Windows Update nightmare...

Sounds like the hard drive is knackered.

If it's got an i7 in there, replace the HDD with a Samsung Evo 850, 120gb, it will FLY!
 
I find setting windows to not check for updates, reboot then try again manually it'll work most consistently (still slow but thats always going to be the case). Chances are its doing some in the background and then failing due to installers locking out the other installers.
 
To check if the hard drive actually has errors, look in Event Viewer.

Being a 160gb laptop drive (very old!) I'd assume it's either got errors or is crazy slow.
 
Just to clarify...

The laptop is a ThinkPad X61s from circa 2008 I believe.

It does NOT have an i7 in it, that's someone getting confused from one of my previous posts where I said even though it doesn't have an i7, it should still be quicker. CPU is actually Core 2 Duo L7300 running at 1.4GHz. It's running 3Gb of RAM.

I'd be daft running an i7 without an SSD!

I've tried two different mechanical drives, the Seagate, and the original drive from the laptop which is an 80Gb Scorpio drive from 2008! They are both known good, no errors at all but both have had the same problem with Windows update.

My point is that I have never had Windows updates problems with this laptop before, and none of the hardware has changed. Yes, the drives are slow, but updating this machine has never been a problem, until now.

Add to that the fact I can't get the hotkeys working is leading me to believe either the windows installation was borked each time I put it onto the memory stick, or this poor laptop is on it's way out.

I only paid £30 for it a few years ago, I had to buy a screen but it's been tremendous. I shall be fuming if it's knackered.
 
riskyfrisky said:
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.
Click to expand...

With Windows Update and a fresh install you have to be patient. How long have you left it? Try leaving it overnight.

Also, I believe that there was a specific issue with Windows Update failing through too many updates. This was fixed in a patch, but my search-fu is failing me.
 
Hotkeys, probably a driver download required. Many laptops need them before they work. After all, they're non-standard hardware.

I'd still put an SSD in there, best upgrade for any machine.

Really MS should release W7 SP2, to prevent this issue, it's the sheer number of updates which cause the slowdowns.
 
last time I installed windows 7 there was 214 updates from SP1, I create my own ISO and only had 22 updates to download lol
 
bledd. said:
Hotkeys, probably a driver download required. Many laptops need them before they work. After all, they're non-standard hardware.

I'd still put an SSD in there, best upgrade for any machine.

Really MS should release W7 SP2, to prevent this issue, it's the sheer number of updates which cause the slowdowns.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's a separate driver required for hotkey integration, but they're not working even with the driver installed. I sense trouble ahead...

ED209 said:
last time I installed windows 7 there was 214 updates from SP1, I create my own ISO and only had 22 updates to download lol
Click to expand...

How did you create your own ISO image with the updates installed?
 
riskyfrisky said:
How did you create your own ISO image with the updates installed?
Click to expand...

I went to this site here

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/th...tem-Integrate-hotfixes-into-Win7-distribution

and downloaded a file called UpdatePack7R2 version 15.2.17

you will see the direct link in the first post.

I got my windows 7 64 bit ISO and extracted it to a folder called W7.

after that I went in to command prompt (right click, run as admin) and put this on command prompt

C:\UpdatePack7R2.exe /ie11 /WimFile=C:\w7\sources\install.wim /Index=3

the index number at the end will vary depending on what version of windows 7 you are using, list to post with info on this

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/th...7-distribution?p=756785&viewfull=1#post756785

this then updated the files extracted to the W7 folder and once completed (was about 4.3GB after) I then copied it directly on to a USB stick and ran the setup from there on boot up

what version of windows 7 are you using?
 
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ron3003 said:
Hey ED209,
The 'Index=3' switch, is that correct for Win7 Home Premium x64?
Click to expand...

Index 3 is what I used but this was for windows 7 professional 64 bit.

looking through the other posts on there I came across this

C:\>Dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:c:\w7\sources\install.wim

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Details for image : c:\w7\sources\install.wim

Index : 1
Name : Windows 7 HOMEBASIC
Description : Windows 7 HOMEBASIC
Size : 11,710,161,360 bytes

Index : 2
Name : Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM
Description : Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM
Size : 12,222,587,449 bytes

Index : 3
Name : Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL
Description : Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL
Size : 12,122,886,417 bytes

Index : 4
Name : Windows 7 ULTIMATE
Description : Windows 7 ULTIMATE
Size : 12,285,492,779 bytes

The operation completed successfully.
or you can just run this from command prompt on your current extracted iso

dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:C:\w7\sources\install.wim
 
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i noticed about a month ago that my last windows update was in December 2014, so i clicked "search for updates" just searched and searched and searched. i think it came up with an error later on that night.

looked for fixes for this but they all where/are more than a 5-10min thing so never bothered.

is there a simple fix for this?
 
D1craig said:
i noticed about a month ago that my last windows update was in December 2014, so i clicked "search for updates" just searched and searched and searched. i think it came up with an error later on that night.

looked for fixes for this but they all where/are more than a 5-10min thing so never bothered.

is there a simple fix for this?
Click to expand...

There is an index of WU installed files that can get corrupted, simplest way to fix is empty ...\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\ folder, reboot, try Updates again, may take a while to scan your drive and installed files but with any luck updates list should show up after that.
 
Have a look on Lenovo support page for the x61s.

"Hotkey Features Integration" version 3.89.0100 from 12/23/2014 should get the hotkeys working. Maybe worth updating BIOS if you have a much older version as currently on 2.22 from 4/18/2011.

Might be other stuff on there too, such as power profiles. But I would stick to chipset, RST, graphics driver, etc direct from Intel's website.

I would leave it checking for updates while doing something else. As it seems a lot slower while you are sitting there or checking screen every so often.
 
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