Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs

Greetings fellow forum dwellers! I'm unsure if I was supposed to post my issue here or in the Windows XP board. Most of the threads with a similar issue to mine were here though; please pardon me if I'm mistaken.

Anyhow, for nearly 2 months now I've been randomly receiving the error "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close. ". At first it was very infrequent and random; probably once every week or so. Being as it was so random, I simply hit "Send Error Report" and everything continued running fine.

As time went on and the error became more frequent, I was eventually able to see a trend. When I would receive a Windows Update via Automatic Update, I would get the error. However, now when choosing to send the error to Microsoft or not, Windows will begin to stop working and force me to turn off my system by the power button within 15-30 seconds.

To test that the error did indeed relate to Windows update, I turned off the Automatic Update service and attempted to update from microsoft.com directly. About mid-way into the update process, I did receive the error. Now to help prevent the error, I am forced to keep Automatic Updates off. I must also run the "net stop wuauserv" command in Start > Run when my system starts. If I don't, I'll receive the error within an hour.

Even doing all that doesn't totally halt the error. I still receive it at completely random times. I have noticed now, though, that if I hit "Debug" when the error appears and wait a minute or so, Windows will hitch, then everything will switch to an old school Windows 98/95 look and begin to slowly stop functions like normal. If I'm quick though, I can restart the system normally when this happens without needing to do so by the power button.

To attempt to resolve the issue myself, I followed the instructions found in this link without any success afterwards: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931852

I hope that this is enough information to help you all help me with my issue. If you require any more details from me, please let me know! Thank you in advance!

Regards,
Ross / Silver

 

Welcome to WindowsBBS Ross

Lets check for any infections first. Please read this topic, install the latest version of Hijackthis, run a scan and save the log (you can close it for now). Then, download and run Deckard's System Scanner and post BOTH the main.txt and extra.txt logs. You may be required to put them in separate posts due to character count limitations.