Sunday, April 7, 2019

Log 2; ASUS Live Update won't uninstall and cannot stop it from starting

I have an ASUS laptop with a ASUS Live Update Software that came preinstalled.  The software no longer offers updates, as the laptop is somewhat old, but it gets loaded at boot every time.  Since it's no longer useful and takes up resources, I thought I would try to get it to stop loading at boot time, but that proved more difficult that it should have been.

I've upgraded this laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 10.  I don't know if that has any relation to the problem.

ASUS Live Update was not listed in the startup tab of task manager, so I couldn't stop it from booting.   Neither did the application have the option in its settings.

I tried to uninstall it, but when I try to uninstall it from "Apps & Features" in the windows settings it says:

 "There was a problem starting C:\Program
The specified module could not be found"

I also tried it from "Programs and Features" in the control panel with the same result.

I tried the to fix the uninstall with the Microsoft FixIt tool  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17588/windows-fix-problems-that-block-programs-being-installed-or-removed and the program wasn't listed.

The program wasn't listed in "Services", so there was no service for me to disable.


I tried using Revo Uninstaller 2.0.6 Portable and at first the program wasn't listed, but then I reopened it later and it was listed. I tried uninstalling with Revo and the same error popped up.  However, Revo seemed to think it had succeeded.  I ran the "Moderate" Scan to try to cleanup files.  It took a while.

When the scan finished, it found a bunch of leftover Registry items. This showed me some information I might have been able to use to uninstall via another method(such as the Microsoft FixIt tools), but I didn't try it.  I chose "select all" and then "delete".  The next page showed me all of the files on the hard drive.  Again I chose "select all" and then "delete".

With that, the Asus Live Update software was completely removed from my hard drive, as far as I can tell.

Edit:  Revo Uninstaller didn't remove the files.  I'm not sure if it was a failure on the part of the software or user error on my part.  I know where the files are and could delete them manually, but I'm not reallly concerned.

Edit 2:  The program came back!  I don't know how or why.  Maybe revo uninstaller failed somehow.  I'll have to try again.

Edit 3:  the program is no longer listed in the list in Revo Uninstaller 2.0.6, so I'll have to find another solution :/  I may just delete the files.  I don't know if the registry items remain.  I should have taken screenshots.

Edit 4:  I create a new folder and moved the program files into that folder.  Upon rebooting the program is no longer running.  It's a jenky solution, but it works

Unrelated Note:
I also tried the pro version of Revo Uninstaller 3 that I had installed previously, that I receive from a Humble Bundle, but for some reason it wasn't activated.  When I tried to activate it, I received the error:
"Activation Failed
Code: 3010"

I tried emailing Revo technical support, and they told me that they couldn't find my email address in the purchase history and that I should contact Humble Bundle if I received it from them.  Since I've already solved the problem I needed Revo Uninstaller for, I'm not going to try any further to solve this now, but I may come back to it at a later date if I need it then.

Log 1: The Log in which I talk about creating the Log

I've created this "Fix Log" primarily so that I have a singular location to share the solutions I find with others, and to make it easier for others to find those solutions.  Secondarily, this will make it easier to find my own solutions if I need them again.  Lastly, this will help me keep a record of progress.

Much of the time I will either be linking or reposting solutions that I've posted elsewhere.  I may even be linking to solutions I find elsewhere.  I don't know if I'll follow any sort of posting schedule, but I doubt it, because things that need to be fixed rarely follow a schedule.

I've created this log using Blogger, but changed the address from a subdomain of blogspot.com to a subdomain of productivegaming.com.  When I first created the blog on blogger, I chose the domain "tech.productivegaming.com", and it failed with an error.  When I tried to create the blog with the same subdomain it said it wasn't available.  So there's something funky with creating blogs with Blogger using custom subdomains.  I next created the blog using a subdomain of blogspot, fragmentaltech.blogspot.com.  This worked without issue.  I then changed the address to fragmentaltech.productivegaming.com through Settings>Basic>Publishing in the blogger settings.  fragmentaltech.blogspot.com redirects to the new address. This was easy to do because I had previously setup the CNAME for productivegaming.com.

I first thought about calling it a "Tech Blog", but a tech blog typically contains news about new technologies, so I decided that wasn't appropriate and changed the name to fixlog.productivegaming.com.  I called it "fixlog" intead of "fixblog", because honestly I've never been a fan of the word "blog".

If I want to use tech.productivegaming.com in the future, I don't know what I will need to do.  The fact that the address gives a "404" error makes me think that using that address might require some sort of fix, even if I were to use it for something unrelated to blogger.  I have no need of the address for now, and foresee no need of it in the future, so I'm going to leave it for now.

If someone wants to follow this blog, they can follow it through blogger, or I will mostly likely be posting links to the blog on my twitter at @stewartjmartin