Windows Update Is Stuck

[Carbo]

Just did a fresh install of Windows 7. That went without a hitch. . .until trying to run Windows Update. Now all I'm getting is an endless loop of "Checking for updates". Any idea why and how to fix it?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Did you try the troubleshooter yet? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/troubleshoot-problems-installing-updates#1TC=windows-7

 

[Ketchup]

Funny, just had the same thing a couple days ago. Actually ran fine until it installed the Windows Update Agent update (7.6.7600.320) now it is in the same loop as the OP is seeing. Let it run for a few hours, on two different occasions, and finally just stopped trying.

When it first statred, I did run the FixIt DAPUNISHER mentioned, but maybe you will have better luck Carbo.

 

[Carbo]

Dapunisher, tried the MS Fixit but the endless update rolls on. Strange. Over the years I have installed Windows 7 numerous times without this issue.

 

[Ketchup]

Out of curiosity Carbo, what kind of install was it? Mine was off recovery DVDs I made off a Lenovo laptop. Pre-SP1. But interestingly, SP1 installed just fine.

I remember that, just before the end, XP updates got a little flaky, and I needed to update to SP3 and IE 8 for any hopes of running it.

For this update, I did a manual update to IE11, switched to Microsoft Update, but neither helped.

 

[postmortemIA]

There's really no fix except to wait. This happens on and off with my laptop. Also it locks up one CPU all the time. Best thing to do is turn the windows update off for few days and then try again.

See this thread for more discussion on the topic
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2457196

 

[Ketchup]

There's really no fix except to wait. This happens on and off with my laptop. Also it locks up one CPU all the time. Best thing to do is turn the windows update off for few days and then try again.

See this thread for more discussion on the topic
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2457196

That was an interesting thread for sure. I already like this one better, as it starts on a more "serious" note.

Plus that thread was about WU running slowly. This one is about it not finding anything at all. This has been going on for the past 3 days for me. Not sure how long Carbo has been seeing this.

 

[postmortemIA]

That was an interesting thread for sure. I already like this one better, as it starts on a more "serious" note.

Plus that thread was about WU running slowly. This one is about it not finding anything at all. This has been going on for the past 3 days for me. Not sure how long Carbo has been seeing this.

It is little gray... slowly or never completes. In my case it never completes without reboot (keeps searching ...) but then sometimes it does complete and finds whole bunch of upgrades... on that thread OP claims it does find updates after a few hours.

This bug was known even on XP when lots of updates are pending.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Here are a number of potential fixes -

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2509997

To resolve this problem, try each of the following methods. After each method, test to see whether the problem is resolved before you go on to the next method. If the problem is resolved by any method, you don't have to try the remaining methods.

Method 1: Run the Windows Update troubleshooter

To do this, go to the Windows Update troubleshooter.
Method 2: Download and manually install the update

To do this, follow these steps:
Determine the Microsoft Knowledge Base article number of the failed update. To do this, do one of the following: View the error code message.
View the error code message.
View the update history on the Windows Update website or on the Microsoft Update website. To do this, follow these steps:
Go to the following Microsoft Update website:
http://update.microsoft.com
Under Options, click Review your update history.
In the Update column, determine the Microsoft Knowledge Base article number of the failed update.
Go to the following Windows Download website:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/default.aspx
In the Search box on the Downloads webpage, type the article number that you located in step 1, and then click Go.
Note Do not include the letters "kb" when you type the article number. For example, type "kb123456" as 123456.
Browse through the list of returned content to locate the Knowledge Base article that has a link to the download.
Note You may be prompted to validate Windows. If you are prompted, follow the instructions to validate Windows, and then continue to download the update.
Click Download, and then click Save when you are prompted to save the download. Save the download to your desktop.
After the download is finished, click Open to install the update.
Note The update installation may fail if the update is incorrect for your version of Windows.
Method 3: Restart your computer, and then try to install the updates again

Exit all programs that are running, restart your computer, and then try to install the updates again.

Note Restarting the computer will make sure that all previous installations have finished, and that no remaining processes require a system restart before they can finish.
Method 4: Run the System Update Readiness tool (CheckSur.exe)

Download and run the System Update Readiness tool. This tool runs a one-time scan for inconsistencies that may prevent future servicing operations. For more information about how to download and run the CheckSur.exe tool, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Fix Windows corruption errors by using the DISM or System Update Readiness tool (https://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821)
Try to install updates again.

Note After you run the tool, the CheckSur.log file is saved in the following location:
%systemroot%\logs\cbs
Method 5: Run the System File Checker tool (SFC.exe)

To do this, follow these steps:
Open an administrative Command Prompt window.
At the command prompt, type sfc /scannow, and then press Enter.
After the scan is finished, try to install updates again.
Method 6: Reset the content of the Catroot2 folder

To do this, follow these steps:
Open an administrative Command Prompt window.
Type the following commands, and press Enter after each command:
net stop cryptsvc
md %systemroot%\system32\catroot2.old
xcopy %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 %systemroot%\system32\catroot2.old /s
Delete all contents of the catroot2 folder, but do not delete the catroot2 folder.
Type the following command, and then press Enter:
net start cryptsvc
Exit the Command Prompt window.
Method 7: Delete any incorrect registry values

Delete any incorrect values that may exist in the registry. To do this, follow these steps:
Click Start, and then type regedit in the Start Search box.
In the Programs list, click regedit.exe.
Locate and then select the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMPONENTS
Right-click COMPONENTS.
Click Export.
In the File Name box, type COMPONENTS.
In the Save in box, click Desktop, click Save, and then save the file to your desktop.
In the details pane, right-click PendingXmlIdentifier, and then click Delete. If this value does not exist, go to the next step.
In the details pane, right-click NextQueueEntryIndex, and then click Delete. If this value does not exist, go to the next step.
In the details pane, right-click AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving, and then click Delete. If the value does not exist, go to the next step.
Restart the computer.
Try to install the updates again.
Method 8: Register the Windows Update files

To do this, follow these steps:
Open an administrative Command Prompt window.
At the command prompt, type the following command:
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUCLTUX.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUWEBV.DLL /S
REGSVR32 JSCRIPT.DLL /S
REGSVR32 MSXML3.DLL /S
Try to install updates again.
Method 9: Make sure that your antivirus application does not scan certain files

Make sure that your antivirus application does not scan the files in the %windir% \SoftwareDistribution directory on any computer on which Windows Update Agent is installed.

For computers that are running Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008, do not scan the following files and folders.

Note These files are not at risk of infection. If you scan these files, serious performance problems may occur because some files may be locked. If a specific set of files is identified by name, exclude only those files instead of the whole folder. Sometimes, the whole folder must be excluded. Do not exclude any of these items based on the file name extension. For example, do not exclude all files that have a .dit extension. Microsoft has no control over other files that may use the same extensions as these files.
Files that are related to Microsoft Windows Update or to Automatic Update
The Windows Update database file or the Automatic Update database file

Note This file (Datastore.edb) is located in the following directory:
%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Datastore
The transaction log files

Note These files are located in the following folder:
%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Datastore\Logs
Exclude the following files:
Edb*.log

Note The wildcard character indicates that there may be several files.
Res1.log
Res2.log
Edb.chk
Tmp.edb
Method 10: Rename the SoftwareDistribution folder

To do this, follow these steps:
Open an administrative Command Prompt window.
Run the following commands, and press Enter after each command:
Net stop wuauserv
cd %systemroot%
Ren SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
Net start wuauserv
Try to install updates again.
Important The following issues occur when you use this method:
Updates that are currently downloaded but that have not yet been installed have to be downloaded again by using Windows Update or Microsoft Update.
When you delete the Software Distribution folder, your download history is removed.
If you currently receive updates from Microsoft Update and from Windows Update, you will have to reselect this option from the Windows Update website.
Note If the issue is resolved and you can successfully download and install updates, you can safely delete the SoftwareDistribution.old folder to recover disk space.
Method 11: Clear the BITS queue of any current jobs

To do this, follow these steps:
Open an administrative Command Prompt window.
At the command prompt, type the following commands, and press Enter after each command:

Net stop bits
Net stop wuauserv
Ipconfig /flushdns
cd \documents and settings\all users\application data\microsoft\network\downloader
Del qmgr0.dat
Del qmgr1.dat
Net start bits
Net start wuauserv
Note After you complete these steps, the BITS queue is cleared.
Try to install updates again.
Method 12: Rename Pending.xml

To do this, follow these steps:
Open an administrative Command Prompt window.
At the command prompt, type the following command:
takeown /f C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml
Rename the c:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml path by using the following command:
Ren c:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml pending.old
Method 13: Run Chkdsk on the Windows partition

To do this, follow these steps:
Open an administrative Command Prompt window.
At the command prompt, type the following command:
Chkdsk volume: /f /r

 

[Carbo]

Out of curiosity Carbo, what kind of install was it?. ..

I burned Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium to a USB and booted off of that. As I noted above, the install went without an issue. A clean install on an HP Pavilion.

 

[cubby1223]

Just did a fresh install of Windows 7. That went without a hitch. . .until trying to run Windows Update. Now all I'm getting is an endless loop of "Checking for updates". Any idea why and how to fix it?

Upon fresh install of Windows 7, the updates can take 3-4 hours (depending on how much ram is in the system) before moving off of "Checking for updates". How long have you given it to complete?

 

[Carbo]

After about 45 minutes I figured it wasn't happening. I'll try again this evening and hope something happens overnight.

 

[Ketchup]

Let us know how it goes.

My issue seems to be resolving itself, albeit in a strange way. I tried it again today, as the icon in the notification area said thay updates are ready to install. Again it did nothing. Just kept searching. I decided to do a shutdown, which now had the yellow icon indicating thay updates were going to be installed.

And it proceded to 218 updates. So I would recommend giving that a try, if you haven't already. Note that these updates were not available until after the Fixit tool was run.

Also, if you don't have SP1, try installing that separately and then try WU again.

 

[Fardringle]

I had a new Windows 7 SP1 install take about 18 hours of "checking" before it finally started installing updates. I just let it sit until it decided to do something. Once it finally started going, the updates installed normally.

 

[Carbo]

For now the updater has been running for "only" two and a half hours. Guess I have quite a bit longer to wait. If this is a planned function by Microsoft, the logic of it escapes me.

 

[Carbo]

Interesting turn of events. About thirty minutes after my previous post the updater shows 218 updates ready for download. Curious to at least have a look at what I'll be installing I clicked on the "optional" updates link, (there were 7). I received a message that said to close out the page and reopen it. Did that. . .and now the "Checking for updates" bar is scrolling once again. 😵

 

[Carbo]

Woke up this morning to find that 200+ updates were finally available for download. Removed a few I neither want nor need and hit the download button. It's been 3.5 hours and the progress bar shows 95% downloaded. Progress. . .