Windows Update Never Stops Looking for Updates.

Anonymous

The other morning after I brought my computer out of hibernation, I noticed that it had not automatically Checked for Updates like it usually does. So I clicked Check for Updates on the Windows Update panel and it never stopped looking for updates. It just kept looking. So I just ignored it and did a disk defrag and a clean disk as usual. Late that night after I finished my usual computer stuff, it was still looking for updates. So I restarted the computer and found that that had stopped it Checking for Updates.

The next morning, it was the same situation all over aagain: No automatic Check for Updates when I brought it out of hibernation and then endless searching after I clicked on Check for Updates. How can I stop this endless searching without restarting the computer and go back to having my computer behave the way it used to do?

Greg

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Anonymous

Hi Greg,

Do you get any error message?

This problem may occur if one or more of the following conditions are true:

a. The Windows Update database is corrupted.

b. A required system file is registered incorrectly.

c. The Component Based Servicing (CBS) manifest is corrupted.

Here are few troubleshooting methods you may try in order to fix the issue.

Method 1: Reset Windows update components from the following link and check.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

Important: Back up the registry

Method 2: Restart the Windows Update services.

a. Click in Start and in Start search box type CMD.

b. In the list Right click on CMD and click Run as Administrator.

Type the following commands, and press Enter after each command:

o net stop cryptsvc

o md %systemroot%\system32\catroot2.old

o xcopy %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 %systemroot%\system32\catroot2.old /s

o Net stop wuauserv

o cd %systemroot%

o Ren SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old

o Net start wuauserv

Try to install the updates and check.

Method 3: Unable to install updates in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2

**http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2509997**

Important: While performing chkdsk on the hard drive if any bad sectors are found on the hard drive when chkdsk tries to repair that sector if any data available on that might be lost.

For more information, refer to the articles.

**Troubleshoot problems with installing updates******

**"Windows Update Cannot Check For Updates" error message when you try to install updates**

Do let us know about the results. We will be happy to assist you further.

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50 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-09-10T09:32:17+00:00

Dear Sir,

Am using Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit version and the same is not getting updated automatically. It always shows as "Checking for updates" and this keeps on going without any end or further progress. Am facing this issue since Jun 11, 16 and couldn't able to get any new updates from Microsoft since then. Kindly let me know the solution for this issue as I had already tried for Windows fixit, no improvement.

How to resolve this issue and to get automatic updates as earlier?
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Anonymous

2016-10-18T21:16:21+00:00
After days trying to figure out the problem I finally was able to resolve it as follows:
1. Go to microsoft update catalog:
http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/DownloadInformation.aspx

search for updates KB3171605 and KB3020369

download them after you add them to the basket
1. Stop the svhost.exe in task manager (should be almost pegged at CPU 98%)
2. Find the downloads of step 1 and run them with svhost.exe off
3. Restart after the updates install.
4. Use Windows Update from control panel.
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Anonymous

2016-11-28T02:14:49+00:00

Method 2 worked for me as well. I've been trying everything on the internet to get this working.

The only thing this is missing is this tip :

To check what Windows Update is doing, you can look at it's log file to see what progress or errors have occurred.

Open and inspect the bottom of the file : C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log

I'm pretty sure mine is working now, because even tho my "Checking for updates" is still just sitting there checking, with no progress indication, when I look inside the WindowsUpdate.log, the last 50 lines or so are windows KB update files downloading. The log didn't have these before I performed Method2.

2016-11-27 20:49:47:346 892 1514 DtaStor WARNING: Attempted to add URL http://download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/others/2016/11/23266050\_ec03c0ea2a419bb7fc28d178727cd6b83d6fd4e9.cab for file 7APA6ipBm7f8KNF4cnzWuD1v1Ok= when file has not been previously added to the datastore

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll have a ton of updates ready and waiting.

Thank you Sharief!
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Anonymous

2016-12-13T11:38:23+00:00
I found that for a fresh deployment of Windows 7 with SP1 that the downloading and installing the following updates fixed the issue.
1. KB3020369 April 2015 Servicing Stack update
2. KB3138612 Windows Update Client for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: March 2016 (superseded by KB3172605, may not be required)
3. KB3145739 Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems
4. KB3125574 Windows 7 April 2016 Convenience update
5. KB3172605 Windows 7 July 2016 Rollup
For an existing Windows 7 with SP1 with Windows Update issues, resetting Windows Update, then installing the above updates might fix the issue.
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