Microsoft: No tech support for you

The day Windows XP SP3 was released I advised waiting a long time before installing it. In the three months since, I haven't installed it on a computer that mattered to me. Today, I installed it on a computer that didn't matter much, and it caused a problem. So, I tried to take advantage of the free tech support Microsoft offers for SP3 - and got a lesson in fine print.

The computer shipped with Windows XP SP2 and some vendor utilities installed. It was a good guinea pig for SP3 because there were no user-installed applications and no user-created data files on the machine.

I downloaded and installed SP3 without incident. Then I rebooted and ran Windows Update again to get the latest patches. There were a handful of recent patches, and I installed all of them except for Internet Explorer 7. This too went fine and I rebooted again, little knowing the grief that awaited.

Back to Windows Update to install IE7. As you can see below it found another patch too.

Now however, Windows Update can't install either the patch for the .NET framework or IE7. It politely says that "Some updates were not installed".

Under the error (see below), it says to try again. So I did, but that didn't help. I tried one at a time, but that didn't help either. I rebooted, to no avail.

So I called Microsoft (866-234-6020) hoping to get some of the free tech support for XP SP3 mentioned here. But I didn't qualify.

The free support is for "installation and compatibility". In my case SP3 installed fine so I don't qualify there. And compatibility doesn't seem to include SP3 being compatible with Windows Update.

No Free IE7 Tech Support Either

While on the phone with Microsoft, I have an idea. Because of the problem, I couldn't install Internet Explorer 7 and Microsoft offers free tech support for IE7 too. This page clearly refers to "Free Internet Explorer 7 installation and set-up phone support".

Switching from asking for XP SP3 support to asking for IE7 support stumped the person I was speaking to, and I had to wait on hold while he got a ruling from the judge. Again, I didn't qualify.

Despite the offer of free installation support for IE7 and despite the fact that I couldn't install IE7, the Microsoft person explained that since my problem was really with Windows Update, I didn't quality for the free help.

The patch for the .NET framework did me in. Since it also wouldn't install, this pointed the finger at Windows Update rather than at IE7. Adding insult to injury, Windows Update created the need for this patch by installing the known buggy Service Pack for the .NET framework in the first place, a situation I wrote about back in April (see Don't get burned by Windows Update).

Lawyers reading this, must find it a hoot. Internet Explorer 7 is installed with Windows Update and there is free telephone support for installing the product. But if Windows Update is the problem, no free support.

After hanging up, I tried Microsoft Update instead of Windows Update, but it failed in the same way. When turning off the machine, automatic updates tried to install a patch, but that failed. At the next boot, automatic updates wanted to install both IE7 and the patch for the .NET framework. I let it try, but it failed in the same way. At the next shutdown, Windows again tried to install a patch. It's confused.

Microsoft offers free tech support for Windows Update too. But that's not on the phone, only by email. I went down that route, filling out the necessary forms and accumulating the required data.

I don't expect it to lead anywhere. For one thing, as you can see from the screen shots above, there is no error code, just a generic warning about "a problem". I checked the event logs and there were no error messages there either. Debugging errors without an error code is really hard, especially by email.

I think it's time for some more Linux postings.

Update: July 22, 2008: This was not a fluke, it happened again on another machine.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

[JCPayne]

You could prob. get just the right lawyer to win this for you.... The browser is tied to the O/S of Windows. Therefore any updates for that Browser constitute a part of the same O/S and as such...... Microsoft also states in their Terms of Service that you do not own your Operating System. It is owned by Microsoft. You literally are just licensing it from them. Therefore in them sending you a flawed product, they owe you an upgrade.

[DakkonA1]

Did you try Windows Update support? I had a similar problem and they were able to help me resolve it free of charge.

[DakkonA1]

Nevermind, I see you did try Windows Update support... but you didn't give it a chance before posting this article? Hmm...

Btw, you can find the error codes if you go to "Review Your Update History" and click on the icon beside the Status icon.

[mhinnewyork]

An excellent point. I took your suggestion and did this - the update failures don't appear in the history at all. It's as if the update never started. Michael Horowitz

[BassaBabe]

-- and down the rabbit hole you went, deeper and deeper.

[markdoiron]

You called tech support? People really do that? Did you try an Internet search? I would never call tech support for any problem unless an hour or two skulking around the Internet came up with nada. I can't believe that folks call tech support for software problems. Unless maybe they're being paid by the hour to wait on hold. --mark d.

[mhinnewyork]

Mark - I got in touch with a person at Microsoft fairly quickly. I would have done a search, but there was no error code to look for. Michael Horowitz

[cnetsean]

Glad to hear Microsoft is proving such great support for Windows Update. I recently re-built 3 completely different computers with Windows XP upgraded to SP3 and all of them are having problems with Windows Update.

Maybe I'll try the tech support option under a corporate agreement, then they'll have to support me.

[gisabun]

Maybe WU was having a bad day.

Was there an error code? Look at the logs? Could of downloaded them manually? Could also re-apply the agent?

[mhinnewyork]

No, there was no error code and the failure did not appear in the Windows Update history. I did look at the Windows events logs and there was nothing there either. I didn't try to download things manually as that would not be a permanent solution. Michael Horowitz

[brett_cgb]

I had a very similar problem. I've never been one to contact Microsoft for help except in dire need. Even then, they haven't been totally helpful.

Re: updates
I found that something had messed with my update utility, effectively making it inoperable. I found the following commands on a web page other than Microsoft.

net stop wuauserv

regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wups2.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll
regsvr32 MSXML3.dll

net start wuauserv

These can be placed in a batch file for execution, and need to be run only once. After running this batch file, I was able to install the 90+ patches to the OS and MS Office that were pending since I last rebuilt my system with the original pre-SP1install disks.

[ericallenpaul]

I had exactly the same problem (as described in the article) this week on a new XP machine. I searched google for "Windows Update failed no error code" and came up with the solution mentioned here: stop the update service, re-register the dll, restart the service.
I guess we need to be teaching people how to use google more and rely on tech support less.

[Coolg0075]

You should try using the chat support. I've had similar compatibility problems and I used their chat support. They were really helpful on chat support and even kept e-mailing me after a reboot caused the connection to be lost. Just choose chat instead of phone or e-mail support

Good luck!

[DontBsoStoopit]

Whenever a large SP or SR comes out, it should only go on guinea pigs systems. I didn't install SP2 on my "home" machine until it went out of support! Let all the other ppl "F" with the troubleshooting. I'm too busy supporting working (or so called) systems to throw on another SP.

[SteveW928]

@markdoiron - hehe, I know what you mean... it's generally a waste of time to call support at most companies, let alone M$.
As for free support, I'm not surprised they play it off this way. If they really did give free support, they would quickly be out of business.
This is probably why outside my professional IT career, I use a Mac. When I want to spend hours messing around and troubleshooting, I turn to Unix based systems... at least they are free... so with some amount of tinkering, at least it seems worth it (sometimes). But for serious work, I always use my trusty Mac.

[4score20]

Did you verify your copy of Windows? Run that goofy tool they've got and maybe it'll give the thumbs up to you PC so that you can install the updates.

[mhinnewyork]

Not sure what you mean, but it turns out that verifying Windows was not the problem. Microsoft offered a fix that worked and I'm writing it up now...Michael Horowitz

[4score20]

Glad it worked out for you.

[Doctor Entropy]

And here I was told that all the Dr. WU issues had been resolved. Thanks for the test case. I'll still be avoiding installing SP3, even though I download and install updates manually.