Marshall Brain's Blog

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Computer Repair #3

[This post is part of an ongoing series of posts in December cataloging how much time I spend repairing the computers here in the Brain household.]

It seems like I just installed updates last week, but this morning there is a new batch waiting for me to deal with. The little bubble opens at the bottom of the screen telling me that there are new Windows Updates ready to install. Here they are:

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 6 SP1 (KB824145)
Download size: 2.1 MB, < 1 minute
Security issues identified in Internet Explorer could allow an attacker to compromise systems with Internet Explorer installed (even if it is not used as the Web browser). For example, an attacker could run programs on a computer used to view the attacker's Web site. Download this update from Microsoft to help protect your computer. After installation, you may have to restart your computer. Read more...

Security Update for Microsoft Windows XP (KB828035)
Download size: 357 KB, < 1 minute
A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to remotely compromise a computer running Microsoft® Windows® XP and gain complete control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Read more...

Security Update for Microsoft Windows XP (KB825119)
Download size: 298 KB, < 1 minute
A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to remotely compromise a computer running Microsoft® Windows® XP and gain complete control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Read more...

Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB823182)
Download size: 424 KB, < 1 minute
A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to remotely compromise a computer running Microsoft Windows and gain complete control over it. For example, an attacker could execute code on your system. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Read more...

Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB824141)
Download size: 2.1 MB, < 1 minute
A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to compromise a computer running Microsoft Windows and gain control over it. To attempt an attack, the attacker would have to be able to log on to the computer. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Read more...

Update for Windows Media Player Script Commands (KB828026)
Download size: 2.8 MB, < 1 minute
This update contains a change to the behavior of Windows Media Player’s ability to launch URLs in the local computer zone from other zones. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Read more...

I can choose to read more about all six of these updates -- more time wasted... And as with Computer repair #2, I have to shut down the 20 application windows I have open and download 8 megabytes or so of patches. Of course there is another long EULA to accept:



Then I can install the updates. I look at the clock and click the button. The hard disk starts grinding. A full 9 minutes later the installation process is complete. Then I am told to reboot, and then I can reopen everything I had open before and start working again.

This session has reminded me that every time I reboot I have to kill off the CISVC process. You can see the problem in this screen shot:



You can see at the bottom of the window that CPU utilization is pegged at 100%. The CISVC process and related processes are consuming 100% of the machine's processing power and bringing the whole thing to its knees. Performance is very sluggish when this happens, it happens every time I reboot and the only way to solve the problem is to kill this process. I have tried many times to figure out why this is happening and how to fix it, but have come up empty handed so far.

Every time I reboot I also have to deal with the low disk space on drive D:



You can't just click the X on this bubble, or the bubble will re-appear every 5 minutes. You have to actually click the bubble, wait for the dialog to open and then click cancel to get it to shut up. This is one of two drives used by Gigapocket (which records TV programs like TIVO does on the computer's hard disks), and drive D is always full because of that.

Now I will get to repeat this process on Leigh's machine, the Kids' machine and the laptop. But since those are not high-end machines with optimized disk drives, the installation will take about twice as long. Total time for this repair will be well over one hour I imagine.