August 2015 Windows Update for Vista Requires One Hour to Run to Completion

Anonymous
2015-08-18T14:12:50+00:00

Is Microsoft throttling bandwidth for users running Windows Update on Vista machines to give a higher priority to Win 10 users?

I've run multiple Windows Updates since Patch Tuesday on 11-Aug-2015 and couldn't get them to run to completion on my 32-bit Vista machine until 16-Aug-2015.  There were no errors - it just reported that it was checking for updates and never finished, even if I let it run for over an hour.  Process Explorer showed svchost.exe constantly consuming ~50% of my CPU (i.e., complete saturation of one of my Intel Duo cores) and that a thread for the Windows Update service (wuauserv) was responsible for all that CPU activity.

I assumed that my Windows Update service was corrupted but after reading posts by other Vista users having the same problem (see ScousaJay's post *Windows Update Just Seems to Hang While Checking* in the Windows VistaForums for one example) I tried a manual update again on 16-Aug-2015.  Windows Update finally ran to completion and offered 17 important updates and one optional update for Silverlight but it took approx. 35 min before it reported that updates were available and the entire process, including the downloads, installs and monthly Malicious Software Removal scan, took almost a full hour.  A typical Patch Tuesday normally takes about 10 min on my machine from start to finish.

Here's what the CPU consumption looked like for my successful Windows Update of 16-Aug-2015, with the "Checking for updates..." phase running between the 70 and 35 min marks and re-start to complete the installation around the 15 min mark.

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 40.0.2 * IE9 * NIS 2014 v. 21.7.0.11

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-06-03T20:27:23+00:00

    I can restore known good Vista images I made 12 months + ago and guess what (no surprise), they are broken. WU sits there hour after hour churning away totally hogging all the resources. The system was clean when the images were made, and there are no problems with what was a pretty much perfect Vista installation.

    Hi Mooly01:

    Thanks for your reply.  That's a very interesting observation, and one more informative piece to the puzzle.

    I started this thread nine months ago so I think it would be worthwhile for me to post a summary of what I've learned to date about these slow Windows Updates to get things back on track.  Stay tuned...

    32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v46.0.1 * IE9 * NIS v21.7.0.11 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1

    HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-06-03T19:20:25+00:00

    This is probably not a very helpful post but I believe it needs saying.

    I can restore known good Vista images I made 12 months + ago and guess what (no surprise), they are broken. WU sits there hour after hour churning away totally hogging all the resources. The system was clean when the images were made, and there are no problems with what was a pretty much perfect Vista installation.

    Although I am now using Ten on both my PC's I'm still annoyed that Vista (that is mine, I bought it) is no longer serviceable. W8.1 that I liked (and bought) ultimately got screwed by the incessant W10 compatability updates. It was a never ending battle. I believe some W7 users are experiencing similar update issues to Vista.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-06-03T18:20:44+00:00

    Hi PA Bear:

    None of the basic diagnostics I've run [e.g., chkdsk /r, sfc /scannow, System Update Readiness Tool (MS CheckSUR), etc.] have found a problem with my Vista OS or Windows Update components.  My system was checked by a malware removal specialist in Malwarebytes' Malware Removal Help forum (FRST, ESET Online, AdwCleaner, JRT, RKill, etc.) and there was no evidence of a malware/PUP infection.  I have no issues with my IE9 or default Firefox browsers and as I've repeated many times in this thread, my only problem is that "Checking for updates..." has been hanging for several hours during Patch Tuesday updates since August 2015.

    You've said you "very strongly disagree" with my observations without providing an alternate explanation and called me a "troll" in Laura1836's thread Windows Vista Update.  You're entitled to your opinion but I won't be responding to any more of your questions until you tone down the rhetoric.  I have no problem if anyone disagrees with something I've posted as long as they do so in a respectful manner.

    32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v46.0.1 * IE9 * NIS v21.7.0.11 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1

    HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-06-01T00:26:44+00:00
    1. When & why was MBAM Premium installed? Has MBAM ever detected & quarantined anything since it's been installed?
    2. Are you planning on replacing Norton Internet Security v21.x with Norton Security [sic] v23.x when it's released later this year?
    3. Does Internet Explorer work when you intentionally choose to use it (e.g., when opening IE9 to this page)?

    4. You're aware that support (and security updates) for Vista ends on 11 April 2017, correct?

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-05-31T03:35:01+00:00

    @Great White North only and assuming you're still having problems! =>

    Please answer each of the following [admittedly tedious] diagnostic questions in a correspondingly-numbered list in your very next reply, preferably without quoting my post:

    Hi PA Bear:

    Since you're curious.  As I've noted before, my Patch Tuesday updates will eventually run to completion if I leave Windows Update running for 4 or 5 hours.  WU currently reports that no updates are available for download.

    1. Purchased August 2008

    1b. No repair or clean re-install

    2.  Norton Internet Security (NIS) v21.7.0.11, expires 08-Jan-2017; Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium v2.2.1 installed (real-time Malware Protection enabled, Malicious Website Protection currently disabled for testing).  Note that disabling all MBAM real-time protection and using MBAM as an on-demand scanner does not speed up Windows Update on Patch Tuesdays.  Third-party firewall is Norton Smart Firewall included with NIS.

    3a. Only NIS (dating back to NIS 2008).

    3b 30-day trial version of NIS 2008 pre-installed; subscription extended at end of the trial period with purchased product key

    1. Norton Removal Tool last run March 2015 prior to upgrade from NIS v20 to my current NIS v21
    2. All KBs are listed in the installed updates except for two: KB314108 (this is a 2006 update for XP; I assume you meant KB3141083/MS16-058, which was installed in May 2016) and KB3142023/MS16-065 for MS .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 (I received KB3142033/MS16-065 for MS .NET Framework v4.5.2 in May 2016)

    6.  Java RE not installed

    1. Adobe Flash Player not installed

    8.  IE9 update version is v9.0.50 (KB3154070); I do not use IE9 on a regular basis since it does not support the TLS 1.1/1.2 protocols

    1. Firefox v46.0.1 (default browser since 2011); Chrome never installed

    10.  CCleaner Free installed but do not use the registry cleaner to clean my registry on a regular basis.

    32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v46.0.1 * IE9 * NIS v21.7.0.11 * MBAM v2.2.1

    HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

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