Win 7 Windows Update 80246002 Unable to run updates

My son was watching over my shoulder as I waded through this thread (I've had the same problem with that error), and he was interested that up till the very end (so far), there'd been only one posting a couple of pages back suggesting the problem involved a foulup in the IP change for WU, which was also his guess, probably tied up with the change to WU itself.  If that's correct, then as already mentioned we should be back to normal in a few days once most if not all DNS servers are updated.  The Google DNS, which apparently worked well for many, obviously must have been one of the very first to get the updated IP.

I for one will leave my settings alone for now -- everything else works fine, and we've got about a week and a half to go before next Patch Tuesday, which should be plenty of time for the DNS servers to get caught up.

I can't speak for other users, of course, but I strongly resent Jeeped putting the blame on, not even miscellaneous DNS servers, but specifically on those of ISPs.  It's clear from this thread that many users who encountered the problem don't even use their own ISP's servers but third-party ones ... and my own provider, Execulink (formerly Golden Triangle), could give lessons in customer relations and tech support to many others.  Back when the Wilders Security forums moved to new servers, the admins made a point of strongly urging members to add entries with the new IPs to their host files to ensure connectivity while the DNS servers got caught up with the move.

Wanna bet that between this mess and the "official" responses we've gotten, MS will have lost another big chunk of its market share?

Thanks it worked!

MS must have change IP of their update servers/service.....

When checking DNS traffics (when my DNS are pointing to my ISP´s dns servers).

It resolves update.microsoft.com to a Alias (CNAME) fe2.update.microsoft.com.akadns.net

which in turns resolves to 191.234.72.183

When using googles DNS

this resolves to 134.170.165.251

IF it really is a DNS issue this should resolve itself within 48 hours.

MarsRam:

You're the first one I've seen who mentioned receiving the message about updating the Update Agent.  I also run Norton Security Suite, which is supplied via my Comcast account.

Pretty much everything you've described - minus MS remotely accessing my PC and hosing it up - happened to both of my laptops and desktop.  Thankfully I found this forum and saw that others were experiencing the same error message, so I decided to hold off doing anything too drastic, for fear I would've ended up worse off than I was at the time!  I didn't do anything with the DNS that others had suggested in other posts.

What I can tell you is that all three of my machines are now able to check for updates with no error message.  I don't know what they did, but it is working now.

Good luck!

Somerset_692:

Incredible! I too have two other Windows 7 computers which I have not updated since I had the problem on my desktop. I ran windows update on my problem computer a while ago and it worked normally! So the problem is fixed, without having to do anything more. Great! I shall now run update on the other two.

To be fair, I did give permission to the Microsoft tech guy to access my computer. It required him to download and install a small application. So the fault is really mine. I should not have given permission in the first place. It cost me about 3 hours to correct what he did.

Cheers!

MarsRam

MarsRam:

You're the first one I've seen who mentioned receiving the message about updating the Update Agent.  I also run Norton Security Suite, which is supplied via my Comcast account.

Pretty much everything you've described - minus MS remotely accessing my PC and hosing it up - happened to both of my laptops and desktop.  Thankfully I found this forum and saw that others were experiencing the same error message, so I decided to hold off doing anything too drastic, for fear I would've ended up worse off than I was at the time!  I didn't do anything with the DNS that others had suggested in other posts.

What I can tell you is that all three of my machines are now able to check for updates with no error message.  I don't know what they did, but it is working now.

Good luck!

Sharath:

I had this problem yesterday (Aug28). My experience may contribute to understanding this problem.

Windows 7 64-bit; Norton Internet Security.

I have been manually updating my windows system on a daily basis (mornings) and have been doing  this for many years. I started with DOS 4 and have used every Microsoft OS since. Never had a problem with Microsoft Windows Update.  Yesterday, after my usual morning update of Internet Security software and successfully running a scan, I attempted to update Windows. I got a message informing me that there was an update to the Update Agent and I needed to "click" on install in order to update the Agent, after which it would continue with the search for Windows update. Once the Agent updated it continued and came up with the error message 80246002. I subsequently tried every solution, including Mr. FIXIT. I then called Microsoft Support and chatted with the answer desk. The person asked for permission to remotely access my computer, and I reluctantly agreed. Bad decision!

After about 90 minutes he was unable to resolve the issue and in the process, had messed up my system, including removing my Internet Security. He then, without asking me, went ahead and restored my system using system restore. This involved a restart, after which I lost my internet connection. It took me a while to re-configure my internet connection. I then restored my system using an earlier backup I had made, and re-installed Internet Security which was still missing.

It is clear after everything I have read on this site, that the problem is the faulty Microsoft Windows Update Agent 7.6.7600.320 which was installed as part of the Agent update. My system is now working normally. I am NOT going to use Windows Update until  such time as I am assured that the Agent has been fixed by Microsoft. Other people I know who have Windows 7 are having the identical problem. What we need is to hear from Microsoft that they have cured the problem.