- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,009
- 9,879
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I've got a friend, who built his own PC (AM4 Ryzen 3 1200), out of parts I half gave/half sold him. This was not his first computer build, and I was guiding him over Skype the whole way. I thought that he did a fine job overall.
But nearly two years later, he's having tab crashes in Firefox, BSODs, and other such problems. Mostly, after upgrading to Win10 2004.
Which, I haven't specifically had much in the way of problems, with my 3+ AM4 rigs, and 2004. Except for my RX 5700 reference AMD drivers, which have steadily gotten much better over the last six months, and a lot more crash-proof.
I mailed him a new kit of DDR4-3200 RAM (Team Group, his existing RAM was DDR4-3000 GSKill), and after he put it in, he didn't have any more BSODs immediately after. (He was getting BSODs on boot!) So that was a positive sign.
Unfortunately, his Windows Update is screwed up. BADLY.
His OS install, was a nearly 8-year old Win7 64-bit installation, never re-installed fresh, that was backed up, restored onto a new Silicon Power 512GB SSD, and activated on the new AM4 hardware, and then upgraded in-place to Win10, either 1903 or 1909, at the time, I think. Then upgraded every time to the newer version of Win10.
Well, now, here's what is going on:
1) WIndows Update - when he goes there, it shows a bunch of items, that fail RIGHT AWAY, and then there's just a "Retry" button.
2) Media Creation Tool - I had him download this using Firefox, and then try to make a USB boot drive with Win10 20H2. Won't go. Gives error 0x8007007e right away, after doing GUI selections, like it simply won't enter the "download" phase.
3) Manually downloading the 2020-10 Cumulative Update for Win10 2004 x64 KB update from Windows Update Catalog, and attempting to install it. It goes, and then at the end, says "Failed installing Update". First time I've seen a manually-downloaded and locally-installed update fail to install. (OTOH, I just figured it out, the Cumulative Update, installs, and then downloads MORE, and then THAT installs. So maybe it was failing to download the rest of the update. That's probably it.)
4) Firefox works OK, he can browse. Firefox is most likely using DNS-over-HTTPS using CloudFlare as DNS provider. So Firefox isn't affected by router or local Windows DNS settings.
5) He can play online casino games using downloaded clients.
6) Malwarebytes installed the newest update, and runs, and doesn't find anything notable amiss.
7) Downloaded and installed Win10 2004 x64 "Servicing Stack Update". It is listed in Windows Update Catalog as a "Security Update", but when my friend ran it, it said that it was a "Standalone" installer for the "Servicing Stack", aka Windows Update Components in Windows 10. This installed OK, surprisingly enough, but can't be re-installed, and didn't help with the WU problem.
8) I tried before we hung up, setting the DNS manually for his ethernet connection, to 8.8.8.8. I also tried disabling IPv6. (separately) Didn't help.
9) DISM commands, say "no source files", even when using the "/Online" flag. A page I read on Windows Central about using DISM and SFC, said that DISM uses Windows Update to download components that are corrupted (it found corruption). But Windows Update doesn't work, we're trying to use DISM to FIX WU.
10) Also tried a BAT file from tenforums.com, to reset Windows Update and Re-register it's components. Run as Admin. Showed an ERROR most of the way through, but friend said that he couldn't scroll the Command Prompt window back up to read which component was erroring. (At the time, I suspected registry corruption, possibly a security descriptor on a registry entry got corrupted, and wouldn't allow access any more.)
He claims that WU stopped working, and the OS started crashing, around the time of the Win10 2004 upgrade. Here's what I think happened. His RAM turned bad, and the Win10 2004 upgrade re-wrote many system binaries on his drive, and they ended up corrupted. (I had suspected a failing SSD, but after replacing the RAM fixed his boot BSODs, apparently, I decided to somewhat discount this idea.)
This "broke" Windows Update.
Something seems to strongly indicate, that Windows Update just can't seem to get online, for some reason.
But Firefox gets online, and so does his online gaming clients.
I had him re-boot his Asus AC66U router, which may not have up-to-date firmware. I was wonder if it were hacked, and Windows Update was being denied/re-directed, somehow, by some "DNS malware" that had infected his router. (He goes to "movie sites", which I've warned him about.)
So, either RAM corruption, before a Windows Upgrade, caused corrupted binaries to be installed (and DISM and SFC both DO complain, so that may be the legit reason), and replacing the RAM will hopefully allow resolution, or he has some really bad and really secretive malware from going to "bad" sites, and not always keeping up on updates. Either is possible, or maybe even both.
I was going to mail him a USB boot drive with Win10 20H2 x64 on it, and a fresh new SSD, in case that he wants to attempt a fresh installation onto a new SSD. Another possibility, is booting the USB, and doing an over-top re-install upgrade of Win10 (I think that's still possible, right?).
Any suggestions? I web-searched the MCT error, and couldn't come up with an exact match.
Edit: Hmm, maybe it is malware. Apparently, this is one of the signs of a TDSS infection?
But nearly two years later, he's having tab crashes in Firefox, BSODs, and other such problems. Mostly, after upgrading to Win10 2004.
Which, I haven't specifically had much in the way of problems, with my 3+ AM4 rigs, and 2004. Except for my RX 5700 reference AMD drivers, which have steadily gotten much better over the last six months, and a lot more crash-proof.
I mailed him a new kit of DDR4-3200 RAM (Team Group, his existing RAM was DDR4-3000 GSKill), and after he put it in, he didn't have any more BSODs immediately after. (He was getting BSODs on boot!) So that was a positive sign.
Unfortunately, his Windows Update is screwed up. BADLY.
His OS install, was a nearly 8-year old Win7 64-bit installation, never re-installed fresh, that was backed up, restored onto a new Silicon Power 512GB SSD, and activated on the new AM4 hardware, and then upgraded in-place to Win10, either 1903 or 1909, at the time, I think. Then upgraded every time to the newer version of Win10.
Well, now, here's what is going on:
1) WIndows Update - when he goes there, it shows a bunch of items, that fail RIGHT AWAY, and then there's just a "Retry" button.
2) Media Creation Tool - I had him download this using Firefox, and then try to make a USB boot drive with Win10 20H2. Won't go. Gives error 0x8007007e right away, after doing GUI selections, like it simply won't enter the "download" phase.
3) Manually downloading the 2020-10 Cumulative Update for Win10 2004 x64 KB update from Windows Update Catalog, and attempting to install it. It goes, and then at the end, says "Failed installing Update". First time I've seen a manually-downloaded and locally-installed update fail to install. (OTOH, I just figured it out, the Cumulative Update, installs, and then downloads MORE, and then THAT installs. So maybe it was failing to download the rest of the update. That's probably it.)
4) Firefox works OK, he can browse. Firefox is most likely using DNS-over-HTTPS using CloudFlare as DNS provider. So Firefox isn't affected by router or local Windows DNS settings.
5) He can play online casino games using downloaded clients.
6) Malwarebytes installed the newest update, and runs, and doesn't find anything notable amiss.
7) Downloaded and installed Win10 2004 x64 "Servicing Stack Update". It is listed in Windows Update Catalog as a "Security Update", but when my friend ran it, it said that it was a "Standalone" installer for the "Servicing Stack", aka Windows Update Components in Windows 10. This installed OK, surprisingly enough, but can't be re-installed, and didn't help with the WU problem.
8) I tried before we hung up, setting the DNS manually for his ethernet connection, to 8.8.8.8. I also tried disabling IPv6. (separately) Didn't help.
9) DISM commands, say "no source files", even when using the "/Online" flag. A page I read on Windows Central about using DISM and SFC, said that DISM uses Windows Update to download components that are corrupted (it found corruption). But Windows Update doesn't work, we're trying to use DISM to FIX WU.
10) Also tried a BAT file from tenforums.com, to reset Windows Update and Re-register it's components. Run as Admin. Showed an ERROR most of the way through, but friend said that he couldn't scroll the Command Prompt window back up to read which component was erroring. (At the time, I suspected registry corruption, possibly a security descriptor on a registry entry got corrupted, and wouldn't allow access any more.)
He claims that WU stopped working, and the OS started crashing, around the time of the Win10 2004 upgrade. Here's what I think happened. His RAM turned bad, and the Win10 2004 upgrade re-wrote many system binaries on his drive, and they ended up corrupted. (I had suspected a failing SSD, but after replacing the RAM fixed his boot BSODs, apparently, I decided to somewhat discount this idea.)
This "broke" Windows Update.
Something seems to strongly indicate, that Windows Update just can't seem to get online, for some reason.
But Firefox gets online, and so does his online gaming clients.
I had him re-boot his Asus AC66U router, which may not have up-to-date firmware. I was wonder if it were hacked, and Windows Update was being denied/re-directed, somehow, by some "DNS malware" that had infected his router. (He goes to "movie sites", which I've warned him about.)
So, either RAM corruption, before a Windows Upgrade, caused corrupted binaries to be installed (and DISM and SFC both DO complain, so that may be the legit reason), and replacing the RAM will hopefully allow resolution, or he has some really bad and really secretive malware from going to "bad" sites, and not always keeping up on updates. Either is possible, or maybe even both.
I was going to mail him a USB boot drive with Win10 20H2 x64 on it, and a fresh new SSD, in case that he wants to attempt a fresh installation onto a new SSD. Another possibility, is booting the USB, and doing an over-top re-install upgrade of Win10 (I think that's still possible, right?).
Any suggestions? I web-searched the MCT error, and couldn't come up with an exact match.
Edit: Hmm, maybe it is malware. Apparently, this is one of the signs of a TDSS infection?
Virus Redirects & prevents updates
My pc apparently has a virus that redirects it to websites other than ones I select in IE8. I cannot update Spysweeper or MS Windows as it blocks access to the update websites. I have Avira Antivirus and it can update but it cant find the virus....
www.computing.net
Last edited:
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