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

2015-09-16T03:01:41+00:00

see if you can enable admin account in CMD and the reboot in to admin account

This is the instruction for windows 7 & 8

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/enable-the-hidden-administrator-account-on-windows-vista/

In admin create a new account for yourself and then you can import the files there and see if you can update from the admin account. It sounds like you user profile may be damaged. If you can't enable admin account from your account, you might have bigger troubles.
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Anonymous

2015-08-14T01:05:29+00:00

I'm in exactly the same boat! My system spontaneously blocked me out of Windows Update because it thought I wasn't the administrator (even though I was). I managed to get rid of that error by going into the system registry and deleting an entry in the WindowsUpdate key, but then I got an immediate error after trying to update (can't remember the code). So I completely reinstalled the Update components and restarted and now I'm here--it checks for updates, but never stops and goes forever.
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Anonymous

2015-08-13T08:53:45+00:00
I'm just going to answer myself as the problem has gone away now. I'm not sure what really solved it but I suspect one of the following:
- Running the Windows Update Reset fixit at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971058 ( I ran it several times, maybe 5 times in total and every time there was something wrong that it said was fixed)
- Did sections 1 to 5 from the original post at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-update-error-0x80070005-need-a-fix-click/e4cb8700-f215-4f1a-8bd4-6457ac619c19?auth=1
- Installed Windows Resource Kit tools for SubInAcl
- Installed the latest Windows Update package manually (this is the thing I think solved it) at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/949104. I may have ran the above windows update reset once more after installing this.
The search for updates still took over 5 minutes! After installing the updates I rebooted as required and Windows did not start at all. It just froze at the start of the loading screen and window animation. Safe mode and/or startup fix or last known good did not work either. Then after 10th reboot attempt it started normally. No idea what that was but some people had the same problem in this forum.
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