Need an industrial-strength fix for Windows (7-64-SP1) Update

[BonzaiDuck]

My laptop is a 2007 model upgraded to 8GB RAM, SSD storage and a Wireless N Intel card. Within the house, it exceeds by 150% of our Charter Spectrum cable-internet WAN speed.

I began having troubles with Windows Update a month ago, fixed them, and 3 weeks later, WU activated to search for new updates would peg an SVCHOST process at 50%, and never stop looking. The only way to make it stop required turning off WU entirely and rebooting.

I backed up the SSD to USB HDD as an Acronis clone. I then installed a spare Win 7-64 Pro with its own product key and the SP1 ISO-download, installing from DVD. No problem yet.

After about 15 updates online, WU then did the same thing that the original OS did.

I've tried Fix Its, the 50202 Fix it troubleshoot, reinstallation of WU client with, purging the WU cache.

Any suggestions? In meantime, I'm going to order a replacement SSD so I can keep the newest Win 7 OS for that machine, and clone the USB backup back to the new SSD. From there, I'll attempt to install Win 10 from its own ISO download.

I even had trouble with WU on a desktop, but it was plugged in via RJ-45 gigabit Ethernet to my LAN -- a difference from the wireless laptop connection, and it wasn't hard to fix. All the desktops are running tip-top.

 

[nerp]

It's Windows Update. Not much you can do other than turn on automatic updates and stop checking manually. You'll have to live with it or upgrade to Windows 10.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

It's Windows Update. Not much you can do other than turn on automatic updates and stop checking manually. You'll have to live with it or upgrade to Windows 10.

I suppose that any worry about a sieve of possibilities containing any chance that a malfunctioning Win7 Win Update would cause a problem installing Win 10 from the downloaded ISO-to-DVD file are unlikely to none.

So that's on my agenda for sometime in next couple weeks. I'd just like to have a fully functional Win 7 as a dual-boot option with Win 10 even on this old 2007 Gateway laptop.

Everything else is fine. There is one minor driver glitch I'm still trying to get rid of: laptop has two controllers because it's made to fit in a docking station to a "multi-drive" device. The DVD ATAPI driver runs to that controller. The other one is internal SATA using MSAHCI driver. So the Intel drivers installs as an "IDE ATA" controller, and MSAHCI installs to the other. What this does -- it throws up a "storage controller" node in the Device tree with a yellow-bang saying "driver not installed." I'd just as soon get both of these controllers using the MSAHCI generic driver.

 

[postmortemIA]

I suppose that any worry about a sieve of possibilities containing any chance that a malfunctioning Win7 Win Update would cause a problem installing Win 10 from the downloaded ISO-to-DVD file are unlikely to none.

That has happened to me - with WU hanging, upgrade process would hang too - since it needs to update itself, using WU tools. I had to do clean install.

 

[MustISO]

The last couple of months have been rough for Windows update. I've only had one system that had an issue and I was able to resolve it by cleaning up the software distribution downloads folder. Once I cleared out the files everything worked well.

On clear installs I've been adding the WU client updates that have been released over the last few months and it's worked very well.

 

[RLGL]

there should be a troubleshooter in in control panel for windows update, might help, might not

 

[Towermax]

Woody Leonhard has a fix posted on InfoWorld:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/30...tly-speed-up-windows-7-scans-for-updates.html

There's considerable reader discussion of this fix on his blog:

http://www.askwoody.com/2016/win7-updates-take-hours-or-days-try-this-combination-to-fix-it/

 

[Executioner]

I get all my updates using Autopatcher. It installs only the critical updates, and gives you options for the others. I have turned off updates completely for windows 7, as I don't like what MS has done with their updates (i.e. inadequate descriptions).

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The last couple of months have been rough for Windows update. I've only had one system that had an issue and I was able to resolve it by cleaning up the software distribution downloads folder. Once I cleared out the files everything worked well.

On clear installs I've been adding the WU client updates that have been released over the last few months and it's worked very well.

That should be a clue to me, then. Your six lines may be the enlightenment I seek . . . .

On the other hand, I've had my first experience with WSUS Offline shareware download. The Windows dialogs are good enough. You watch its progress in a command window for the "generator" or download program. Then you run the "UpdateInstaller" program. The programmer is German; his web-site has decent English at the bottom of the web-pages. It's a pretty good translation.

So? Instead of allowing Win 7 to schedule and manage the downloads automatically, you raise two programs in sequence and done. The only drawback is inability to see the updates in the Windows Update dialogs. But the Windows caches of those files appear like all other download updates.

I should probably follow a plan based on your revelation, but since I get -- and choose -- updates successfully with the shareware, I can proceed through this without panic.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Listen -- anyone interested. I have a theory about all these troubles, but I'm going to post a second thread. Let me name it:

"Windows Update failures in the last six months: A Theory"

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Woody Leonhard has a fix posted on InfoWorld:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/30...tly-speed-up-windows-7-scans-for-updates.html

There's considerable reader discussion of this fix on his blog:

http://www.askwoody.com/2016/win7-updates-take-hours-or-days-try-this-combination-to-fix-it/

This looks like the option to study with some hope and try with little risk, although the only real risk I encountered when dealing with these problems before was a boot failure which can still be fixed with a repair. But those moments can be a bit tense -- I think we're agreed -- so something to avoid.

Purging the download distributions works for some situations, and it cured one of my systems. But after fixing WU on my laptop last month, it didn't help when I had to do it again. 1/

I'll report back how "Woody's" two-KB fix works to resolve the issue. I've yet to read the comments, but you wouldn't have linked them if they didn't offer even more hope. Hope for these things has more immediate value than buying a lottery ticket for three days of wishful thinking.

ADDED THOUGHT: Wow! You can do a lot with an old Core-2 executive laptop. Quite a lot! You just have to hunt down as many possible of drivers that worked with the last version of Windows -- hopefully no earlier than that. Generally, something like Windows 10 would have any missing pieces built in. Once you have those drivers, you install your OS and open the Device Manager right away. In my case, I had to disable the uninstallable "storage controller" because it was a simple matter of laptop designed for a docking station with additional storage.

In some manifestations so far, Win 10 seems faster than 7 for certain operational stages or processes. But it's only taking up 15GB of space on the boot volume, and I'd expect it to grow by adding program installations. Also, I note that it reports my Intel Wireless-N card working at 144 Mbps, when 7 never showed it more than 117. Go figure.

FINAL UPDATE: It hasn't even finished checking for updates yet, and I can see this is going to solve the problem -- the two KB___612 and KB_____739. With the Windows Update service started and the dialog open, the SVCHOST process among ~8 of them is not grabbing 50% of CPU clock-cycles. The SVCHOST processes are hardly being tapped at all, but CPU usage swings between 20 and 80% -- mostly in the 40's%. I'm sure this will work . . .

FINAL FINAL:: Nope, or I'll just have to heat up the laptop and wait. I'm wondering if the 50202 fixit tool follows the release date on the KB__612 WU client release.
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1/ Look also at a site called "Winhelp" cross-reffed with a Windows Update topic. Fairly recent, but could be latter 2015. There is a "Fix It' update that doesn't go through the malfunctioning WU program, called "50202". There's also the WU Client Update, and at least another troubleshooter.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, Pee-ill-grims!

The KB_612 and KB_739 updates made it possible for WU to identify and begin downloading 227 updates. However, I'd already used WSUS-Offline to snag most if not all of that. And I assume that it's impossible for Windows to bloat itself with doubles of all the updates.

We'll see what happens with the actual installation, myriad reboots and retrys on the "Failed" ones. But usually -- and I've never had WU fail to do it -- retrying the failed ones makes them succeed the first time.

Now . . . all of this because of WU failures, and it forced me to make a dual-boot Win7/Win10 system on the laptop. Which is wonderful, and I can now see how to proceed with other household systems before the freebie is no longer offered.

WheW!

 

[Ketchup]

I honestly just let it sit for the couple hours it takes to get the first hundred or so after the sp1 update. After that, the updates come at a normal rate. Much easier than dealing with failed updates and additionql reboots I have run into when trying other methods.

 

[postmortemIA]

I honestly just let it sit for the couple hours it takes to get the first hundred or so after the sp1 update. After that, the updates come at a normal rate. Much easier than dealing with failed updates and additionql reboots I have run into when trying other methods.

I wish that is true, but it is not at least for me... every Patch Tuesday it is the same story again... like Groundhog Day

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I wish that is true, but it is not at least for me... every Patch Tuesday it is the same story again... like Groundhog Day

Well, answering both you and Ketchup, I had to fix WU in March, then a month later troubles emerged again. There's your problems with patience -- we all have our limits -- or changing the power settings for a laptop to temporarily avoid sleep-state.

Whatever it was, the two KB fixes *****612 and *****739 took care of it.

It all depends on the processor limitations. A similar difficulty on a 4700K 4-core system would run a single processor thread up to 100%, but CPU usage would show pegged at 14%. On my old laptop, it would peg at 53%. Still, I got my Win 7 to download 227 updates today, and it didn't even fail one of them.

I'd still say keep WSUS-Offline generator and installer handy. Who knows what it will do next month?

 

[postmortemIA]

Yep these two updates fixed the issue for me this week too. However it just might be that you need to install one or more that weeks updates manually in order for WU to get rest of them.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Yep these two updates fixed the issue for me this week too. However it just might be that you need to install one or more that weeks updates manually in order for WU to get rest of them.

Usually if WU says "227 updates available . . . " -- they download and I initiate the install sequence, I'd have been more likely to go through three or four iterations. Usually, there would be some update that couldn't install, didn't install, or needed to be installed separately. Win 7 usually handled this decently, but it required the user's patience. It couldn't occur at a time when you had a blue-screen, freeze or a hard-reset.

But this -- this just flew right through them, if you weren't annoyed by the time it took to download and install all of them.

Then, this morning, I raised up the Win 7 partition again, and there were 57 more updates. No problem there, either.

I can only say -- after all this, after seeing enough people in the troubled landscape of users with recent WU problems -- I'm keeping an eye on it.