Apple Software Update Not Working

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Level 1

5 points

Apple Software Update Not Working

Running Windows XP. I start Itunes and get a message there is an available software update, I select to get it but nothing happens (at least nothing visible). I run Apple Software Update by starting the program (Start...All Programs...Apple Software Update) and it says there are no updates available. I can manually download the update and install it, and it is a more current version. Apple Software Update just does not work.

I have tried repairing Apple Software Update using Add/Remove Programs...Change...Repair, I still have the same thing.

I have tried uninstalling all Apple programs using Add/Remove Programs and then reinstalling them, I still have the same thing.

Can anyone suggest what to look at next ?

Thanks

Windows XP

Posted on Feb 14, 2010 3:24 PM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Feb 14, 2010 4:06 PM in response to madmike73

Try Microsoft Installer Cleanup Utility

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

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Answer 2

madmike73 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 15, 2010 5:25 AM in response to The hatter

Okay, I read this, I think I even downloaded this tool before, but can you be more specific on the steps to take ? Do I uninstall Apple Software Update and Itunes and then use this tool to see if they are listed and if so select them ? How do I need to use this tool to try and resolve the problem ?

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Answer 3

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 15, 2010 1:53 PM in response to madmike73

I'd try uninstalling iTunes and Apple Software Update from your Add/remove program control panel first.

Next, I'd remove left over program files and folder on the PC.

In "My Computer", open Local Disk C: or whichever drive your program files are installed on.

Open the Program files folder.
Right-click the Apple Software Update folder (if it still exists) and select delete.
Right-click the iTunes folder (if it still exists) and select delete.

Now I'd launch CleanUp (Start > All Programs > Windows Install CleanUp). In the list of programs that appears in CleanUp, select any *Apple Software Update* or iTunes entries that still exist, and select "Remove".

Quit out of CleanUp, restart the PC, and try another iTunes install.

Try launching ASU again now. Does it show any available updates? (It won't show the iTunes one now, since you'll be up to date, but do you see any "New programs" this time around?)

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Answer 4

madmike73 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 16, 2010 10:24 AM in response to b noir

First off, thank you both for your help.

I followed the instructions posted by B Noir. I uninstalled Itunes and Apple Software Update. There was still a folder for Itunes in Program Files which I deleted. I ran CleanUp and it did not show any occurances of Itunes or Apple Software Update on this machine. I rebooted and installed Itunes (I found a copy of the Itunes installer for version 9.0.2 so I was able to put the same version on I had to allow me to test and see if I fixed the update problem).

I still have the same problem. If I have Itunes check for updates it still shows that 9.0.3 is available but when I select download update nothing visible happens and when I run Apple Software Update it checks for new software, tells me none is available and I click OK and it quits.

This is a Windows XP SP3 machine. Looks like the software it has that I recognize as Apple is:Apple Application Support, Apple Software Update, Apple Mobile Device Support, Bonjour, Quicktime,and of coure Itunes. At one time I uninstalled all of them and then reinstalled them but the problem persisted.

I am running Zonealarm Firewall and C:\Program Files\Apple Software Update\SoftwareUpdat... is authorized to access Trusted Zone and Internet. Zonealarm shows the version as 2.1.1.116. This is also the version that shows when I start it manualle, stop the scan, and look at Help...About

Any suggestions on what to try next ?

Thanks

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Answer 5

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 16, 2010 10:42 AM in response to madmike73

🙂 You've been doing absolutely everything right, and you're providing excellent information. Thank you Mike.

Time to start checking on exotica.

Launch your CleanUp again. (Don't delete anything at this stage, we're just having a look.) Do you have an iTunes and Apple Software Update entry now?

In addition, do you have any lines in CleanUp which *lack a program name* but include a version number in square brackets? If so, what version numbers are you seeing on those lines?

(Checking here to see if there's a damaged ASU .msi file lurking about on the PC. If they are damaged in the right/wrong way, they can appear in CleanUp without a program name. I see the problem most commonly with QuickTime, rather than ASU, but it does no harm to check here.)

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Answer 6

madmike73 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 16, 2010 1:34 PM in response to b noir

Thank you for getting back to me b noir.

I looked at Cleanup and I have one entry for Apple Software Installer and one entry for Itunes.

I looked through the list and there are a number of things that I don't recognize, but they all seem to have names followed by version numbers.

I did screen captures of the Cleanup screens and pasted them into Word, it took 6 pages but I now have a word document that shows everything that Cleanup lists. I am not real familiar with this forum but I don't see a way to upload it so you can see it. I can type it in but I am pretty slow at typing. I will type it if you need the information or if there is a way to upload it I will do that.

Thanks

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Answer 7

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 16, 2010 1:51 PM in response to madmike73

I looked through the list and there are a number of things that I don't recognize, but they all seem to have names followed by version numbers.

Sounds good ... just doublechecking one further wrinkle. Are there any *completely blank* lines showing up? No numbers or anything, just a "gap" in the list?

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Answer 8

madmike73 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 16, 2010 1:59 PM in response to b noir

No, I don't see any blank lines.

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Answer 9

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 16, 2010 2:08 PM in response to madmike73

Okay. We're not looking at an msi issue then.

Perhaps we'd better check your event logs, just in case they can give us any clues as to what is causing the issue.

Launch ASU a few times, taking a careful note of the time showing on the PC at every launch/check for updates.

Right-click "My Computer" and select "Manage". Click Event Viewer.

Have a look through the Application, System, and Security logs. Are any peculiar error or warning events showing up repeatedly at the the same time as the ASU launches?

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Answer 10

madmike73 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 16, 2010 2:20 PM in response to b noir

No, I'm not seeing anything show up in Event Logs when I run ASU.

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Answer 11

madmike73 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 17, 2010 12:42 PM in response to madmike73

I did some more looking at this problem today. I closed Zonealarm, got rid of my custom hosts file, and turned off Avast Antivirus to see if any of the security software was causing this. Problem stayed the same.

How does ASU know what software you have installed that he would need to update ? It is almost like ASU is running correctly but doesn't know to look for updates for Itunes. Is it something weird like a DLL not registered correctly or a file that tells him what to look for missing ? Is there something to look at in the registry ? I am stumped, I just wanted to add to this discussion that I think I have eliminated my security software as being a problem.

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Answer 12

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 17, 2010 8:18 PM in response to madmike73

In the ASU for Windows case, there are wrappers around the MSI APIs that allow ASUfW to check for an installed product. For example, in AirPort's case on Windows, ASUfW looks for a product with the name "AirPort" and look for a version less than <currently posted update>.

So there's two points at which there could be trouble.

(1) If it sees an "old" msi for a product on a PC it can keep offering an update even though the latest version of the product is installed. That's what happened to SaraBellah here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2254953&tstart=45

(2) If something is interfering with the reading of the available updates on the server, it might not offer an update. That's what I've been suspecting more.

If we've ruled out (2), that leaves the option that ASU isn't seeing .msi files *at all.* The .msi files for, say, iTunes must actually be there, otherwise your iTunes wouldn't launch. (iTunes uses advertised shortcuts which checks the existing installation of iTunes against the records in the installation database in the iTunes.msi.)

The question is what could possibly cause the myopia with regard to the msi files without stopping the programs launching, installing or uninstalling. (We know that all three things go through fine on the PC.)

Going to have to think a bit more about this, mike, before I can provide a suggestion about that.

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Answer 13

madmike73 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 18, 2010 9:02 AM in response to b noir

b noir, I can tell from your explanation that your knowledge on this far exceeds mine and that is a good thing, I wasn't figuring this out on my own. I keep looking to see if there is any information I can provide to help figure it out. I mentioned that I had screen images of the Windows Installer Clean Up screens. This morning I converted them to text so I can post them. I used OCR software and manual editing to build the list, if something looks funny I will need to verify it with the actual tool.

One thing that looked odd to me is I do have one duplicate entry and I verified it is in the tool. I have two instances of "VC 9.0 Runtime". I don't know if this could be causing a problem or not.

Thanks, Mike

Windows Installer Clean Up

Continuing further will make permanent changes to your system You
may need to reinstall some or all applications on your system that used
the Windows Installer technology to be installed If you do not want to
proceed. please press the 'Exit' button now. Choosing 'Remove' will
make the permanent changes.

Installed Products:

(All Users) Acrobat.com [1.6.65]
(All Users) Adobe AIR [1.5.3.9120]
(All Users) Adobe Reader 9.3 [9.3.0]
(All Users) Apple Application Support [1 0 1]
(All Users) Apple Mobile Device Support [2.6.0.32]
(All Users) Apple Software Update [2.1.1.116]
(All Users) Bonjour [1.0.106]
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(All Users) FlipShare [4.5.0.39816]
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(All Users) HighMAT Extension to Microsoft Windows XP CD Writing
(All Users) HP Photo and Imaging 1 0 - Scanjet 3500c Series [1.00.
(All Users) Intel(R) PROSet II [2.00.0020]
(All Users) iTunes [9.0.2.25]
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Answer 14

madmike73 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 18, 2010 9:05 AM in response to madmike73

Okay, for some reason when I posted the Cleanup list he converted the bracketed version numbers to HTTP addresses. They are not HTTP addresses.

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Answer 15

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 18, 2010 10:11 AM in response to madmike73

Should have warned you about the square brackets ... the forum software uses a version of Wikimarkup for quick editing, and anything in square brackets gets turned into a link (unless you fight really hard).

One thing that looked odd to me is I do have one duplicate entry and I verified it is in the tool. I have two instances of "VC 9.0 Runtime". I don't know if this could be causing a problem or not.

... conceivably it could ...

Back in the days of ASU 1.x, there was a bug (relating to the Side-by-side configuration) where every time ASU ran, you'd get bunches of Side-by-side error messages in the event logs. That's sort of what I was wondering about when we checked your event logs.

It was a purely cosmetic problem for me, so I never got round to fixing it on my machines which had it.

However, one or two people who were extremely irritated by it, go past it by installing the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package.

So, conceivably, oddities about your Microsoft Visual C runtime installation could be causing the grief here.

If you uninstall one of those VC 9.0 Runtimes, do you get a better-behaved ASU?

If no joy there, if you uninstall both of them, does ASU behave better? If it does after uninstalling both of them, try reinstalling 9.0 and seeing if ASU still works for you.

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