Windows 8.1 updates failing to install error 800F0920

Anonymous
2014-07-02T18:01:45+00:00

My Win 8.1 Pro system was working fine until a few weeks ago when suddenly Windows Updates became broken.  The typical scenario is to choose one or more updates to install, it gets partway through, then reboots, then gets further along (to about 75%), then announces it can't finish the installation and has to roll back the install.  In the end, the update isn't installed.  The whole process takes hours and hours.  The first few times this happened it was in the middle of the work day and I lost use of the computer throughout the whole afternoon.

I researched the many, many similar problems that other people have experience and tried all the suggested solutions involving DSIM, SFC, deleting/renaming the update folder and files, booting "clean", and so on.  I even wrote a simple batch file to do most of this (copy at the end of this post) because I was doing it so often.  I was gradually able to get most of the updates for Windows and Office installed, except for three updates.  For those three, I cannot install them no matter what.  They are (required updates) , KB2955164, KB2966804, and Optional Update KB2962409.  I'll post the full error messages below.

The other new problem I've noticed with this system is that I can no longer change the network properties.  I was doing some tweaking on the network and I wanted to set the PC's IP address to a specific address (instead of using DHCP) and I couldn't change it. That may or may not be related -- I haven't researched it much at this point.

So, does anyone have any suggestions? It's hard to keep trying different ideas that don't work because it's so time consuming.  Since this system is at my office and I don't want to interrupt work again, I can only try doing updates at the end of the work day, and I find out the next morning whether or not it work.

Here are the error messages. You will see that the error codes are  all 800F0920.  Originally, my error codes were all either 80080005 or 80242014 and involved about a dozen updates.  So this is progress of a sorts.

**********************************

**********************************

Update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB2955164)

Installation date: ‎6/‎27/‎2014 6:53 PM

Installation status: Failed

Error details: Code 800F0920

Update type: Important

Install this update to resolve issues in Windows. For a complete listing of

the issues that are included in this update, see the associated Microsoft

Knowledge Base article for more information. After you install this item, you

may have to restart your computer.

More information:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2955164

Help and Support:

http://support.microsoft.com

*************************************************

Update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB2966804)

Installation date: ‎6/‎27/‎2014 6:53 PM

Installation status: Failed

Error details: Code 800F0920

Update type: Recommended

Install this update to resolve issues in Windows. For a complete listing of

the issues that are included in this update, see the associated Microsoft

Knowledge Base article for more information. After you install this item, you

may have to restart your computer.

More information:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2966804

Help and Support:

http://support.microsoft.com

************************************************

Update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB2962409)

Installation date: ‎6/‎27/‎2014 6:53 PM

Installation status: Failed

Error details: Code 800F0920

Update type: Optional

Install this update to resolve issues in Windows. For a complete listing of

the issues that are included in this update, see the associated Microsoft

Knowledge Base article for more information. After you install this item, you

may have to restart your computer.

More information:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2962409

Help and Support:

http://support.microsoft.com

**********************************

**********************************

And here is the batch file I use to reset pretty much everything related to the Windows Update process.  It does not include SFC, which I usually do separately.

**********************************

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

pause

net stop bits

net stop wuauserv

net stop appidsvc

net stop cryptsvc

Del "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr*.dat"

Ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution8.bak

Ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 catroot2-4.bak

pause

sc.exe sdset bits D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)

sc.exe sdset wuauserv D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)

pause

cd /d %windir%\system32

regsvr32.exe atl.dll

regsvr32.exe urlmon.dll

regsvr32.exe mshtml.dll

regsvr32.exe shdocvw.dll

regsvr32.exe browseui.dll

regsvr32.exe jscript.dll

regsvr32.exe vbscript.dll

regsvr32.exe scrrun.dll

regsvr32.exe msxml.dll

regsvr32.exe msxml3.dll

regsvr32.exe msxml6.dll

regsvr32.exe actxprxy.dll

regsvr32.exe softpub.dll

regsvr32.exe wintrust.dll

regsvr32.exe dssenh.dll

regsvr32.exe rsaenh.dll

regsvr32.exe gpkcsp.dll

regsvr32.exe sccbase.dll

regsvr32.exe slbcsp.dll

regsvr32.exe cryptdlg.dll

regsvr32.exe oleaut32.dll

regsvr32.exe ole32.dll

regsvr32.exe shell32.dll

regsvr32.exe initpki.dll

regsvr32.exe wuapi.dll

regsvr32.exe wuaueng.dll

regsvr32.exe wuaueng1.dll

regsvr32.exe wucltui.dll

regsvr32.exe wups.dll

regsvr32.exe wups2.dll

regsvr32.exe wuweb.dll

regsvr32.exe qmgr.dll

regsvr32.exe qmgrprxy.dll

regsvr32.exe wucltux.dll

regsvr32.exe muweb.dll

regsvr32.exe wuwebv.dll

netsh winsock reset

pause

dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

**********************************

Thanks,

Ben

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-07-14T05:33:41+00:00

    Hello Ben,

    As I can see that you have been working on a server based Operating System as well.

    Is your computer connected to domain network?

    If your computer is on a domain network, I would suggest you to follow the link mentioned below to post your query in TechNet forums because, they have more expertise on this issue.

    TechNet Forums for Windows 8

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/home?forum=w8itpronetworking

    Hope this helps. Otherwise, feel free to write us back and we will be glad to help you further.

    Thank you

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-07-14T06:14:44+00:00

    Hello Ben,

    As I can see that you have been working on a server based Operating System.

    Is your computer connected to domain network?

    If your computer is on a domain network, I would suggest you to follow the link mentioned below to post your query in TechNet forums because, they have more expertise on this issue.

    TechNet Forums for Windows 8

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/home?forum=w8itpronetworking

    Hope this helps. Otherwise, feel free to write us back and we will be glad to help you further.

    Thank you

    I don't understand how you concluded that I am using a server-based on operating system? I'm using Windows 8.1 Pro on the problem machine.  Of course, I've got numerous other systems, including some servers, but none of those systems are suffering this problem.

    As a Win8.1 system, it could be a member of a domain network, but it's not.  I could go to the TechNet forums if you really feel they are better suited for this issue, but if it's just a matter of being a domain network, then the answer is that I'm not on one.

    I actually looked at the TechNet forums in my original research on this problem but it seemed they were mostly referring people back to this forum for help.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-07-14T12:51:31+00:00

    Hello Ben,

    Thank you for the information.

    You may try to follow the link mentioned below to fix the issue with Windows Update.

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

    (Also applies to Windows 8.1)

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2509997/en-us

    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.

    Hope this helps. Otherwise, feel free to write us back and we will be glad to help you further.

    Thank you

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-07-14T21:49:20+00:00

    The link you provided is interesting, but not very helpful.  It's written for Win 7 and earlier operating systems, so some of the steps aren't applicable to Win 8.1.

    Most of the recommended steps in that link are the same steps I was already doing (see my post above).  Of the steps that aren't the same as my earlier steps, they don't help.

    Method 5 provides instructions for modifying the registry.  However, the keys and values it says too look for don't seem to exist under Win  8.1. 

    Method 2 says to run checksur.exe, but I can't find a version of this meant for Win 8.1.

    Method 12 suggests running chkdsk, but my system drive is an SSD, so chkdsk doesn't actually do anything.

    All the other steps are the same ones I tried previously.

    Do you have anything that could help me that is applicable to Windows 8.1 Pro?

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-07-15T05:49:49+00:00

    Hello Ben,

    Have you tried the Method 11 from the link mentioned above?

    If not then try to follow the suggestions mentioned below to fix the updates issue.

    Method 11: Rename Pending.xml

    Rename the Pending.xml file. To do this, follow these steps:

    1)  Open an administrative Command Prompt window.

    1. At the command prompt, type the following command:

         takeown /f C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml

    1. Rename the c:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml path by using the following command:

    Ren c:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml pending.old

    Hope this works. Please write us back with the status of the issue., to help you further.

    Thank you

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