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WindowsUpdate sucks [update: resolved, they still suck]

CTho9305

Elite Member
It stopped working for me a while ago... when I try to scan for updates:
Windows Update Error


Windows Update has encountered an error and cannot display the requested page.

Select from any of the following pages for information about Windows Update services, or send us your feedback.

Windows Update Home Page
About Windows Update
Support Information



You can also get online support if you are having problems with Windows Update.


Send error number to Microsoft (0x800A138F)
Note This sends error information but does not create a support incident; you may or may not receive a response.
...so I have to use automatic updates to download them if I don't feel like wading through the whole giant list of them.

edit: Resolved. Somehow IE forgot I use English (United States), and as a result windows update doens't work. You'd think they could automatically pop up the troubleshooter, preset to the error that they report back to me rather than just displaying a stupid hex number...
 
Yea, all my MS stuff is legal... I get it through my school so it's cheap enough that it's actually worth paying 😉.
 
Go here, find and download the patches that apply to you, or just download them all, then install them (starting with the earliest to be safe).
 
"Why is there something like this discovered almost every week? "

Because Windows is used on a gazillion different configurations of hardware/software and tries to be everything in addition to being an operating system. (like movie editor/media player, etc)

 
Originally posted by: Snapster
Originally posted by: TheCorm
Originally posted by: Snapster
Originally posted by: Ameesh
you should use linux, it has no bugs

Oh boy......

Are you Doctor Sam Beckett? Can I be Al? 😀

lol, I loved Quantum Leap
Wow.. I haven't thought of that show in a long time..

It was badass.

What was the name of the little computer? Iggy? LOL!
 
Originally posted by: Savij
Go here, find and download the patches that apply to you, or just download them all, then install them (starting with the earliest to be safe).

That's a pain. The list is giant, and I don't really remember which I've installed (though I've probably installed all the critical updates)
 
Originally posted by: CTho9305
Originally posted by: Savij
Go here, find and download the patches that apply to you, or just download them all, then install them (starting with the earliest to be safe).

That's a pain. The list is giant, and I don't really remember which I've installed (though I've probably installed all the critical updates)
1st thing you can check is to make sure you have IE6 SP1 (Open IE -> Help -> About IE). If you don't go download that first... then the windowsupdate site should work. I had that problem on a PC at work yesterday. I believe it had IE 5.01 or something outdated like that.
 
Have you edited your hosts file? Are you running Kazaa Lite? The windows update site uses an Akamai server, so if you have those nuked in your hosts file, that could be causing your problem.

Also, check your update log and see what the error was:

C:\Windows\Windows Update.log
 
Originally posted by: TuffGuy
Have you edited your hosts file?
yes
Are you running Kazaa Lite?
yes

The windows update site uses an Akamai server, so if you have those nuked in your hosts file, that could be causing your problem.
The only entry with akamai in it was crs.akamai.net

Also, check your update log and see what the error was:

C:\Windows\Windows Update.log

There are errors like these:

2003-11-12 23:56:23 04:56:23 Error IUENGINE Querying software update catalog from https://a248.e.akamai.net/v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/getmanifest.asp (Error 0x800C0008)

2003-11-12 23:55:42 04:55:42 Error IUENGINE Querying software update catalog from https://a248.e.akamai.net/v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/getmanifest.asp (Error 0x800C0008)

2003-10-15 22:57:43 02:57:43 Error IUENGINE Querying software update catalog from https://a248.e.akamai.net/v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/getmanifest.asp (Error 0x800C0008)


edit:
Resolutions:

This is a generic error number which indicates a problem with the SSL
connection with our server.
Wow, that's helpful
rolleye.gif
 
Originally posted by: Gunbuster
Make sure time and date is set right

That does it too. I remember now... it was my home PC that did this last night after I flashed the bios and ended up resetting the cmos. The time was set to 12:00:00 Jan 1st 2002 or something... and the windowsupdate site gave me that error. Fixed the time and date and the site started working again.

 
Fixed the date and time... that didn't help. Apparently I had no language selected though. Adding English (United States) to the languages fixed the problem. Did I miss some obvious link to the windows update troubleshooting page before? I only came across it through google.
 
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