BleepingComputer.com: Vista/Laptop Oddities - Help?

Hello everyone,

Using 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium

I just experienced some.. oddities with my Laptop, I was wondering if someone could help shed some light on this. I'll start from the beginning.


1] Around.. 11 PM last night, I decided it was time to get off the Laptop. I physically disconnected it from the internet, and closed the lid. It went into sleep mode, then eventually, hibernation mode.
2] Today at 9 PMish, I opened the laptop back up and after attempting to use the internet (forgetting I disconnected it) - and noticing it was disconnected, reconnected it.
3] As I normally do first thing, I went to update my programs. First, I did AVG. While that was working, I moved on to Windows Update.. However. The following came up:

"Some updates were not installed. Failed: 1 updates
Code 80240016 Windows update is currently installing other updates. Please
try again in a few minutes."

4] I waited a few minutes and tried again, but to no avail. This time when I tried, however, I clicked the "Windows Help Center" option, and it came up telling me to do the same instructions referenced here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957307
5] I did these instructions by going to start > run, typing cmd then attempting to do it. Net Stop wuauserv failed. I figured this was because I didn't run it as Admin as it suggests, though I figured it would be.. eh. I searched for command prompt, then used both commands. It said it stopped the windows update service, then started it again.
6] I went back to do Windows Update... and it said there was no new updates?? I looked at the date for "Last Update" and it was 8 minutes prior to doing this 'fix.' I checked the latest updates, and this is what I see as the one installed today:

Definition Update for Windows Defender - KB915597 (Definition 1.67.10.0) - Successfully Installed

7] I went to the Windows Defender website.. and it seems I am out of date? According to http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/D...ns/ADL.aspx#top the latest version is 1.67.21.0. I checked Windows Update again, and it still says I'm up to date. I thought this was.. odd.
8] I updated the other programs I have without issue - Adaware, Malwarebytes Anti-Mawlare, and SUPERAntiSpyware. With the exception of Spybot. At near the end of the update process, this popped up:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v23/Reev...errorspybot.jpg

9] I left the box alone and did some reading. I came to the conclusion that I should hit retry. I did, and it "worked" (the box disappeared and nothing else came up). I should mention that Spybot's main window popped back up while I was looking for an answer, leaving me even more confused. Anyhow, I did more reading and people were saying this file is supposed to be read-only and to go check it. I did, it wasn't.. so I made it read-only. More reading later, I see someone saying that simply restarting the computer should fix any errors as its' a minor issue. I figure - Okay, but first I navigate back to the file and remove read-only.. I figure it would need to be off to update successfully, as it was off when I checked it.. seemed logical to me.
10] I hit Start > Shut Down. I selected "Restart" and hit Ok. I waited.. a minute or two and noticed the Laptop wasn't shutting down. I tried to move the mouse and it wasn't responding, the entire computer had froze. This really got me starting to worry so I left it alone for 5 minutes before I just turned it off, and turned it back on - starting windows normally.
11] Here I am now... It started back up normally, though TeaTimer and AdAware tray icons took a little longer to pop up than normal. I've finished updating everything and it all will open, though Windows Defender is not showing the 1.67.21.0 version... and both from Windows Update and the button to update windows defender from inside the program say it is up to date.

I don't.. think this is virus related, as everything is still running. I'm going to run scans regardless, but as my computer was offline all night and a scan yesterday showed nothing it just doesn't seem like it could be a virus. So.. not being very smart with dealing with these kinds of things, I come to this site to hopefully get some answers from people smarter than me.

Questions:
These are the main things I'm worried about...
1] Is Windows Defender really up to date? I worry about downloading and running anything (even from the Microsoft website) for fear of more things breaking. If not, suggestions?
2] Why in the world did my computer lock up like that? That has never happened since I got my Laptop...
3] The Windows Update Error... Should I be worried about this or is it just a glitch that happens from time to time?
4] Same with Spybot.. Should I be worried about that or is it just a glitch?
5] I didn't see Windows Update install anything, it just started with the error immediately. Could the update still have installed successfully like it said it did? Or is this just another glitch and windows just thinks the update installed successfully?

Thanks for your time, I apologize if any of my questions seem silly/stupid. Random crap like this just frustrates and confuses me.

I'll tell you this now: Microsoft likes to update in small packs. You might have gotten 2 or 3 updates on that last one, and see that tomorrow there will be another 3 or 4 updates. So you are short by 1 or 2 definitions on Windows Defender. There is nothing to be worried about. As long as your computer doesn't slow down like a snail, there is NOTHING wrong with it.

Besides that, computers lock up sometimes when there is too many things happening. it seems to me that you were doing a lot of things, so perhaps the laptop used up it's resources and some.

And with Windows Update, If you go to through the update log, I believe you can double click on specific updates and it will re-attempt it.

Good luck, I don't think there is anything wrong personally, did you experience any sort of lagouts during your time on the computer?

Thank you very much for the fast response.

I went to Windows Update, and clicked "View Update History." It said only 1 update was installed today (the definition update), the last update was 2 days ago. If more was installed, wouldn't it list multiple ones for today? As well, the last.. 20 or so updates all installed successfully. I double-clicked that specific update, and it tells me it went through fine... I just didn't see it install. I notice I left something out from the OP.

After I started the computer back up in #3, I went to Windows Update and clicked the "Check for Updates" button. It came up saying there was 1 Important Update, I clicked "View Details" and saw it was a Windows Defender update (though I didn't read the KB# - didn't think to.) I clicked 'Install" and -then- I got the error. Further attempts to check for updates/install updates ended in that error until I did the 'fix' - after that, I was told I was updated. Hence why I didn't see it install or even download it.

When I shut down the computer.. only background programs were running. I closed everything that was open on the taskbar, aside from Task Manager (which I keep minimized to the system tray beside the clock) and I never saw the green box (which I think is CPU use) go up more than half.

Lagouts? um.. Taking a guess as to what that means. Yesterday, while I was playing Diablo II (windowed) and had Firefox opened (as well as the Task Manager, as mentioned before) I noticed that the game started to get choppy and the green box was 90%+ filled. I checked it, and one of my virus scanner's resident protection programs was eating up 60-70% of my CPU (and with Diablo 2 taking up 30-40% itself.. ) causing the computer to lag/slowodwn. I closed D2, and the lag stopped - 5 minutes later, AVG stopped eating up my CPU and I was able to turn the program back on and continue playing.

I apologize for so much typing, I'm just trying to include as much information as I possibly can. As I mentioned, my PC is running absolutely fine right now - no slowness or lagging or anything. And a MABM quick scan came up clean.

So this is probably just a slight inconvenience on your part. Usually, Windows Update will attempt to do the update at the next scheduled time, so hopefully it will take the error, and let it update tomorrow.

And when AVG was eating 60%, were you doing a scan or was it just completely random?

Okay, I'll try not to worry about it then unless it happens again.

It was just completely random. I was just playing the game, occasionally browsing Arreat Summit (Blizzard's D2 information site) and it just started taking up CPU.

Well, when you play games, the application will eat the CPU for a short amount of time before it shifts off to RAM. It is something completely normal, so don't fret too much about it. You can come back if it seems to happen more often or again.