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
    2014-07-15T21:59:55+00:00

    Hi,

    I tried to do as you suggested but there are no pending.xml or anything else starting with pend* in the winsxs directory. Should it be in one of the subdirectories?

    Thanks,

    Ben

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-07-16T05:49:26+00:00

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

    I think we are supposed to be using  DISM  commands (or their Powershell equivalents) now instead.  E.g. one of them seems to have the equivalent of a CheckSUR embedded in it.

    Ref:

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825265.aspx

    Good luck

    Robert Aldwinckle


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  3. Anonymous
    2014-07-16T06:40:31+00:00

    If so, then I've already tried the DISM commands without success.  So... I'm still stuck.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-07-16T11:55:56+00:00

    If so, then I've already tried the DISM commands without success.  So... I'm still stuck.

    But there are more diagnostic and cleanup DISM commands in that reference I showed you than you showed us having tried, so who knows?  Also, notice that you could try using your own /source: and /limitaccess  to see if your system could be healed locally only.  Etc.

    Otherwise, as usual, with no access to either source or support documentation my tack would be to use ProcMon to find, correlate and supplement whatever diagnostics that you are getting to understand the symptoms better.  Unfortunately usually when people try this the real problem soon becomes apparent as being corruption of the WinSxS and trying to repair it manually found to be impractical.  YMMV.

    FYI

    Robert


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  5. Anonymous
    2014-07-16T16:43:44+00:00

    All the references I saw to fixing my type of problem used DISM with /scanhealth, /restorehealth, /checkhealth, and /source, and I've tried all of those.  The link you provided shows a lot of other options but I wouldn't feel comfortable trying those without someone giving me specific instructions.

    I'm not sure how ProcMon could be used in this situation. 

    Given the number of people who suffer similar problems, I was hoping MS support would provide a solution, but so far they're batting 0%.

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