more updates.

I've applied every strategy I'm aware of (or have read up on with regard to this problem) as well as a full chkdsk, but it hasn't made any difference (I've been working on the one that has been used daily). I've left both machines running all night (sleep/hibernate disabled), WU is still chewing CPU in the morning and the last entry in the WindowsUpdate.log was about fifteen minutes after the check was originally triggered.

Dipping into the currently running threads of the svchost.exe in question, wuaueng.dll is cited as the user of the CPU time.

I don't know whether Vista 64 has the same problem; I haven't looked at my parents' machine recently and my wife favours her phone these days. I'm just firing up my wife's machine to see if it has the problem.

 

[Ketchup]

Pretty much the same thing 7 does. I noticed this a few months ago. Ran an upgrade install to 7 since Vista will only be getting security updates for another 8 months anyway, and 7 runs much better on the same machine. Vista was a great OS (I know a lot of people hated it), but it's time to move on.

 

[JackMDS]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Windows_Vista

 

[VirtualLarry]

It's just MS hi-jacking your older PC to do DC for the NSA. Nothing to be concerned about, move along...

 

[ninaholic37]

Heehee mikeymikec, I still use your old thread as a reason for people not to use Windows:

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/the-winxp-windows-update-cpu-saturation-bug.2347478/

Same thing happens on my dad's Win7 laptop, so I put Linux on it and use that instead.

"Linux, the OS Bill Gates uses while waiting for Vista to boot" - veronicathecow

 

[mikeymikec]

Pretty much the same thing 7 does. I noticed this a few months ago.

In my experience, Win7 still has an issue whereby WU chews CPU time for longer than it should (ie. a CPU core still being saturated after Windows has detected and downloaded updates), but it does stop chewing CPU after a while.

I checked my wife's machine (Vista 64), it's doing the same thing as I described in the OP.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

I have noticed that a recent update (maybe from a month or so ago) has fixed the problem at least on computers that I have seen - the time in checking for new windows updates is a lot less now. Hoping that this is fixed for the majority of people now.

 

[mikeymikec]

I have noticed that a recent update (maybe from a month or so ago) has fixed the problem at least on computers that I have seen - the time in checking for new windows updates is a lot less now. Hoping that this is fixed for the majority of people now.

On Vista? Which update?

 

[mikeymikec]

Addendum - my wife's Vista 64 machine doesn't appear to have the same problem, it's acting more like Win7 64 does, ie. CPU core usage lasting longer than it ought to; but it is downloading and installing updates.

 

[Ketchup]

Have you tried a Windows Update reset?
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...o/bfbdec70-e928-47ee-b073-665c4851bf4c?auth=1

 

[Chiefcrowe]

I noticed it on 7, so i'm not sure if it applies to vista too.

 

[mikeymikec]

Have you tried a Windows Update reset?
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...o/bfbdec70-e928-47ee-b073-665c4851bf4c?auth=1

I'm pretty sure that fixit only does the re-registering of Windows update libraries and renames the softwaredistribution\download folder, but I tried it anyway on my spare laptop (the one that was clean-installed in January) - 4 hours and counting, and windowsupdate.log shows no new activity in the last just-shy-of-four hours.

 

[Ketchup]

See, now you have me curious. If I have time I'll make a VM out of an installer and see what it does.

 

[WildDreamer]

I was having similar problems with a Vista x86 laptop and a Win7 x64 machine, and came across this page: http://wu.krelay.de/en/

and installing first group of updates listed there did the trick

(KB3177725, KB3168965, KB3145739, KB3078601, KB3164033, and KB3109094)

 

[mikeymikec]

I found those too However I think the issue that guy is trying to fix was the one that Win7 most notably had whereby checking for updates would take ages and consume a single core the entire time, whereas this problem is that the machine never stops checking for updates*. I think the longest time I ever had to wait for a Win7 machine with that issue to check for updates was about 3 hours.

* - admittedly 'never stops' isn't an accurate term, but considering I've left each of the laptops constantly running for more than 12 hours at a time, and even when switching on verbose Windows Update logging the log shows no new activity beyond the first fifteen minutes.

Side note - I learnt two new bits of info about Windows Update during the course of investigating this problem, the first that there's a couple of registry entries one can enable to make windowsupdate.log produce more verbose logging, and secondly if one delves deeply into event viewer, there is actually a windows update event log (yet for some bizarre reason Windows logs WU stuff into both the separate event viewer WU log and the system log). Unfortunately, neither of these things I learnt helped to shed any light on the problem.

The location of the event viewer WU log: In event viewer, go into 'applications and services logs', 'Microsoft', 'Windows', 'WindowsUpdateClient'.

Verbose windowsupdate.log logging:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer]
"Logging"="voicewarmupx"
"Debug"=dword:00000007
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Trace]
"Flags"=dword:00000016
"Level"=dword:00000004

 

[Ketchup]

I did try a Windows Vista install on a VM, and could not get it to update. Tried a couple manual updates that people reported fixing the problem, but no change. Oh well, Vista is about done anyway.