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Patch Tuesday updates fix a trio of Windows 7 SP1 glitches

By | May 10, 2011, 3:04pm PDT

Summary: If you’ve had trouble installing Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you’ll want to take a close look at today’s batch of updates from Microsoft. You’ll find fixes for two installation bugs and one glitch that can cause USB problems. I have the details.

If you’ve experienced problems installing Service Pack 1 for Windows 7  or Windows Server 2008 R2, help may be on the way.

Microsoft today released a pair of updates intended to fix the two most common problems I’ve heard about in relation to SP1. Both are rated Important and will be installed without any interaction required from you if you have Windows Update set to install updates automatically.

I highlighted one of these issues in a February post and recommended that anyone with a large number of language packs installed proceed with caution. It turns out there was indeed an issue:

2534366 - “0xC0000009A” error message when you try to install Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

When you try to install Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) on a computer that has more than 10 language packs installed, the computer stops responding at a black screen. Additionally, you receive an “0xC0000009A” error message.

This issue occurs because the number of open registry key handles for subkeys that have the same name is limited to 65,535 in the registry. Each language pack that is installed on the computer increases the number of open registry key handles.

There’s also a fix for a second issue that caused SP1 updates to fail under specific circumstances. Although I had heard reports of this problem, I had never been able to reproduce it. Today’s fix explains the reason why:

2533552 - An update that prevents a “0xC0000034″ error message when you try to install Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is available

This issue occurs because Windows tries to perform operations in the Primitive Operation Queue (POQ) two times during the service pack installation process. The second attempt to perform these operations fails (because the operations have already been performed). Therefore, Windows generates a “0xc0000034″ error.

Finally, there’s a fix for a bug that caused some USB ports on some systems to downshift to USB 1.1 speeds. (I encountered the issue on two systems here and read about the details in this post.) This update should eliminate the need to run a third-party utility to restore normal speeds:

2529073 - Binary files in some USB drivers are not updated after you install Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

After you install Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1), binary files in some USB drivers are not updated. For example, the Usbport.sys, Usbehci.sys, and Winusb.sys binary files are not updated.

Notes

  • This issue does not occur when you install USB drivers by using a custom description device information (.inf) file that was provided by the computer’s OEM.
  • This issue does not occur if you are running a slipstream version of Windows 7 SP1 or of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

This issue occurs because both the Usbport.inf file and the Usb.inf file refer to the Usbhub.sys file. Therefore, Windows cannot copy the driver files to the destination location during the driver installation process.

If you’ve already installed SP1 successfully and haven’t noticed any of these issues, it’s possible that you can skip these updates. I would strongly consider the last one, however, just to ensure that the correct USB drivers are installed. I also recommend taking a close look at KB2533552. Although the support article doesn’t mention possible future issues, the Windows Update text does:

Install this update to enable future updates to install successfully on all editions of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. This update may be required before selected future updates can be installed. After you install this item, it cannot be removed.

As always, I’m interested in hearing about your experiences. If you’ve run into other SP1-related issues, let me know in the Talkback section below.

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Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications.

Disclosure

Ed Bott

Ed Bott is a freelance technical journalist and book author. All work that Ed does is on a contractual basis.

Since 1994, Ed has written more than 25 books about Microsoft Windows and Office. Along with various co-authors, Ed is completely responsible for the content of the books he writes. As a key part of his contractual relationship with publishers, he gives them permission to print and distribute the content he writes and to pay him a royalty based on the actual sales of those books. Ed's books written prior to fall 2011 have been distributed by Que Publishing (a division of Pearson Education) and by Microsoft Press. As of November 2011, Ed is a partner in the independent publishing company Fair Trade Digital Exchange, which exclusively publishes his books.

On occasion, Ed accepts consulting assignments. In recent years, he has worked as an expert witness in cases where his experience and knowledge of Microsoft and Microsoft Windows have been useful. In each such case, his compensation is on an hourly basis, and he is hired as a witness, not an advocate.

Ed does not own stock or have any other financial interest in Microsoft or any other software company. He owns 500 shares of stock in EMC Corporation, which was purchased before the company's acquisition of VMware. In addition, he owns 350 shares of stock in Intel Corporation, purchased more than two years ago. All stocks are held in retirement accounts for long-term growth.

Ed does not accept gifts from companies he covers. All hardware products he writes about are purchased with his own funds or are review units covered under formal loan agreements and are returned after the review is complete.

Biography

Ed Bott

Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. He's served as editor of the U.S. edition of PC Computing and managing editor of PC World; both publications had monthly paid circulation in excess of 1 million during his tenure. He is the author of more than 25 books on Microsoft Windows and Office, including the recently released Windows 7 Inside Out.

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RE: Patch Tuesday updates fix a trio of Windows 7 SP1 glitches
gregsut@... 16th May 2011
@Bill Clifford
SP1 killed my new netbook the same way, same error and no recovery point (Forums mention it destroys these during the "SP1E" (SP1 Explosion).
Unbelievable, had to blow the drive away and do a full re-build.
Have now made the netbook dual boot Linux and Win 7. Linux wins on speed and stability so far.
Next issue I have.....Office 2010......man is that bad or what.
0 Votes
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This is great news, as it appears that I'm affected by the issue (none of my high speed USB ports are operating right), however when I go to Windows Update, It doesn't say anything is available? except for some stupid IE9 update...which is irrelevant since I have no intention of ever using IE

edit: scratch that, I didn't hit "check for updates"
Silly me.
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Contributr
You should get the IE9 update anyway
Ed Bott 10th May 2011
@amarpatel

Even if you don't use IE9, it updates several system components that are used to render HTML.
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Message has been deleted.
Ez_Customs Updated - 12th May 2011
i mean really, who still uses or even runs WINS? MS has required a DNS server for AD since 2000, which makes WINS obsolete.

I personally dont know anyone running it, but i guess they are out there somewhere. Course my question for them would be.... just how do you keep your job?
Its still out there and being used, so its an issue.
@Been_Done_Before ... I agree. Even if you had archaic Windows 98 systems, they still use DNS and wouldn't require WINS to operate. There's absolutely NO reason to still use WINS.
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All installed with 2 reboots
gak@... 11th May 2011
I installed everything. 2534366 initially failed, so there was an extra reboot.
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How to recover from 0xC0000034 error?
daab@... 11th May 2011
If you have the ?0xC0000034? error and the computer will not start, how do you apply the patch?
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Contributr
@daab@...

Right at the top of the page:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975484
Came down to a system that would not boot. The update for 5/11 had installed just before.

Restored to a previous point and turned off updates.

I did not need that headache today.
I'm curious as to where people have all these problems? Is it actually with Windows or the third party software? This system is a Windows 7SP1 upgrade from Windows Vista Sp2. Never had any problems with Vista and have had no problems with Windows 7 or Windows 7 Sp1. Also, as I am not a fan of either Firefox [although I loved Navigator] nor Chrome but have used IE6, 7, 8 and now 9 without any hitches. Maybe I am just one of the fortunate people.
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CI.dll missing or corrupt error
soumitbanerjee@... Updated - 11th May 2011
Thanks for this article Ed. I ordered the Dell XPS15 with sandybridge i7 and Nvidia GT540M couple of weeks ago. Had the "boot critical file ci.dll missing or corrupt" error when the computer kept going into startup repair, and failed to repair each time. Had to reset to factory settings. It happened again soon, just after a windows update finished, and I realized that might be it! It updated the night before the morning it first crashed.

Now I have reset to factory again, stopped auto-update of windows and downloaded and installed SP1 (win7 home premium 64) from a DVD. Working fine now.

Apologies for elaborate text, but I wanted to share it here, while the context is similar. Any chance you got to explore this error?

Thanks,
Soumit

Edit: changed the subject so folks can easily find this article
I don't understand half of the above, but I purchased a netbook two days ago with Windows 7 starter and it could not install the 40 updates. I finally persuaded it to install 39 but still can?t install one? I?m an aussie pensioner (in my late 60s ) so I receive a pension. I have to report online to them fortnightly and they can?t process reports if one uses IE9 ?? So what?s up there? I still use my old laptop with windows XP and never want to lose my OS XP, why change when it all works so well?
GBM
Got errror message "Fatal error cooooo(can;'t remember numbers installing of 236 of 700?? and computer then wouldn't reboot till I did a systems restore after booting off CDROM have been too scared to try installing the service pack again.
Any others had that?
@Bill Clifford
SP1 killed my new netbook the same way, same error and no recovery point (Forums mention it destroys these during the "SP1E" (SP1 Explosion).
Unbelievable, had to blow the drive away and do a full re-build.
Have now made the netbook dual boot Linux and Win 7. Linux wins on speed and stability so far.
Next issue I have.....Office 2010......man is that bad or what.
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+ -
SP1 killed my system
stutgartt 13th May 2011
My laptop had the same annoying SP1 freak out and I had to recover in the same time consuming way but I also wasted time trying to restore from my primary system image back-up only to discover it had been corrupted by the update process which re-created it before it installed the service pack. Lucky I keep two system images but my back-up back-up was three months old and meant lots of further updates and reinstalling a lot of programs. After a couple of days getting the computer running smoothly again I made another fresh system image and then tried reinstalling SP1 and it worked fine second time around. Of course I foolishly installed IE9 as my back-up browser not long after and that ran a scythe through all my performance tweaks and controls but that's another story of the days of my life I've spent without use of my computer after Microsoft 'performance' updates.

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