Windows Update just spins and spins, seemingly without end

Anonymous
2016-07-18T01:20:12+00:00

A week ago, Windows Update seemed to stop working on my laptop. It never seems to finish looking for updates for my Window Vista, but just spins and spins and spins. Before this, it always took 6 minutes or less to check for updates and let me know if there were any. If it was downloading an update, it would let me know its size and how long it would take. Anyone know what's going on?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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  1. lmacri 2,505 Reputation points
    2016-09-24T18:31:45+00:00

    For September, according to Dalai's page, KB3185911 replaces KB3177725 as the update needed to be manually installed.  Unfortunately, it appears that MS has removed the update from their servers.  You can still find the webpage describing the update.  But when you press the Download button, nothing happens.

    Hi mbulger:

    Are you using Internet Explorer (IE9) as your browser?

    After seeing similar reports from other Vista SP2 users I can confirm that I had no problem downloading the installers using Firefox v49 but was redirected to the "Thank you for downloading" message using IE9 without ever seeing a pop-up asking me to Run/Save the .msu installer.  See my post # 103 in KellyB56's thread *Windows Vista Update Hangs at "Checking For Updates*" in the bleepingcomputer forum (under the username lmacri).  Other users in that thread confirmed that the download also worked with Chrome but not with IE9.

    Here are the direct links to the installers for KB3185911 on the Microsoft Download Center, assuming this is the only Win32K.sys update on Dalai's list that is currently missing from your computer.  Let me know if the direct link works for you.

         32-bit (x86) Vista SP2: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53714

         64-bit (x64) Vista SP2: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53697

    If you don't have another browser besides IE9 (or don't have access to another computer you can use to download the .msu installer to a USB stick and then transfer the file to your Vista desktop) and the direct link doesn't work, see my suggestions in post

    39 of magicshaw's thread *Help Update Problems....* in the bleepingcomputer forum to flush your DNS cache and/or clear your IE9 browsing history.


    32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v49.0 * NIS v22.7.1.32 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-24T17:24:02+00:00

    For September, according to Dalai's page, KB3185911 replaces KB3177725 as the update needed to be manually installed.  Unfortunately, it appears that MS has removed the update from their servers.  You can still find the webpage describing the update.  But when you press the Download button, nothing happens.

    I've had to go back to running Windows Update on my Vista system and it has been going for 24 hours now.

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  3. lmacri 2,505 Reputation points
    2016-08-20T17:58:59+00:00

    All the KB articles and forums are behind a secure HTTPS wall.  When you click on a link, a redirect is supposed to take you to the right place.  But for Vista users using IE9, the redirect fails and you get taken to the "What can we help you with?" page.  They obviously didn't test it.

    Hi mbulger:

    I use Firefox as my default browser and I still see the occasional "We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found" error when I click use the download links on Dalai's webpage at http://wu.krelay.de/en/, but it's only a temporary problem and those links work properly if I just wait a few minutes and try again.

    If you're using IE9 it might help if you clear your browser cache (Tools | Delete Browsing History) but I suspect that the servers for the Microsoft Download Center are overloaded on the weekends and throwing intermittent error messages

    • probably because of all the extra traffic from Vista SP2 and Win 7 SP1 users having problems with slow Windows Updates and trying to view the same download pages for standalone update packages for their missing Win32K.sys updates.  I started getting these occasional re-direct errors and forum login problems with the Microsoft servers about the same time that Microsoft rolled out their "new and improved" online Outlook Mail program at https://outlook.live.com last week, so some of the re-direct problems could be due to temporary glitches on the Microsoft servers.

    32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v48.0.1 * NIS v22.7.1.32 * 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. lmacri 2,505 Reputation points
    2016-08-20T17:35:09+00:00

    Someone already has... :/

    Hi Volume Z:

    The link you posted in this thread on 17-Jul-2016 for https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3168965 directs users to a support article with a description of the files bundled in KB3168965 (MS16-090: Description of the security update for Windows kernel-mode drivers:July 12, 2016) but doesn't include direct download links to the standalone update packages on the Microsoft Download Center.

    User yankeestonk also hasn't told us if Step # 3 of the instructions posted 16-Jun-2016 in m#l's thread ***Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours*** shows that other Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32K.sys) updates listed on Dalai's webpage at http://wu.krelay.de/en/ (e.g., KB3177725 released August 2016) are missing from their system, and whether they need 32-bit or 64-bit installers.

    EDIT:

    Sorry, I just realize you posted direct links for the 32-bit installers for yankeestonk in another thread at *Vista Basic Updates not updating...*


    32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v48.0.1 * NIS v22.7.1.32 * 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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  5. Anonymous
    2016-08-20T15:54:24+00:00

    Officially, Microsoft still supports Vista but they're abandoning us already.  All the KB articles and forums are behind a secure HTTPS wall.  When you click on a link, a redirect is supposed to take you to the right place.  But for Vista users using IE9, the redirect fails and you get taken to the "What can we help you with?" page.  They obviously didn't test it.

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