Canadian Lake

[Henry Blewer]

Windows update downloaded the new security updates and then rebooted. I have the update set to just download and notify. Lost days of render time. When I went out last night, there were only two bucket rows left. I am so pissed off!

[Kadri]

This really sucks
I think Microsoft's mentality of notify is that a window pops up and when you don't click anything it thinks when the time is up that you are OK to reboot.
Just a guess ! But users like you and others who have renders going on shouldn't do automatic updates (because of Microsoft's way of notification).
This is Microsoft's fault of course !

[Tangled-Universe]

I had this too, ONCE. Under the exact same circumstances as Henry.
Now my PC only installs updates whenever I shut down the machine.

[Henry Blewer]

Oh well, time to make some changes in the project. Maybe it's not a complete waste.

"Now my PC only installs updates whenever I shut down the machine."

How did you convince the machine to do that?

[Tangled-Universe]

No that was a mistake Henry, sorry.
I made a huge render last night and I thought it crashed, but looking back at it it must have been auto-update as well. Ghehe, lol.
I'm on windows 7 now and in my XP64 time I got it working the way I described, but I don't know how anymore, sorry.

Can I have a look at your file and see how I go with the surfacing?

Cheers,
Martin

[Henry Blewer]

Sure. I was going to post it in the file sharing area when I finished the render. I will get back to it when I get a new computer. I can almost afford a i5 system. It may not be optimal, but it will be much faster than what I am currently using.

[AndyWelder]

Win7: Control panel - Windows update - From the list on the left select "Change settings".
From the drop down list under "Important Updates" choose "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them". No more interrupted renders because of those oh so important updates. And your system's security is not at risk.

[Tangled-Universe]

Sure. I was going to post it in the file sharing area when I finished the render. I will get back to it when I get a new computer. I can almost afford a i5 system. It may not be optimal, but it will be much faster than what I am currently using.

I don't know about your budget of course, nor about the local prizes for hardware where you live, but how about a i7-860 system? The i5 is really good, but lacks hyperthreading which the i7-860 has. This will probably give you at least 50% extra speed over the i5.
It will definitely be a good investment for the next couple of years.
However, the i7-860 costs (here) around 90 dollars more, but it does use the same socket, memory etc. etc., so only the difference in cpu will add to the price.

Just thinking along with you

[Henry Blewer]

Andy, these are the settings I have and had for Windows update. Microsoft thinks that everyone is an idiot...