OT: WUAUCLT.exe Problem (HELP)

[Atrocities]

I am running Windows XP, and for some odd ball reason the Windows update ICON is constantly present in my system try. When I check it says downloading update but has a 0% status. I cannot right click or left click on it. When I kill it in the Windows Task Manager, it comes back within a few seconds.

Now from what I can tell, my system is running SP 1, and this problem did not start until I went to WINDOWS update after hearing that SP2 has been released.

According to some reports the WUAUCLT.exe function is for Windows ME only, and if running on XP, it is a trojan. I checked the registry and could not find the entry for it in the HKEY_Local_Machine Microsoft/windows/currentVersion/run, but that doesn't convince me that it is not a Trojan. I have run both Nortan and McAfee anti virus detectors along with specialized Trojan hunters like Stinger and others. So far none have detected any trojans.

The thing that alarms me is that when I kill the process in Task Manager, it come right back. That really does scare me.

Any tips or kind words of support would be greatly appreciated. And thanks.

[Atrocities]

Well I have checked into a bit further and according to Microsofts test sight, I do have windows updater turned on. I scheduled it for weekly updates and also turned off ALLOW remote access to this computer.

I stepped up the firewall because I show a lot of inbound activity for a specific port number.

[Fyron]

I can see how that would cause a bit of a snag.

[Atrocities]

What started the problem was that I could not load any pages. It was as if all of my available bandwidth was gone. Most annoying.

[Atrocities]

No I am having serious connection issues. Both nortan and McAfee come up clean.

Its like all of my bandwidth is just being sucked away. I have no other applications running, and yet it took me over SEVEN tries now to get this message to post without a time out error. Hell I cannot even connect to GOOGLE for crying out loud.

What could be causing this, and how do I check for it?

[Jack Simth]

You might try finding and renaming the .exe - whatever is restarting it will have difficulty finding it; if there is a backup somewhere that is auto-restored, you have rather positive proof that it is a virus; if it turns out it does something you need, you can put it back later.

[Mephisto]

Shut Windows Update down via "Settings", "Control Panel", "Automatic Updates". Download the Service Pack 2 at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
I guess it is trying to download this pack automatically and fails due to size and traffic. Make sure to make a backup of your HD before installing the Service Pack.

[Atrocities]

Thanks a ton for this info Mephisto.