# Microsoft Technical Support



## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

The Operating System on my PC is Windows 7 Professional. My PC is set to automatically install Windows updates and has been performing this task for years without issue. On Thursday my PC attempted to install Update for Windows 7 (KB3024777). It started the process of creating a restore point, then reported Code 2 Windows Update encountered a unknown error. I attempted to install the update again and received the same result. I ran a virus scan but no issues were reported. I ran another scan using Windows Defender. Again, no issues reported. I ran a scan with Malwarebytes. No issues reported. I downloaded Microsoft Fix It. Again, no issues reported. As a last effort I called Microsoft Technical Support (1-800-642-7676). Lucky me, I get a ding-a-ling who speaks broken English who began our conversation by informing me our conversion was being recorded for quality reasons. I explained the issue and my attempts to correct it. She replied, I understand and will be glad to assist you, then placed me on hold. When she returned I was told that Microsoft is aware of the issue. She then told me that if I subscribe to a very costly technical support package Microsoft can correct the issue. I replied, you've got to be kidding. Microsoft is aware of the issue and wants me to subscribe to a costly support package in order to fix it? Her reply was I know, but please understand, I am the mother of four children and I need to support them. Do you wish to subscribe to the technical support package? I answered no, I'm not about to pay Microsoft to correct a issue with one of their updates. Her reply was I understand, but I need to support my children. Do you wish to subscribe to the technical support package? I answered, please do not take this personally. No, I do not wish to subscribe to the technical support package and you can tell Microsoft to take their offer and stick it up a fat woman's ...!!! UNBELIEVABLE!


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

You actually expected free technical support for an old OS?

Now THAT'S unbelievable!!


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

I installed updates on the 10th ?. On the 11th ? I got another notice of an update. It was to remove the last update because of a problem. After doing that update I had to restart my computer twice to get it to preform as normal.

If I were you, I would look at the last installed updates and uninstall them. Then do a Windows Update and see if they work now.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

MysteryMan said:


> The Operating System on my PC is Windows 7 Professional. My PC is set to automatically install Windows updates and has been performing this task for years without issue. On Thursday my PC attempted to install Update for Windows 7 (KB3024777). It started the process of creating a restore point, then reported Code 2 Windows Update encountered a unknown error. I attempted to install the update again and received the same result. I ran a virus scan but no issues were reported. I ran another scan using Windows Defender. Again, no issues reported. I ran a scan with Malwarebytes. No issues reported. I downloaded Microsoft Fix It. Again, no issues reported. As a last effort I called Microsoft Technical Support *(1-800-642-7676). *Lucky me, I get a ding-a-ling who speaks broken English who began our conversation by informing me our conversion was being recorded for quality reasons. I explained the issue and my attempts to correct it. She replied, I understand and will be glad to assist you, then placed me on hold. When she returned I was told that Microsoft is aware of the issue. She then told me that if I subscribe to a very costly technical support package Microsoft can correct the issue. I replied, you've got to be kidding. Microsoft is aware of the issue and wants me to subscribe to a costly support package in order to fix it? Her reply was I know, but please understand, I am the mother of four children and I need to support them. Do you wish to subscribe to the technical support package? I answered no, I'm not about to pay Microsoft to correct a issue with one of their updates. Her reply was I understand, but I need to support my children. Do you wish to subscribe to the technical support package? I answered, please do not take this personally. No, I do not wish to subscribe to the technical support package and you can tell Microsoft to take their offer and stick it up a fat woman's ...!!! UNBELIEVABLE!


This number is not Microsoft.
Take a look at this link:
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-800-642-7676

and this one:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-security/scam-or-for-real/28e6ac77-7c33-450c-b4b1-de186d9bdf5a


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

I understand that mainstream support is ended, but I do believe that there should be a period of time where they do support updates that cause an issue. If this were a security fix, there would have been no charge.

Lately there have been several patches with problems, even one affecting Exchange.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

dpeters11 said:


> I understand that mainstream support is ended, but I do believe that there should be a period of time where they do support updates that cause an issue. If this were a security fix, there would have been no charge.
> 
> Lately there have been several patches with problems, even one affecting Exchange.


There are online support options that don't cost anything. But when you call for personal tech support for an older product, be prepared to break out the old credit card!!


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

lparsons21 said:


> You actually expected free technical support for an old OS?
> 
> Now THAT'S unbelievable!!


Win 7 is not an old OS. Mainstream support doesn't end until 1/13/15 and extended support is available until 2020.

http://support2.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&c2=14019


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

But that certainly doesn't mean free telephone support.


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

lparsons21 said:


> You actually expected free technical support for an old OS?
> 
> Now THAT'S unbelievable!!





lparsons21 said:


> But that certainly doesn't mean free telephone support.


That's exactly what I got. Free telephone support. Yesterday I called Microsoft Technical Support again and got a technician who knew what he was doing. He and another tech spent a couple of hours trouble shooting and discovered a corrupt file was the culprit. They corrected the issue and Update for Windows 7 (KB3024777) and Definition for Windows Defender (KB915597 - Definition 1.189.1916.0) were successfully downloaded and installed on my PC. They scheduled a follow up call for Monday morning and confirmed it via e-mail.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Could you please give us more info: what file been corrupted and how check it manually in case someone else will come to same problem ?


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

P Smith said:


> Could you please give us more info: what file been corrupted and how check it manually in case someone else will come to same problem ?


I'll have to get back to you on that after my scheduled follow up call.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

My first thought was that your original call was not to M$, but to one of the many scammers out there.


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

SayWhat? said:


> My first thought was that your original call was not to M$, but to one of the many scammers out there.


I use System Mechanic Professional. The few times a issue arose where I needed technical support they too tried to sell me a very expensive support package before giving me free technical support. Seems to be the norm with these type of providers.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

MysteryMan said:


> That's exactly what I got. Free telephone support. Yesterday I called Microsoft Technical Support again and got a technician who knew what he was doing. He and another tech spent a couple of hours trouble shooting and discovered a corrupt file was the culprit. They corrected the issue and Update for Windows 7 (KB3024777) and Definition for Windows Defender (KB915597 - Definition 1.189.1916.0) were successfully downloaded and installed on my PC. They scheduled a follow up call for Monday morning and confirmed it via e-mail.


I'm surprised you ended up getting free support. In general my experience with MS has been good, but they don't usually do free on previous OS releases. But there has been news about this latest update to W7 and MS is catching hell over it, I suspect that has something to do with it.

Glad to see it seems you got fixed. Exceptions to the rules are nice when they happen!


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

billsharpe said:


> Win 7 is not an old OS. Mainstream support doesn't end until 1/13/15 and extended support is available until 2020.
> 
> http://support2.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&c2=14019


This explains link explains the above link in English  http://windowsitpro.com/windows-7/clarity-needed-windows-7s-proposed-end-life


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

MysteryMan said:


> I use System Mechanic Professional. The few times a issue arose where I needed technical support they too tried to sell me a very expensive support package before giving me free technical support. Seems to be the norm with these type of providers.


It is a shame that for the most part these days, good technical support that is also free is getting to be rarer than hen's teeth!

For my computers, I have clones of the working hard drives, so when something goes south, I just recover the clone image and I'm back good to go.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

lparsons21 said:


> It is a shame that for the most part these days, good technical support that is also free is getting to be rarer than hen's teeth!
> 
> For my computers, I have clones of the working hard drives, so when something goes south, I just recover the clone image and I'm back good to go.


On one of my Dell's, I was somehow able to add Gold tech support, it apparently couldn't differentiate my Inspiron with a particular Latitude. Cost about $150, but well spent. Always got US based support, and they always followed up with an email with their contact info. They also always seemed to be at a minimum an MCP or A+ certified (being A+ myself, I know that doesn't really mean much on it's own). But we always skipped the stupid stuff and I has parts within a day or two.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

When I had an issue with my Surface Pro not recognizing the new Type Cover I got for it, even under warranty there was a slight push to get some sort of support package. Seemed odd since I had gotten the extended warranty on it when I bought it. The support was fine after that slight push from the CSR.

The one company that I've found to be very different about support is Apple. In general I have AppleCare on my computer and not much else. And the times I've called Apple, if the problem turned out not to be the computer itself, they worked at a way to give the support in one way or another. And I really like their approach! You go to the AppleCare site and tell them when you want them to call you, and they actually call at the time you request, and I've always gotten calls from someone that spoke English without a heavy accent of any kind. Overall it explains why Apple is generally top dog in survey of customer satisfaction.


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

P Smith said:


> Could you please give us more info: what file been corrupted and how check it manually in case someone else will come to same problem ?


Just finished my call back from Microsoft. When I asked what file was corrupted the answer given to me was the Drive Software Distribution file. Iparsons21 is correct about Update for Windows 7 (KB3024777) raising havoc on a wide scale with customer's PCs when installed. Ironically it's meant to correct a issue caused by a previous update.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

any chance get the file name, its location, CS ?


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

P Smith said:


> any chance get the file name, its location, CS ?


The answer I posted is the one I received. I wish I could be more specific.


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

In summary to my situation as I said to P Smith in a PM as a businessman I understand the name of the game is profits. However, there comes a time when one must turn the CEO's picture against the wall and do the right thing. While I don't expect Microsoft to afford free technical support for the life of a operating system I do expect them to extend that courtesy when one of their software updates causes serious issues like Update for Windows 7 (KB3024777) has on a wide scale.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

P Smith said:


> any chance get the file name, its location, CS ?


If you are having trouble and want to uninstall this update:
Go to Control Panel, Programs and Features, Choose "View Installed Updates" ( give it a minute or 2 to search the computer for them ) , scroll down to the program, click on it and choose to Uninstall.

I just checked my machine and I do not have that update on it.


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