Windows Update nightmare...

riskyfrisky · 14 Mar 2015 at 10:06

I've just done a fresh installation of Windows 7 on my Lenovo ThinkPad and, for some reason, Windows Update refuses to do anything. It goes through the motions of looking for updates but never actually gets anywhere.

I'm completely stumped by this. I have run the Microsoft fix it tool, but that was completely useless. I then tried the fix it tool '50202' and checked the box 'run aggressive options' to completely re install the update components but that also didn't help.

I then ran the system update readiness tool, which installed successfully and worked to the extent that I then got a list of updates to download and install, however, I get no further. Progress stays at 0% and the updates don't even download.

Can anyone help with this?

Skynet5 · 14 Mar 2015 at 10:22

Had same problem yesterday on a tablet on windows 8. Think something is funny with the update servers, and that makes it look like a local machine issue.

riskyfrisky · 14 Mar 2015 at 10:31

lnoton said:
Had same problem yesterday on a tablet on windows 8. Think something is funny with the update servers, and that makes it look like a local machine issue.

I've been having this issue for the past 3 days with regards to my laptop, yet I installed updates on my Windows 7 desktop fine two days ago.

I'm sick of Windows update now!

riskyfrisky · 15 Mar 2015 at 10:56

So, is anyone else having issues with Windows update?

I would have thought if it was a problem on Microsoft's side then more people would be having problems?

darael · 15 Mar 2015 at 11:13

I can check for updates fine, on Windows 8.1.

Before checking for updates, open task manager and show all the processes so you can see if something is happening. It might help if you sort by CPU or disk usage, so you can see what's going on easier.

How long do you let Windows for check for updates? On bogged down computers, I've seen it take up to an hour before showing you what's available. Are standby and sleep turned off?

ED209 · 15 Mar 2015 at 11:15

I have done a clean install of windows 7 and had no issues getting the updates

riskyfrisky · 15 Mar 2015 at 12:00

darael said:
I can check for updates fine, on Windows 8.1.

Before checking for updates, open task manager and show all the processes so you can see if something is happening. It might help if you sort by CPU or disk usage, so you can see what's going on easier.

How long do you let Windows for check for updates? On bogged down computers, I've seen it take up to an hour before showing you what's available. Are standby and sleep turned off?

ED209 said:
I have done a clean install of windows 7 and had no issues getting the updates

Looks like there's something going on with this laptop then.

It's a completely fresh installation so there's no bogging down or anything like that. I leave it for at least 20 minutes searching, but that's more than enough because it never used to take so long. I connected an ethernet cable just-in-case but I can browse the web fine so it's not a wireless issue.

This laptop doesn't have an optical drive so I use a bootable memory stick with the Windows install on it, I'm just wondering whether there could be something wrong with it but the Windows install procedure went without a hitch.

The ISO file I use is a download, but I've used it many times before without problems. Windows is activated legally so I haven't a clue what's going on.

It's really strange.

Anyone?

ED209 · 15 Mar 2015 at 12:27

if its a clean install and from SP1 then there should be like 214 updates.

I've updated my ISO and only had to install 22 updates once windows 7 was installed.

does it stop with any error codes or does it just sit there trying to search for them the whole time?

riskyfrisky · 15 Mar 2015 at 12:39

ED209 said:
if its a clean install and from SP1 then there should be like 214 updates.

I've updated my ISO and only had to install 22 updates once windows 7 was installed.

does it stop with any error codes or does it just sit there trying to search for them the whole time?

Yeah it's around that amount, there are also about 10 driver updates too.

It doesn't stop with any error codes whatsoever, it just continually goes about searching for updates without actually finding any.

I've just booted it up to look for updates and it's now saying no updates are available, but underneath where it says 'updates last installed'...it says 'never'!

darael · 15 Mar 2015 at 18:16

In your position, I would use the Simplix Pack to integrate updates into your installation media, then reinstall.

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2015 at 08:58

I made some slight progress yesterday; I followed a Microsoft knowledge base article for problems installing updates. There are like 12 steps, I got half way and tried installing 4 updates, which did install, but it took just over half an hour!

There's clearly something not right with the update procedure because this machine never takes such a ridiculous amount of time to install such a paltry amount of updates.

At the moment I'm blaming the usb stick or program I used to get the ISO image onto it.

I used NetBootin for ages with this laptop, however, since getting a new SanDisk memory stick NetBootin refuses to even see it at all. It has never worked with it for some reason. So I've tried out different programs to do it instead. It's only since doing this that I've started having these problems.

bledd · 16 Mar 2015 at 09:06

Check your date and time are set properly.

This is a good shotgun blast fix.

http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/repair_windows_updates.html

If it doesn't work, I'd reinstall Windows and try again.

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2015 at 10:33

bledd. said:
Check your date and time are set properly.

This is a good shotgun blast fix.

http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/repair_windows_updates.html

If it doesn't work, I'd reinstall Windows and try again.

Time and date are correct, that's the first thing I checked.

Believe it or not, I'm on my fourth install of 7 now. Two installs of the 32 bit and 2 installs of the 64 bit, and two separate hard drives. Nothing seems to help and, to be honest, I'm done with it.

Whether it's something to do with the method of getting it onto the laptop, I simply don't know. I never had this problem when I used NetBootin and my old memory stick.

I'll give your method a try though I suppose it can't hurt.

bledd · 16 Mar 2015 at 10:57

Does the internet work on it? (Have you installed network drivers?)

I use Rufus for turning Windows .iso files into USB stick installs.

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2015 at 11:06

bledd. said:
Does the internet work on it? (Have you installed network drivers?)

I use Rufus for turning Windows .iso files into USB stick installs.

Yes, internet is working, both wired and wireless Intel drivers are installed.

I'd actually never heard of RUFUS, but it was mentioned on a thread here the other day, so I used it for the fourth install. I've also tried that fix program you linked to but that hasn't worked.

I'm going to buy an external optical drive and install Windows direct from my disc.

leezer3 · 16 Mar 2015 at 11:35

How long have you tried waiting for?

If it's sitting on 0% and downloading, I suspect if you give it a few hours it'll probably unstick itself and start working.
If you look in task manager whilst it's in this state, I suspect you'll probably see Windows Module Installer & Windows Module Installer Worker running at ~10% CPU.

Windows Update can be a very slow beast, especially on older machines with slow CPUs.

-Leezer-

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2015 at 12:47

leezer3 said:
How long have you tried waiting for?

If it's sitting on 0% and downloading, I suspect if you give it a few hours it'll probably unstick itself and start working.
If you look in task manager whilst it's in this state, I suspect you'll probably see Windows Module Installer & Windows Module Installer Worker running at ~10% CPU.

Windows Update can be a very slow beast, especially on older machines with slow CPUs.

-Leezer-

My whole life!

Like I've said, this laptop has never had Windows update problems before despite how old it may be, okay it doesn't have an i7 in it, but it has always been much, much quicker than this at installing updates. It shouldn't suddenly end up going at snails pace without a reason behind it.

There is clearly something not right when it's telling me no updates are available even though I know over a hundred were available before the last reboot.

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2015 at 13:34

I'm looking at the resource monitor whilst Windows update is looking for updates and CPU usage is hovering between 50-60% usage, it's svchost.exe (netsvcs) that's doing the damage.

There is no disk usage and barely any network usage.

bledd · 16 Mar 2015 at 16:58

svchost is Windows services, very likely to be Windows Update doing that. What kind of hard drive is it?

Leave it overnight, set it to check for updates but not to download them..

Is it a Windows 7 SP1 disc?

This will tell you which group of services it's using..

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

riskyfrisky · 17 Mar 2015 at 09:07

bledd. said:
svchost is Windows services, very likely to be Windows Update doing that. What kind of hard drive is it?

Leave it overnight, set it to check for updates but not to download them..

Is it a Windows 7 SP1 disc?

This will tell you which group of services it's using..

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

It's a 160GB mechanical Seagate drive.

I use an ISO that I downloaded, which is SP1, funny thing is though SP1 was also offered through Windows update.

In the end I selected a group of updates at a time and left it be. It took about 6 hours to install ~100 updates, which is ridiculous. The final 80 or so updates went on in like an half hour, which is how it used to be.

I can't seem to get the hotkey features working though, this is another thing I never used to have problems with, but whatever, at least this pain is over with.

I think I should have left Ubuntu on it!

Thanks for the help anyway.