Windows Update Hangs

First recommendation. Stop doing daily updates.  Updates come once a month. The only ones that come in between 2nd Tuesdays are ones that are designed to move your computer to Windows 10.  Set your Windows Update settings to NEVER and do it manually once per month.

Second recommendation.  Fans running at high speed have nothing to do in particular with Windows Update.  Fans run at higher speeds (that's when you hear them (it), are a sign that the computer is running warmer than it should and the fan is speeding up to rid itself of that heat.  That heat can be caused by all kinds of computer activity.  You do not tell us what kind of a computer your have -- laptop or desktop.  If it is a laptop, do not keep it on a soft surface.  The source of air to the fan is though the slits in the bottom.  If it is a desktop, shut it down, open it up and remove the dust.  If the fan runs continuously on high no matter what you are doing, you have a serious hardware problem that must be corrected immediately before you fry your computer.

From now on, expect to wait a long time for updates.  Sometimes many hours.  That is now normal.

Canadian Tech

It may now be 'normal' but it is just not acceptable. Why should it take so long to just get the list of updates intended for Windows 7? And then take hours to download the data files?

My W8.1 installation updated in about 20 minutes total, that's acceptable. My W10 install took about 15 minutes for the last update cycle, That's OK too. Our W7 laptop has now been running 16 hours just looking for the list - that is unacceptable.

From now on, expect to wait a long time for updates.  Sometimes many hours.  That is now normal. 

I don't understand why you find this acceptable?

It never has been normal for updates to take several hours (as others have commented) so why is it acceptable for this to become normal now?

BTW not all W7 PCs are taking hours - I have a 64-bit one that updated normally in a mater of minutes yesterday, but two others, both 32-bit, have taken hours to find the updates and hours more to install them.

That makes me wonder if there is some selection going on in the WU servers that keeps 64-bit (newer, business) W7 PCs updating as usual by slowing down 32-bit (older, private) W7 PCs updating?

Can anyone else comment on the relative speeds of W7 32-bit vs. 64-bit updating this month?

We didn't have to wait until "tomorrow."  Late the same night the symbol on the START button indicated updates were available.  Responding by executing Windows Update indicated that updates were downloaded and installed.

Apparently, SWAG, automatic updates were in progress when I was trying to check for updates manually.  I have to assume that this was making my manual check for updates hang.  Of course Win7 provided no clue visible to the user of the conflict.

Thanks.

I strongly recommend you set Windows Update settings to NEVER.  If you do that, that phenomena in which an update is pending (as demonstrated by the exclamation point on the shut down button) will not occur. 

Never setting is the only way you can gain complete control over Windows Update.