BleepingComputer.com: windows update not working

Hi, have a friends toshiba satellite l300, vista home premium. told me it wasnt installing windows updates.
I checked the history, Most updates have failed for the last few months, It already has service pack 2 installed.
Here is what happens, I search for updates in control panel, security, windows updates. It downloads them, 40 at the moment, and installs them,
says install successfully, then reboots, goes through step 1 and 2 of configuring updates, then on step 3 of 3, it stays at 0%,
then after a bit, says updates not installed,reverting changes.
I then tried installing one at a time, i did one, it worked, didnt have to reboot for it. THen tried another, it required a reboot, and same thing
, hung up on step 3 of 3.
I tried a few things i found on microsoft site, they have a fix it tool , to reset windows update. still no good.

Does anyone know , what is going on? Oh yeah, i also scanned it and its clean.

thanks.

I would try reinstalling SP2, based on the idea that doing so might replace any key system files which might be damaged and thus gum up efforts to install updates.

Louis

This issue typically occurs when some files cannot be updated successfully. Given the current situation, I suggest we rename the Windows Update temporary folder and then re-try Windows Update. We can refer to the following steps.



Step 1: Rename Windows Update Temporary Folder

======================================

1. Close all the open windows.

2. Click the "Start" Button, click "All programs", and click "Accessories".

3. Right-click "Command Prompt", and click "Run as administrator".

4. In "Administrator: Command Prompt" window, type in "net stop WuAuServ" (without the quotes) and press Enter.



Note: Please look at the cmd window and make sure it says that it was successfully stopped before we try to rename the folder. However, if it failed, please let me know before performing any further steps and include any error messages you may have received when it failed.



5. Click the "Start" Button, in the "Start Search" box, type in "%windir%" (without the quotes) and press Enter.

6. In the opened folder, look for the folder named "SoftwareDistribution".

7. Right-click on the folder, select "Rename" and type "SDold" (without the quotes) to rename this folder.

8. Still in "Administrator: Command Prompt" window, type the command "net start WuAuServ" (without the quotes) in the opened window to restart the Windows Updates service.



After the above steps, let's check and install updates using the following methods.



Step 2: How to update in Windows

==========================

1. Click the "Start" Button, click "All Programs", and click "Windows Update".

2. From the left panel, click "Check for update".

3. If any update is provided, please click the "Install updates" button to install it.



Note: If it shows no updates available, it means the system is updated now. If the issue persists, please collect the following information in order to provide more effective troubleshooting steps.



How to capture a screenshot if an error message is received

=============================================

1. Press the Print Screen key (PrtScn) on the keyboard.

2. Click "Start", type "mspaint" in the Search Bar and Press Enter.

3. In the Paint program, click the "Edit" menu, click "Paste". Then click the "File" menu, and click "Save".

4. The "Save As" dialogue box will appear. Type a file name in the "File name:" box, for example: "screenshot".

5. Make sure "JPEG (*.JPG;*.JPEG;*.JPE;*.JFIF)" is selected in the "Save as type" box, click "Desktop" on the left pane and then click "Save".



Please send this saved JPEG file to me at (REMIOVED Email address).


How to collect the WindowsUpdate.log file

================================

1. Click "Start", type "WindowsUpdate.log" (without the quotes) in the Search Bar and Press Enter. We will see a file named "WindowsUpdate.log".

2. Click on the "File" menu and then click "Save As".

3. From the left panel, click "Desktop" and click "Save".


EDIT:REMIOVED Email address as it has no value to OP or board .

This post has been edited by boopme: 10 January 2011 - 10:58 AM

I posted a reply here which was from my own personal information but my answer was removed as I am apparently being accused of plagiarism.

I deny your accusation.

You are a coward and a bully but it makes no difference to me if you are that full of hate that you want to deprive someone of helpful information.

I would re-post the information however the bully would just remove it again and I have better things to do with my valuable time.

I cannot find any reply of yours deleted, and I have gone back to Sept of last year. You were not accused of plagiarism. You were only asked to attribute the content of posts, if you use it here, to the site you got the information from in accordance with copyright law. This is what we expect of all our members and is covered in the terms of use and at least 2 posts on the forum, Here and Here.

It amounts to what is known as fair use under US copyright law which is what this site is held to.

Animal, on 10 January 2011 - 08:50 PM, said:

I'm familiar with the Fair Use Doctrine.

I can only tell you that when I went to look at my post it had some sort of note about having removed it, it looked different and appeared to be visible only to me. Or else i'm daft, which is always a possibility especially lately with too many projects not enough time.

I was in a hurry when I left the post, I was trying to help.

The email was sent to me without any stipulation about not divulging it to anyone else.

That said I usually post some kind of information about where it came from however as i said I was in the middle of doing a very important project and so I did not take time to cross all the T's and Dot the I's as I normally would have.

I have posted the same information on this site before.

kcsummer, on 10 January 2011 - 09:13 PM, said:

The PM, not email, was sent with my knowledge of content because the staff member asked me to review it, since I do hold the one of the Site Administrator titles. This is how I know what was told to you and how I was able to respond with knowledge.

You may have posted this information before, and we did not address the issue then. We are a very lean staff and there are far more posts made per day than would be humanly possible to review individually. Again we are not accusing you of anything merely advising you that we do our very best to adhere to fair use, and ask our members to adhere to the same. You state you're aware and thats all we asked.

If you'll agree I'll consider this a closed issue between us. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

Animal, on 10 January 2011 - 11:03 PM, said:

And my apology for my share of the matter. Life is too fractured as it is to make something out of it. And as I suspected, I do believe I'm daft sometimes but its usually short-lived at least for now!