Recalcitrant Computer Is Recalcitrant

[abracanabra]

I have an ancient and very crotchety computer. A number of years ago, when we were still on dial-up, I turned off Automatic Update because it just crashed the internet connection every time I tried to use it. Now I am trying to clean up the computer and install all the updates and make it pretend to work (OpenOffice and other programs crash way too often--only on this computer, too, not on my laptop).

36 out of 37 updates went smoothly, until it tried to install a security update for Microsoft .NET framework, version 1.1 Service Pack 1. Then it went bad, with a "Failure to Delay Load Library mscorlib.dll Win32 error: 32" message. I'm not even sure I have this .NET framework, but I've got no idea how to tell. The Microsoft support site is useless, unless I want to pay several hundred dollars to actually get a personal response (I don't). Grumble. Grumble grumble. I bought the damn operating system; I think I should get some honest-to-goodness tech support included with that!

Oh, well. Ignoring the update and moving on.

Next up: installing CCleaner, cleaning off some of the crap, and then running a nice long defrag. Then reinstalling OpenOffice and seeing if it will stop with the crashing.

Comments

[lyght.livejournal.com]

Changeling is pretty much constantly grumbling about the state of her laptop. The usual culprit is either updates from Microsoft or the security software.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Oog. Sometimes I am about ready to strange my security software. Especially when the window saying it's running background processes, that's supposed to disappear when I start doing something on the computer--freezes in place. Covering everything underneath it. The only way to make it go away is to restart the computer. Grargh.

[guppiecat]

CCleaner was what I was going to recommend. For some reason, the .NET updates often fail and then often work after CCleaner is run.

However, if OOffice is your primary app, and Windows is being difficult, you might want to consider using Linux. It's been a very long time since the OO stuff has crashed on my Linux systems.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

They work after CCleaner runs? Really? How interesting. We shall see....

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

That worked! So weird! But yes, after running CCleaner, I went back and went through the auto-update, and this time it updated successfully. Super weird.

[xcorvis.livejournal.com]

Check under add/remove programs for the .Net framework. You might need to check the box that says "show windows updates" at the top.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Or I could do the really obvious thing suggested by friends who have smarter ideas about this. Ahem.

Right. It was there, CCleaner made it possible to install the update.

[chadvalentine.livejournal.com]

Give me a day or two and I'll come over and look at it.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

There's not really anything to take a look at, but if you're around and I haven't figured it out by then, sure.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

No need about the update--after running CCleaner, when I went back in and installed the update everything went fine.

Note that this was my 4th attempt to download and install the update. Ahem.