Hi
I've spent a lot of time trying to sort the same problem so I thought I'd post how I fixed it - because in the end it was incredibly simple (for my issue).
I had the same message but also when I clicked on windows update in control panel it took a couple of minutes for the agent to open before telling me the update service was not running.
From searching forums and Microsoft support I have:
In Services restarted Windows Update and checked set to automatic-delayed
In service restarted Background Intelligent Transfer service and checked set to automatic-delayed
This did not work
Set windows update settings to 'never check-not recommended' applied and then reset settings back to install updates automatically
This did not work
From various Microsoft support pages run the Fix programs, they could not find an error so did not fix anything
Downloaded windows update agent and tried to install, it would not as windows update already installed
Some fixes mention a relationship with Windows Defender, that after successfully updating Defender, windows update started working again.
Uninstalled my third party antivirus and performance tool kits and then turned on Windows Defender, it would not update and gave an error code 0x800106ba which I then looked up and found this page
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918355 After trying methods 1&2 I decided to have a go at the Advanced method 3. This suggested (for the first time on all of my searches) to have a look at
the Windows Update log file by clicking on the start orb and typing:
%windir%\windowsupdate.log in the search bar and running the program. There is also a useful link on this page to help understand the log. Straight away I could see errors relating to 'datastore' database - whatever that is! Went to windows/softwaredistribution/datastore
where the database is kept and renamed it as it wont let you delete.
I then tried windows update again through the control panel and the agent started straight away and was able to download updates.....all 500mb of them!!!
Hope this may help someone!