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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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-21T06:33:13+00:00

    As of 12 hours ago the problem seems to have been resolved and appears all along to have been an MS server issue.

    I must have spent 20 to 30 hours trying to resolve this issue.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-21T10:01:01+00:00

    On Monday, August 17th, I changed my settings to automatic updates (no idea why I did this) and it took a very long time, finally locking up my system. I couldn't do anything, so unplugged the cpu. (bad idea).

    Then when I tried to reboot, I didn't get past the login, but got a black screen and a message that (WINDOWS CALENDATD HAS STOPPED".

    I had an APPCRASH, here's the problem signature. I posted this on the Windows forum and since so few people use Vista now, I haven't gotten any help. I can get on the net using the path at the bottom. Also I have looked in Task Manager and it looks like I lost most of the processes that reside in my computer, although it shows them all in Other User. (although there is no other user) Wonder if I can copy and paste these...?

    I really need some help. I only know enough to be dangerous. Everything I have done has only made things worse. For instance I reverted to the default boot and now my drives and usb are not recognized...HELP!!

    Problem signature:

      Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

      Application Name: WinCal.exe

      Application Version: 6.0.6002.18005

      Application Timestamp: 49e01e83

      Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll

      Fault Module Version: 6.0.6002.19454

      Fault Module Timestamp: 55ae6e00

      Exception Code: c0000022

      Exception Offset: 00009f55

      OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3

      Locale ID: 4105

      Additional Information 1: 9d13

      Additional Information 2: 1abee00edb3fc1158f9ad6f44f0f6be8

      Additional Information 3: 9d13

      Additional Information 4: 1abee00edb3fc1158f9ad6f44f0f6be8

    Read our privacy statement:

      http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0x0409

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-21T11:18:53+00:00

    This sounds like one of those problems you need to be sat in front of unfortunately.

    Unplugging the CPU (you mean you removed it from its socket ?) could have caused any number of issues. Faced with this I would need to prove the PC good by doing a quick and dirty clean install of either Vista/W7/W8.1 to confirm all hardware is OK.

    If it is OK then restore back to a good disk image... please tell me you have full system images... they are a life saver for disasters like this.

    Good luck, I hope you find a solution... Vista still rocks :)

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-09-11T21:32:13+00:00

    Just reporting that I saw no change when I tried to install this month's September 2015 Patch Tuesday updates for Vista. I ran a manual Windows Update on 10-Sep-2015 and got stuck at Checking for updates... for 40 min before WU reported that 1 recommended and 14 important updates were available for download. The entire update process, including downloads and installs, took just over one hour.

    Here's what the CPU consumption looked like for my 10-Sep-2015 Windows Update, with:

    • "Checking for updates..." running for 40 min between the 73 and 33 min marks (with svchost.exe saturating one of my cores and constantly consuming 50% of CPU between 60 and 33 min marks)
    • Downloads, installs and monthly Malicious Software Removal scan between 33 and 13 min marks
    • Re-boot to finish installation (dark grey band) at 8 min mark

    32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 40.0.3 * IE9 * NIS 2014 v. 21.7.0.11

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

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