Constant Reoccuring Updates with the Windows Update KB923980

Well I'm not sure what exactly happened, but a while ago on the weekend, windows update had automatically installed various updates on my computer, and being a user of spyware terminator (with HIPS enabled) a couple of harmless warning messages appeared, and I chose to accept for them all, (I believe I left the "remember actions" box ticked for the wuaclt.exe files, but left it unticked for another file extension that seemed to be another file used only for setup, which I don't recall its exact name[it was still allowed though]).

All seemed fine, and I did a reboot afterwards to finalize the installation, until something odd seemed to constantly occur. Windows update now automatically detects the update KB923980 constantly even though it shows in "Add/Remove Programs" to be installed, and even if i accept the installation of it, it will pause for a moment then show up again! This startled me a bit since I didn't recall downloading or doing anything related to possibly malicious sites/files, so I ran a couple of scans and found nothing on all of them (the scans consisted of AVG AS, Spyware Terminator, Ad-aware, and Spybot, but excluded avast! since it had a couple of previous false positives [assured to be harmless files] which caused a lot of problems previously whenever I ran scans with it).

So now I was concerned that it was a system problem, and ran a scan with Registry Mechanic and found nothing wrong. I now narrowed the problem down possibly to what I did with Spyware Terminator previously with HIPS during the update, although I can't see how that was so damaging on windows and its updating. I ended up disabling HIPS and it still seemed to continually appear. I ended up having to manually uninstall the update through control panel and reboot, then when the update appeared as usual, it installed properly with a restart prompt required (the other updates did not provide a reboot prompt, and this new installation was done with HIPS disabled).

Anyway, after the reboot, the update appeared to not show again and I was happy, but a bit cautious, so I went to manually run an update on the windows update site, and I find, once more the update KB923980 available, but now 0KBs in size?! But the updates didn't seem to reoccur during that while so I figured it was just a mix-up and possibly others were experiencing the same problem, so I turned spyware terminator's HIPS back on. Now, however, after turning on my computer again, low and behold, the updates have come back!

I'm really perplexed at what the problem is since I'm quite positive it's nothing malicious. Has anybody experienced a similar problem or heard of similar events? Or could somebody possibly help me determine the real source/root of this odd mix-up

Thanks for any help provided, this has been starting to frighten me a bit.

 

Don't get your knickers in a knot

You are not the only one with this problem it appears and a quick look at Google shows numerous items for KB923980. Also....there's these threads at the Windows XP NewsGroup.

Start reading and Good luck,
Bubba

 

Thanks for the info Bubba (and quick reply ), I'll start checking them out.

EDIT: Well, after a quick checkup on those sources, I found that I wasn't alone (boy am I relieved ) and that this problem appears to be something Microsoft has created, so I guess the only thing I can really do is wait for a proper fix.

 

As I hang at the Windows XP NewsGroups some....I can say that MowGreen[MVP 2003-2007] is very knowledgeable and has been known to push buttons at MS. Having said that....be sure and keep watch on that Windows XP NewsGroup link I gave above and in particular the thread by Crazy-Chris titled KB 923980 wants to be installed ever and ever again ?. In that thread is a post from yesterday by MowGreen....

Bubba