Microsoft Update and Windows Genuine Advantage

Hi guys,

The latest Windows Genuine Advantage component was installed on my PC a few days ago via automatic updates.

Since then, I have not been able to use Microsoft Update, or indeed visit any sites that require WGA validation. Trying to do some simply locks up my computer, one program at a time.

For example: I go to Microsoft Update and click the "Express" or "Custom" button. Immediately IE locks up. I then alt+tab to another program, and it locks up. One by one, the programs running on my PC lock up until I have no choice but to power off the computer (Ctrl+Alt+Delete has no effect).

Visiting the Genuine Advantage website on Microsoft's site, and attempting to go to the "benefits" section which requires validation, results in the same freeze-up.

I downloaded the diagnostic tool (WGADiag2) and it runs fine, telling me I'm "Genuine".

I have noticed on the microsoft.public.windowsupdate newsgroup that there are several other people with exactly the same problem. Is Microsoft aware of this? Is there anything I can try?

Cheers,
Matt

I'd suggest you try GenuineCheck.exe, but WU has removed the area where you type in the code the program spits out.

Do you have WindowsUpdate v3 installed?  You may be able to download that from microsoft.com/downloads without going to WU.  This may help.

SlackmasterK wrote:

Do you have WindowsUpdate v3 installed?  You may be able to download that from microsoft.com/downloads without going to WU.  This may help.

Is that a stand-alone version of Microsoft Update? Sounds like a good workaround to not being able to get to the web site at least. Got a direct URL?

mabster wrote:

Is that a stand-alone version of Microsoft Update? Sounds like a good workaround to not being able to get to the web site at least. Got a direct URL?

http://www.autopatcher.com/ - Not official, but does the job for those sick and tired with MS making us all dogfood their latest in anti-piracy techniques.

I've used it for a while, but then I had to get the Genuine Advantage thing to work anyway for downloading IE7, which led me to find a hotfix that worked and got me back to using automatic updates - being the lazy batch of brains and bones that I am.

Thing is, I'm not looking for a workaround. I want either a working Genuine Advantage tool, or a way to roll back to the previous one that worked just fine.

Check out this thread - I'm not the only one with this problem.

Until this is fixed, I can't use Windows Update. That concerns me. And from what I've read from others with the same problem, reloading Windows doesn't help - as soon as the latest WGA tool is installed, everything stops working again.

Interesting. A bunch of folks with this problem have posted their hardware on the newsgroup thread, and we all seem to be running Athlon64 and nVidia video cards.

One of the guys has posted to the AMD forums, but I don't think he'll get much of a response from there.

Anyone out there running an Athlon64 on an nForce mobo who can access Microsoft Update without any problems?

mabster wrote:

Anyone out there running an Athlon64 on an nForce mobo who can access Microsoft Update without any problems?

I have an Athlon64 3000+, an nForce4 motherboard, and an nVidia GeForce 6600GT video card and I can use Microsoft Update from XP and XP x64 without issue.

mabster wrote:

Anyone out there running an Athlon64 on an nForce mobo who can access Microsoft Update without any problems?

Athlon 64 3200+ on nForce 3 250GB w/ GeForce 6800GT 256 with no problems here.

Ahtlon64 S939 3500+ on nForce4 Ultra w/ GeForce 6600GT dual DVI here, and no problems

For those interested, a poster on the windowsupdate newsgroup found the solution.

Turns out it was some incompatibility between the WGA tool and the nVidia IDE driver! Uninstalling the nVidia driver and rebooting fixed the problem for me and others.

Check his post here.

Very strange indeed. I wonder whether MS or nVidia are at fault here.

Judging by the fact that every time I've installed the nVidia IDE drivers they've completely nuked my PC - I'd say nVidia.

Mabster,

Thank you - you are da man.  I'm running XP SP 2 on an Nvidia 4 gigabyte AMD motherboard, and I've been tearing my hair out over WGA.  I uninstalled nvidia IDE, and now it's working like a charm.  I'm even going to try IE7 beta 2 again   Who would have thought that nvidia drivers were the problem? 

Thanks a million!!!

Gav.

Thank you Mabster no more pc freezes, since no-one could help me in other forums and found this forum and thread, thank you thank you thank you

My pc specs are Motherboard GA-K8NF-9 nVidia nForce4-4X AMD Athlon64 3200+ ASUS EN7600GT pci-e ( before the problem i had MSI 6600GT pci-e but found out that the fan was broken ), its so good to see my pc is working fine again.

By the way, should i reinstall nVidia IDE driver ???[6]