I was login on the other day to my Desktop at home and I’ve noticed a weird thing.
An Application popup message appeared:
Application popup: svchost.exe – Application Error : The instruction at “0x745f2780” referenced memory at “0x00000070”. The memory could not be “read”.
As i closed the window I’ve lost control of the Operating system I could not open Programs or even the start menu for that purpose, i then had to restart the machine.
As i Logged on once more the issue appeared so I’ve started process explorer to see what was going on with the svchost and child services.
Process Explorer Window – bellow the Svchost service we could spot wuauclt.exe
I then noticed wuauclt.exe and i knew I was waiting for an update to be installed so it was definitely an msi.dll related issue. The update never got to be installed and was always terminating with a Generic Host Process Win32 message.
I knew i had to update msi.dll and so I’ve found a KB article that explains this behavior: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916089/
SYMPTOMS
When you run Microsoft Windows Update to scan for updates or to apply updates to any applications that use Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) 3.1 together with Windows Update, CPU utilization may reach 100 percent for prolonged periods. Additionally, you may receive the following error message in Event Viewer on a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer:
Application popup: svchost.exe – Application Error : The instruction at “0x745f2780” referenced memory at “0x00000070”. The memory could not be “read”.
When we receive an access violation error. This access violation stops the Server service and the Workstation service, that’s why we lost our control over the shell after the service stops and we are then confined with the only option of rebooting the machine
You may experience this problem when you try to scan for Microsoft Office updates. You may also experience this problem when you use the following update mechanisms:
• The Microsoft Update Web site
• Automatic Updates through the Internet or through Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
• Microsoft Systems Management Server Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (SMS ITMU)
• Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA)
• Any application that performs update scans by using the offline scan CAB file (Wsusscan.cab) that uses the Windows Update Agent (WUA)
RESOLUTION
Download and Install the update mentioned in the following KB for your operating system.
In my case it was Windows XP SP2.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891 – You receive an access violation error when you try to install an update from Windows Update or from Microsoft Update after you apply hotfix package KB916089
After this was done I was then able to install the Updates that Windows Update client was offering.
IMPORTANT!
I’ve noticed other forums suggesting to “turn of Automatic Updates”, claiming that the issue will happen at a latter time, when more updates are offered. Please DO NOT DO THIS. Do not expose your machine to risk.
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