It seems that some Windows 2000 / Windows XP / Windows Server 2003 users (Windows Vista is not affected by this bug) have been having problems with Automatic Updates maxing out the CPU and making the system unresponsive.

When you try to install an update from Windows Update or from Microsoft Update, you experience the following symptoms:

• The system may appear to become unresponsive when Windows Update scans for updates that use Windows Installer.
• You receive an access violation error in the Svchost.exe process. This access violation stops the Server service and the Workstation service.
• A memory leak occurs when Windows Update scans for updates that use Windows Installer.
• Windows Update scans take a very long time, sometimes hours, to complete.

Microsoft has issued a patch, but this patch needs another patch which isn't available yet to be installed for the problem to be fixed.  Also, some of the symptoms of the problem, in particular the high CPU usage, isn't fixed because what the patch does is make the system more responsive when carrying out downloads.

Part of the patch is available now from this page, but the Windows Update Agent Client 3.0, which is also required, will be released later through Automatic Updates by June 30, 2007.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 19:58 and is filed under PC Doctor's Useful Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.