Windows Update stuck at "preparing to install"

[AstroManLuca]

Last night, Windows Update popped up just as I was getting ready to start a game with my brother. I didn't want to wait for it to finish and then nag me to restart so I just hit cancel. I guess that was a mistake since now I can't seem to update anything at all. Windows Update is stuck at "Preparing to install," clicking the stop installation button either does nothing or tells me that I need to be logged in as an administrator, and stopping the process via task manager is only a temporary help because it just starts right up again and remains stuck.

I do know exactly which update it's stuck on. It's the .net framework, 3.5 I think. But it's not in my list of installed updates and I can't figure out how to remove it so it gets un-stuck. It does show up in my update history as a "canceled update" but I can't really do anything from there.

 

[techmanc]

Are you using system restore? If so you can try to rollback the system to before the update.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Wow, I'm a retard. I restarted again and that fixed it. Please disregard this thread and laugh at me. 😱

 

[techmanc]

LOL I will laugh with you 🙂 Glad you got it fixed.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I may have spoken too soon. After I restarted, it installed the update in question without a problem. However, in an earlier attempt to fix the problem, I had uninstalled an older .net update, which Windows Update is now trying to install. Lo and behold, now THAT one is stuck at preparing to install after being downloaded, and this time I didn't hit cancel or anything!

I have to go right now but I'll try restarting again when I can. If that doesn't work then I am not sure what I'll do.

 

[techmanc]

Try downloading the update directly to your computer and do the install from there.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Wow, okay, guess what happened? Turns out that my system clock had been reset thanks to my overzealous overclocking attempts, which forced me to reset the CMOS. Anyway, when I did so, it set my date to sometime in 2006. Changing that fixed all my problems.

 

[techmanc]

Case of Messed Up System Clock has been solved!