Windows Updater refuses to run

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littleheaven

2130 posts

Uber Geek

#179096 26-Aug-2015 09:36

My son has a Lenovo Thinkpad x140e which we keep at the grandparents' house for schoolwork and light gaming, and we plan to take it away with us next month when we go on holiday. It's not been turned on since May, so last night I thought I'd bring it home, run all the pending updates, and upgrade it to Windows 10. Currently it's running Windows 7 Professional, SP1.

Anyway, I run the update checker. It just hung on "checking for updates". I stopped and started it a couple of times, and then it showed it had 74 updates pending, but it stuck on 0kb, 0% for ages, then just failed. After that it went back to hanging on checking for updates. After extensive Googling I have tried the following:

Ran the FixIt tool, which didn't appear to do anything
Updated the Windows Update Utility manually to the latest version for Win7 SP1
Ran the Windows Update Diagnostic, which wiped my "last update check" and "last updates installed" info in the update checker screen
Ran system check from the cmd prompt
Ran the Windows Update Readiness Tool

At first the Readiness Update Tool also hung on checking for updates. I disabled Windows Updates in the services manager, and in the update tool, then renamed the Software Distribution folder, and tried to rename catroot2 but it said it was in use by another programme. I used task manager to ensure all that was running was windows explorer, but it still wouldn't rename. So I tried running the Update Readiness Tool again at that point and it ran, took a while, and installed a Hotfix to SP1. Then I turned Windows updates back on and it still hung at checking for updates. Ran the Windows Update Diagnostic Tool again and this time it did a lot of "resolving" before reporting that several things had been fixed, but one error could not be fixed: Windows Update Error 0x080070057.

I've Googled it, and not found anything suggested that I didn't already try. I assume I have a corrupted file in my registry somewhere causing this issue? I'm not particularly comfortable tinkering around in there, as the machine is running fine otherwise, and I don't want to bork it before we go on holiday.

Does anyone have experience with fixing this issue, or have any ideas about what I could do next? I am happy to try some registry changes if I have clear instructions to follow. Would I benefit from running a Windows repair? I made recovery media discs when I first bought the machine, so I assume there will be a non-destructive repair option on there somewhere (unless there's one in a separate partition I can run on the machine without having to muck around with external optical drives?).

I'd be really grateful for any help. I spent 5 hours on this last night and got really frustrated with it.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

xpd

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#1374509 26-Aug-2015 10:33

Try running CCleaner for start - itll flush out any rubbish files and has a registry cleaner as well (never had any failures running the reg cleaner - but make backup when it prompts to be safe).

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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robcreid

243 posts

Master Geek

#1374513 26-Aug-2015 10:50

You could try the direct download for Win 10 rather than trying to do it via Windows Update:-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Lets you download and create bootable upgrade/install media rather then relying on the sometimes flaky Windows Update method.

KrazyKid

1238 posts

Uber Geek

#1374517 26-Aug-2015 10:58

I had the exact same error you had last week after doing a fresh install of W7 and updating.

Tried what you have done so far.

My issue was that it looked liked it was hanging when checking for updates. I was all set to start the reinstall process the next evening when I found that leaving it on overnight had given it time to find all 200+ updates get them down.

It also seemed to stall installing a dot net update so a restart during that update helped.

But the W10 download sounds like a good solution here - why go through the pain if you are wiping it anyway

DizzyD

523 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#1374518 26-Aug-2015 11:00

Had a simular problem.

Was pulling my hair out.

Here was my fix in the end. Make sure you router is not blocking any proxy requests:

I found my problem for those that are interested. (Nothing to do with OpenDNS and local cookies as I originally thought)

I had the following filters ticked on my DD_WRT router.

- Filter Cookies (Identifies HTTP requests that contain the "Cookie:" string and mangle the cookie. Attempts to stop cookies from being used.)
- Filter Proxy
- Filter Java Applets

I assume it was the filter cookies option that was messing things up.

Previously I also was unable to connect to windows update (I thought this was a new Windows 10 bug). After I unticked filter Proxy it seemed to have fixed that problem.

Check your filter settings on your router if you are having any similar problems.

I ended up putting the problem down to my home network only after I had connected to the internet via another means (3G hotspot), and it worked. Maybe see if the updates work if you connect to the internet from somewhere else before trashing your machine and installing windows 10.

littleheaven

2130 posts

Uber Geek

#1374605 26-Aug-2015 13:48

Cool, thanks for all the suggestions. I will try them tonight- I'm staying at someone else's place so that will be prefect to try it on a different network. I'll download CCleaner too and give that a run first.

I just updated an old Acer One netbook using the Windows 10 Disc Image (the Windows upgrade checker erroneously identified it as running Enterprise and wouldn't give me the upgrade option on that one), so I'm pretty comfortable to give that a go. I just need to re-download it for 64-bit (the Acer was 32-bit). If CCleaner and a different network doesn't help, I'll try that next.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

Axeman480

91 posts

Master Geek

#1374642 26-Aug-2015 14:33

Would try deleting all files in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download . Retry running updates , failing this - backup and re install windows 7 sp1 then perform in place upgrade to 10 .

littleheaven

2130 posts

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#1374709 26-Aug-2015 15:28

Axeman480: Would try deleting all files in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download . Retry running updates , failing this - backup and re install windows 7 sp1 then perform in place upgrade to 10 .

Thanks, I did try deleting those files, as well as renaming the folder so Windows was forced to re-create it. Unfortunately that didn't work so I am going to try the other suggestions in increasing order of destructiveness :o)

Meant to ask, xpd, which of CCleaner do I need. Will the free one clean the registry?

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

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xpd

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#1374850 26-Aug-2015 18:53

Yeah the free one will do it :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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littleheaven

2130 posts

Uber Geek

#1374879 26-Aug-2015 21:08

xpd: Yeah the free one will do it :)

Thanks, I have run it. Cleaned up a lot of unused or orphaned files but unfortunately the problem still persists, even on a different network (tried at my parents and hot-spotted to my 4G connection). Next step, I'm going to run a repair from the advanced boot options menu. If that doesn't help I'll need to download the Win10 ISO tomorrow night when I'm back home on my own (unlimited) data plan.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

ObidiahSlope

260 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1374882 26-Aug-2015 21:14

I had an "its stopped working" problem with Windows Update on Windows 7 when my ISP made IPv6 available.

Disabling IPv6 on the Windows box made the problem go away.

Obsequious hypocrite

littleheaven

2130 posts

Uber Geek

#1374971 26-Aug-2015 23:44

ObidiahSlope: I had an "its stopped working" problem with Windows Update on Windows 7 when my ISP made IPv6 available.

Disabling IPv6 on the Windows box made the problem go away.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried it but it didn't seem to make a difference.

I've spent all evening tinkering. I restored it back to May, but that didn't help. I finally managed to rename catroot2 by stopping cryptographic (?) services and rebooting to create a new folder. That made the "check for updates" tool think it was up to date. Then I ran the update diagnostic tool again and this time it told me everything had been fixed and no error codes were reported. Because the updater thinks Windows is up to date now, I can't run another check for updates. I assume when a new one becomes available I'll find out if it's working, but not sure about all the ones I've missed since the last successful one in February. Next step is to try running the Win10 installer/upgrader tomorrow night. I've spent 8 hours on this issue now and I am done for today!

Edited to add: I was just about to turn the machine off when I noticed the Windows Updates icon in the system tray. It had gone off by itself and found 42 updates and wanted permission to install! Maybe when it ticked over to midnight it prompted an auto-scan or something. So now they are all downloading. Thank goodness. Not sure what it was that worked - I think possibly being able to finally reset the catroot2 folder, because that's when the diagnostic tool stopped reporting errors. Thank you all for your help and suggestions. I really appreciate it - kept me from despairing while I worked through everything!

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

lNomNoml

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#1374975 27-Aug-2015 00:52

I would just switch off the Windows update service then delete the softwaredistribution folder, restart and have some coffee.

Just skimmed through the OP, sorry.

littleheaven

2130 posts

Uber Geek

#1375027 27-Aug-2015 09:29

lNomNoml: I would just switch off the Windows update service then delete the softwaredistribution folder, restart and have some coffee.

Just skimmed through the OP, sorry.

Yes, for future reference, it does appear to be a combo of disabling Windows Update, renaming both Software Distribution and catroot2, rebooting to force the system to create new versions of those, re-starting Windows update, and waiting for the date to change (or at least the last bit was what made the updater actually register the waiting updates). My main problems were getting Software Distribution and catroot2 to allow themselves to be renamed at the same time, as either one or the other claimed it was in use, which required more troubleshooting to work out. Never mind, got there in the end, and I've just restarted to find the magical Windows 10 Upgrade icon in the system tray, which was the whole point of this frustrating exercise :o)

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.