Expert: Brian Benosky - 12/31/2011

Question
im not sure where to ask this as im not computer savy so if its not the place to ask, please tell me where to go. i got a hp pavilion g6 windows 7 for christmas and since starting it up i havent been able to do windows updates and it wont backup. when i try to update it says windows update has encountered an unknown error with the code 80246008. when i try to back up my computer it says "a shadow copy could not be created. please check VSS and SPP application events log for more information" i googled on how to try and fix these issues by going to services and trying to start the BITS myself but it just wont start, keeps saying it cant on local computer with error code 1068. my backup space on the computer (HP_TOOLS(E:)) has 1.15GB free of 3.69GB. is there anything that could be done to fix these issues? thank you

Answer
Hi Meghan

Happy New Year!  The errors you are encountering are often found on systems that have been infected with malware.  You mention you just received this HP, but do not say if it was previously used or a new machine.  If it was new, I suggest going back to the place of purchase and ask for warranty assistance.  If it was a used gift, then first run a malware scan using Malwarebytes:
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup-1.60.0.1800.exe
Install, run updates, then run a full scan.  If it comes up infected, then remove the malware, restart, and try your updates.  Let me know how you make out.

Brian