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I just got a new desktop computer (Gateway FX6840-03e) It has Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (not sure what service pack, I'm new to windows 7 as of this computer so i'm not sure where to find that information). It came with a norton security that i didn't bother to activate, I uninstalled it and followed up with Norton Removal Tool. I then installed AVG Free 2011 edition
When I went to Windows Update I have the red x shield and clicking on the check for updates button gives me the error "Windows cannot check for updates because the service is not running. You may need to restart the computer." Windows update service is running in services.msc though.
The first thing I did that i had read about on the product reviews for the computer since it seemed to be a problem with a few other people that bought the computer was to disable the windows update service the go into C:\windows\SoftwareDistribution and delete everything in there and re-enable windows update service afterwords. According to the reviews this worked for most people. However the problem still persisted for me. Google searching has led me to these forums and i've gone through a few threads but haven't gotten a solution yet.
I've run the windows update troubleshooter with no luck
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-the-Windows-Update-troubleshooter
I ran the System File Checker tool
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833
It came back with one problem, but the log file created was blank
I ran the Fix It tool in both default and aggressive modes
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058
And in one post somebody mentioned that ATI Catylist Control Center was causing their problem so I uninstalled that with no luck (I have re-installed that)
There have been many restarts between all of that above and now i'm not sure what else to try.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Well doing some searches on the errors in the windowsupdate.log eventually led me to find that it the problem had something to do with my hard drive being large (1TB) and "Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST)" drivers needed to be updated. Once I got the driver updated my windows update started working fine. Thanks for the help that led me to the answer.
Try this. I had the same problem and it worked for me
Go to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services, and stop the Windows Update service. Then go to the folder c:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution and rename the folder to c:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution-old. Create a new file called c:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution (this basically makes a clean directory called SoftwareDistribution, you still have your original files in SoftwareDistrubution-old. Then go back to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services and restart the Windows Update service which will recreate all of those folders again. Then manually run the Update Service and everything shouldwork. This worked for me (win7 64 bit).
Well doing some searches on the errors in the windowsupdate.log eventually led me to find that it the problem had something to do with my hard drive being large (1TB) and "Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST)" drivers needed to be updated. Once I got the driver updated my windows update started working fine. Thanks for the help that led me to the answer.
This fixed it for me too, the file name I downloaded for the drivers was "iata_enu_10.8.0.1003"
I came accross the problem on windows 7 recently, information was useful; think i had the same on 6, but it was easier to wipe the drive, and start fresh.
to bring things afresh, the problem below was easy to follow, and worked, with one amendment;-
The first thing I did that i had read about on the product reviews for the computer since it seemed to be a problem with a few other people that bought the computer was to disable the windows update service the go into C:\windows\SoftwareDistribution and delete everything in there and re-enable windows update service afterwords. According to the reviews this worked for most people. However the problem still persisted for me. Google searching has led me to these forums and i've gone through a few threads but haven't gotten a solution yet.
when i first tried there was one file that did not remove, so i did the following that allowed me to find 30+ updates and download them.
firstly, clear what you can from folder C:\windows\SoftwareDistribution
secondly, close all other programs down
thirdly go to start point and run search for folder that will not delete (do not open),
fourthly, right click over the document when finds from run search and delete (the error number message i had also vanished from deleting the extra document.
sixth, restart laptop/PC
seventh, then run updates search and it should pick them all up
This worked for me and was really simple! Thanks.
