Windows 7 Nightmare..........

Andy7 · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:19

My sisters hard drive gave up and she decided to get a nice new SSD. She asked me to install Windows 7 on it. OK, no problem I though...........

The install was easy enough with no problems. When you turn off the machine is when you get the problems. 200 plus updates come up and it takes like 2 hours plus to do.

Shocking state of affairs by Microsoft. Thoughts guys?

Rroff · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:21

Been a few posts on this lately - Windows Update seems to have imploded of late - I think they just don't care on the 7 side hoping to push people to 10 but 10 if anything is even worse.

Awhile back I could have it all done and dusted in 20-30 minutes now 2 hours is a good day.

MagicBoy · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:24

There's so many updates Windows Update runs out of RAM and trips over itself on a clean install now. It imploded around September 2014 for users on 2GB RAM or less.

Manually run this update on a plain SP1 install for the fixed version of the Windows Update agent : https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3050265

Andy7 · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:24

Rroff said:
Been a few posts on this lately - Windows Update seems to have imploded of late - I think they just don't care on the 7 side hoping to push people to 10 but 10 if anything is even worse.

Awhile back I could have it all done and dusted in 20-30 minutes now 2 hours is a good day.

It was that bad that I actually thought that the hard drive was faulty. After the two hours waiting it comes up reconfiguring Windows and that fails also.

Andy7 · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:30

I actually got it installed and working in the end, but damn it is hard work and lengthy!

Maybe it is Microsoft's way of getting us to go to Windows 10?

MagicBoy · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:30

Andy7 said:
It was that bad that I actually thought that the hard drive was faulty. After the two hours waiting it comes up reconfiguring Windows and that fails also.

No, it's run out of RAM and is paging to disk!

Quartz · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:30

Andy7 said:
Shocking state of affairs by Microsoft. Thoughts guys?

Get a box running WSUS so the updates are pre-downloaded and install over the LAN. Works a charm!

MagicBoy · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:31

Quartz said:
Get a box running WSUS so the updates are pre-downloaded and install over the LAN. Works a charm!

That doesn't help on 2GB RAM or 32-bit machines. It's the Windows Update agent as posted above.

millsy888 · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:32

I had this recently had this problem on a relatives laptop. When I managed to get it installed and updated, I cloned the clean install (including updates) on a spare drive. Once bitten...

Rroff · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:34

MagicBoy said:
That doesn't help on 2GB RAM or 32-bit machines. It's the Windows Update agent as posted above.

I take it then that 32bit machines even with 3GB fall foul of that - would explain why an old laptop I resurrected to update 7 and then upgrade to 10 struggled so bad - 5400rpm HDD as well - took like 3 days straight of leaving it running to get anywhere.

Andy7 · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:36

The machine has 16GB of RAM, 2600k @ 4.5Ghz and a fast 76 meg internet speed.

64 bit Windows Ultimate. Surely there are no excuses?

MagicBoy · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:39

Rroff said:
I take it then that 32bit machines even with 3GB fall foul of that - would explain why an old laptop I resurrected to update 7 and then upgrade to 10 struggled so bad - 5400rpm HDD as well - took like 3 days straight of leaving it running to get anywhere.

Yeah, the wuauclt service runs into a memory limit on the svchost.exe it's bound to. I've seen the wuauclt service utilise 1.8GB on a 2GB RAM machine.

It gets worse for corporate machines. Ours were all happily reporting back that they were up to date with the patching when they weren't, due to the process abending...

MagicBoy · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:42

Andy7 said:
The machine has 16GB of RAM, 2600k @ 4.5Ghz and a fast 76 meg internet speed.

64 bit Windows Ultimate. Surely there are no excuses?

Take that argument up with Microsoft. I've pointed you in the direction for the help you need.

TheVoice · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:46

Andy7 said:
The machine has 16GB of RAM, 2600k @ 4.5Ghz and a fast 76 meg internet speed.

64 bit Windows Ultimate. Surely there are no excuses?

Why not use it as an opportunity to install Windows 10?

Andy7 · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:47

MagicBoy said:
Take that argument up with Microsoft. I've pointed you in the direction for the help you need.

I would get nowhere arguing with a multi billion dollar company. It stinks and you know it

MagicBoy · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:49

Andy7 said:
I would get nowhere arguing with a multi billion dollar company. It stinks and you know it

I didn't say otherwise. I was responsible for thousands of affected PCs, not just the one.

Andy7 · 31 Dec 2015 at 19:53

MagicBoy said:
I didn't say otherwise. I was responsible for thousands of affected PCs, not just the one.

I got it sorted in the end so no problem. You have a nice New Year

Quartz · 31 Dec 2015 at 20:06

MagicBoy said:
That doesn't help on 2GB RAM or 32-bit machines. It's the Windows Update agent as posted above.

Actually, it does help. I have a 2 GB 32 bit box I used for TOCA and a rebuild is a breeze. The advantage is that the WSUS box pre-processes the updates and eliminates superseded ones.

nightmare99 · 31 Dec 2015 at 20:32

As above I would just to 10 on that spec machine, Windows 7 patch bases are a nightmare these days.

Tute · 31 Dec 2015 at 20:52

Iinm these is a Windows 7 Update Rollup that will do quite a few of those updates automatically.

But yes, it could really do with another Service Pack to bring it all back into line.