Windows 7 Pro update infinate checking - update never finishes searching

[1DMF]

Hi,

I am starting to lose the plot with a Lenovo laptop that refuses to update.

I start windows update and the machine just sits there 'checking for updates' forever!

I've left it overnight, it just sits there checking, I've ran every Mr Fixit I can find, the current one has been sitting on 'Checking for updates online' for over an hour?

I've disabled / enabled the BITS service and followed countless junk suggestions on SO.

I've factory reset the laptop twice, and manually installed SP1, but then when windows update is ran it never finishes searching?

What's wrong with this laptop and how do I fix it?

Thanks,
1DMF

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[goombawaho]

How about a workaround? Use WSUS offline updater. Get an external hard drive and download all the updates that you choose (your OS version) to the external drive. Turn off your wifi or unplug your ethernet cable. Then run the updater and it will force feed all needed updates to the computer (choose auto-reboot and resume option).

Then, test updates from the Windows update program and it should report no or few updates. Otherwise Windows update is broken, but at least your PC is up to date.

Link

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[1DMF]

Hi goombawaho

I've downloaded from the link and ran the program, it did some downloading and verifying, and I'm now running the updater.

I have a cmd window that has now been sitting there for 45+ minutes saying...

Installing ..\w61-x64\glb\Windows6.1-KB2533623-x64.msu...

Apparently it downloaded 201 updates, yet nearly an hour later and it hasn't installed one of them yet?

Edit: I got fed up with it so rebooted the machine and started again, this time it has installed 1 of 9?

It downloaded 201, yet is only installing 1 of 9?

And now it's stuck on 2 of 9... losing the will to live...

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[1DMF]

I give up, this Lenovo junk is going in the bin if I can't get a clean install to work.

I can only assume Lenovo ship these laptops with totally and utterly corrupted bloatware.

I'm going to partition wipe and clean install without the junk and see if that works, else it's going in the bin and we'll never buy Lenovo again, life's too short!

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[goombawaho]

You may have a problem with that one update hanging everything.

Have you run hard drive diagnostics and/or general diagnostics either on a built-in bootable diagnostic partition or downloadable from Lenovo?

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[cdogg]

I've had this problem several times over the last 6 months, so it's not just you and I doubt there's a hardware issue with the Lenovo. When it does happen to me, it's always after a fresh Win 7 SP1 install from DVD. It seems like the sheer number of Windows Updates is overwhelming older systems these days.

Try the following:

1. Open Windows Update settings and change it to "Never check for updates". Reboot.

2. Download the update described in KB3102810 (follow Method 2). Reboot if prompted to.

3. Install the "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for Windows 7 (KB3078071)" (64-bit install is here). Reboot.

4. Run "Check for Updates" again, install the first round and reboot.

5. (Optional) Set Windows Update back to your preferred settings that you changed them from in Step 1.


This worked for me the last time I ran into the issue. It may still take 20-30 min the first time you run "Check for Updates", but it shouldn't take much longer than that.



-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[1DMF]

Hey cdogg

Thanks for the input, I have managed to resolve this via :

http://superuser.com/questions/951960/windows-7-sp1-windows-update-stuck-checking-for-updates

And this particular post

This issue has come and gone over the years with different fixes along the way, so here is my updated guide to this issue as of this date.

This is what I do when I reinstall W7with SP1 or have issues with Windows update stuck on checking for updates.

If Service Pack 1 is not installed, install it before following this guide.

Download KB-3102810 and save it where you can find it later

Download SUR Tool save it to same place

Restart the PC and disconnect from internet before Windows loads, this is important because at every boot windows will check for updates in the background and this will start the checking for updates hang all over again and will prevent the install of the downloaded packages until it finishes checking, so disconnecting from the internet before Windows loads prevents this.

Once booted install KB-3102810, if reboot is required do so and stay disconnected from internet.

Now install the SUR Tool package, this is a big package and will install many updates along with cleaning up and repairing the Windows update store. It will also cut down on how many more Windows updates will need to be installed later.

After install of SUR package reboot, connect to insternet and do a manual Windows Update, it should work much faster now. Even after these fixes I have seen some W7 PC's take up to an hour to finish checking for updates if launched from Control Panel manually.

If you have other Windows updates issues and the 2 updates above are installed, download this Microsoft Windows Update fixit tool (right click "save link as") run it and select aggressive mode to completely reset Windows updates. Reboot and try Windows Updates from the Control Panel again.
shareimprove this answer

edited 2 days ago

answered Jan 5 at 18:31
Moab

I left the SUR Tool package running overnight and it had finished this morning, so I started 'Windows Update' after a reboot and now it has correctly found 211 updates and is currently 67% downloading them!

At least it means I don't have to worry about removing the bloat that came with this machine, which was causing other problems anyway, as it had its own battery app and power management, that sucked!

Has anyone successfully sued these manufacturers for per-installing junk on people's computer?, or is there a known petition to stop them - it's criminal the junk they pre-load on these machines!

At least I can now crack on with getting office installed and the user can take the laptop home this weekend






"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[2ffat]

I've seen this where the user data files are becoming corrupt. I ended up recreating the user and everything started working.


James P. Cottingham
I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!

 

[1DMF]

Now it won't let me logon refusing to accept my password!

Why does anything to do with MS suck so much?

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[cdogg]

@1DMF
Yeah, I found that same thread myself. I cut out the SUR tool, as I'm not sure that step was needed, but glad it worked for you!

Not sure why your password isn't working now, but select "Other user" at the logon screen and in the username box that shows, type your password there to make sure every character is coming out as expected. Something with the keyboard might not be right, and this would be a good test to verify.

 

[1DMF]

@cdogg I wish I knew what was wrong with this laptop, press the letter 'e' and a 'p' comes out or a-n-other random character, bizarre to say the least, I've nearly thrown this laptop out the window and I'm on the top floor!

I think the keyboard circuits are screwed... but if you google password stopped working, it's a known phenomenon?

In the end I did a fourth format of the hard drive and re-install as I couldn't log on no matter what I tried, safe mode, switch user and retype including local machine name (domain) nothing!

I then started windows update and after 2+ hours it found 212 updates and is currently 15% of 1GB of updates (MS needs to release another service pack!)

I'm hoping this will be installed by Monday when I'm back in the office!

Dunno what's wrong with MS lately but I am having nothing but problems with several machines either getting Windows 10 installed or updates on Win 7 machines / servers.

Considering MS have officially stated that we are now "using Windows 7 at our own peril", I assume they either know of issues and aren't going to fix them, or they are deliberately breaking stuff to try to force us to upgrade.

MS weren't exactly ever an ethical company to start with, but if true they seem to becoming more evil as time goes by, even if I am a cynic!


"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[goombawaho]

If you make more than $20 per hour, it would have been best to throw out the laptop by now!!!!

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[1DMF]

If you make more than $20 per hour, it would have been best to throw out the laptop by now!!!!

I know, I was sitting here thinking the same thing...if I spend much more time on this, it would be cheaper to buy a new laptop.

The laptop is now behaving decidedly like normal, updates being found and installed, hasn't refused to let me logon once and the letters seem to correspond to the keys I'm pressing....quick where's some wood...!

This laptop was behaving very badly last week, it's like someone swapped it out for another one while I was away at the weekend!

Something is afoot, and in true tin foil hat fashion, I'm blaming Microsoft!

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[jlasman]

It is called "The Twilight Zone."

Jim Asman

http://www.spectracolorservices.com

 

[strongm]

>Considering MS have officially stated that we are now "using Windows 7 at our own peril"

Are you reading that into the somewhat idiotic statement from Chris Capossela? I don't think you'll find Microsoft agreeing that this is their official position. It was a clumsy way of talking about an unannounced change Microsoft were about to take in relation to their support model (formally announced on Friday, e.g

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/01/15/windows-10-embracing-silicon-innovation)

 

[1DMF]

@mike, of course But it's not just that statement, it's been the whole Windows 8, pushy windows 10, and from what I have read, there is even talk that MS have been working with the NSA to implement snooping directly into the operating system.

One assume to get round those running TOR and VPN proxies. Being the Cynic that I am, I don't doubt it for a second, considering the truth behind Citizen Four!

Even Vista has technically been dropped before its really officially EOL, simply by the fact MS has dropped support for any browser other than IE11 and you can't get that on Vista, so MS are basically saying if you run Vista , don't use MS browsers because they suck and leave you vulnerable.

So you know what they say about never a truer word spoken in jest - no doubt there is some truth behind what Chris Capossela has said.

Incidentally, this laptop is now 100% patched and up-to-date including Office 2010 and SP2, so something was definitely up, though the keyboard has been playing up again, where occasionally the letter 'p' comes out when you press 'e', so I still believe there is a hardware issue with this laptop (dodgy keyboard), no doubt why the previous senior manager has palmed it off for a new one!







"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[strongm]

Nope, as ever the press are misreporting. You should actually read Microsoft's support policy, which reads:

Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates, as shown in the table below:

Which means (and is clearly shown in the table mentioned, which I'm not reposting here) that Vista SP2 is happily supported with IE9 until the OS as a whole goes out of Extended Support in April 2017.

 

[1DMF]

So IE9 only gets updates if on Vista, that seems absurd, I assume IE9 is IE9 regardless if running on Vista or Windows 7?

As usual you are no doubt a beacon of reality in the current hubbub on the net about all this, hey ho, it doesn't really affect me, apart from one freelance employee who uses Vista when working from home, which I've refused to support as Win 7 is the minimum environment we use here currently.

It is a luxury being able to dictate minimum specs, and a little hypocritical to moan at MS for doing the same thing, other than the fact they are MS; a software house who writes this stuff; so I expect higher levels of support than I would give as a one man IT department!

I wouldn't recommend anyone ran Vista, so why do I care if MS supports it!

Thanks Mike, appreciated as always.

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music