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Windows update continues to "fail to install" PC help needed

1K views 27 replies 12 participants last post by  Verne 
#1 ·
For the last 2 weeks my laptop has downloaded and tried install the same update, to no avail. It fails to install every time. It causes my laptop to become painfully slow and crash. Windows update keeps trying to install it. I have had to cold boot my PC numerous times, and many times purposely many times in a row to get it to scan the hard drive. This does nothing overall. It will sometimes boot REALLY slowly and once in, there are minutes wait time between tasks I try to open. My laptop is always slow when a windows update is downloading or installing, but they generally finish successfully. Not this one particular update. It's reeking havoc on my system. Before this update my laptop would run quickly and trouble free. I have done sfc /scannow and it found corrupt files and repaired them. I've done boot diagnostics and pretty much everything I can think of. This update will be the death of me AND my laptop. Pictures of the update and the fail to install notice.

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#4 ·
I have a literal shit ton of stuff I can't just delete or overwrite. I am sure there is a resolution to this. It's just aggravating that it's the same stupid install causing the issue. Aside from turning off updates. I surf very little and visit the same pages. I don't do anything I would call worrisome online, but opening a back door of some kind is not my idea of continuing in a safe manner.
 
#9 ·
I have a literal shit ton of stuff I can't just delete or overwrite.
The good news is that at some point Windows will become completely unrecoverable and you'll lose everything enabling you to format to your hearts content.
I've worked in IT for 26 years and I always advise people to back up. Or its your own fault.
Download the free version of macrium. Learn how to do an image (its easy) and then format and reinstall windows fresh. If it hasn't been done for a few years it will likely smooth out any issues. You can then connect to your macrium image through its explorer and recover any data you might want.
I do periodic backups on my home computer as well as my wifes. At work I use the paid version of Macrium for our servers in addition to the daily backups.
 
#6 ·
I will try. It keeps trying on it's own. I am going to try a couple things in case other files were affected along the way.
My fiances laptop took this update first time with no issue. Weird that it would work from some, but not all. Both our laptops are HP. Hers is a basic one for surfing, mine is an Omen gaming laptop that is about 4yrs old. This is the worst issue I've had with this. My first one the HDD died in the 2nd week so Costco replaced it with a new one.
 
#8 ·
I am currently doing a restart after resetting windows updates. Oddly, my restore was not working so I have no points to go back to. No idea why it was nonfunctional. It’s now set to make restore points again. I may have turned it off at some point in the past, but don’t recall.
 
#12 ·
Cumulative updates (like updates named 'rollup') are usually quite large and could involve hundreds of new files. Most people don't know that a Windows update is a miniature re-write of the operating system - so there's always a little bit of risk. It's like if you go for a medical 'procedure' and the doctor warns you there's always a 1% risk of death.

I think you have to ask yourself why it's important to have these updates. I would flip them off as keto suggested. If you have a healthy firewall, there's no need for them. If you absolutely need to have them enabled, you can always disable just that one update from installing.
 
#13 ·
Not great advice. Critical security updates at minimum should be done. Yes it applies to the Windows OS which the firewall component is part of. Vulnerabilities that need patching can be anywhere in that OS including the firewall. If as the OP said he can't lose the data on that computer then backups and updates should be a part of the maintenance.
 
#15 ·
I never worry too much about the updates on my home computer either. And I completely disable my firewall. I have ever since XP. But I do have periodic images with Macrium and can restore quickly.
At work is a different story. We have policies and a Windows update server that manages updates that I can push out. A business is more likely to be a victim of ransomware. Infact 3 years ago when I was hired at my current company I walked in to a network that was completely brought down by ransomware. The previous guy had no offline images or backups and everything, including the tape library was encrypted. Took me weeks to fix everything.
Most home users should have proper firewall policies, diligently do their Windows critical\security updates and have some form of backup procedure and stored offline. That is, if they care about the data on their computer.
 
#16 ·
1 go out and buy an external hard drive unit ( same size or larger ) usb style to match your computer.

2 get AOMEI Backup ( free) ... and very good

3 make a CLONE ... --> DISK CLONE of your existing hard drive
..... you now have a hard drive to swap into your laptop if the old drive gets completely corrupted ( with no data loss )

now you can ( with the original )

4 run windows update trouble shooter AS ADMIN
if nothing turns up or gets fixed
5 restart your machine in Safe MODE (F8)
6 go to the Windows folder, and delete the folder called Software Distribution and all the subfolders
7 restart the computer
8 try the download again .

every motherboard chipset is different , windows doesn't always play nice with all of them.
windows doesn't play nice with all drivers ...

ever notice that the updates start to fail just as the latest and greatest WINDOWS version X comes out ?
 
#17 ·
There is some horrible advice here. Updates are a pain and can sometimes cause problems but they can stop you from being hacked. No firewall can stop an attack from a site not in the firewall suppliers list when you hit the site. Without updates you can be infected just by going to an infected site or by clicking on a link in an email. With some email clients you don’t even have to click on a link. Some emails clients prefetch the contents of a link. Keeping your OS up to date will mitigate most of this. Four decades working IT doing security. I update all my OS’s whenever updates are available.
 
#20 ·
I agree, but have stopped giving good advice to these computer questions because everyone's an expert and they don't want to hear it. So in keeping with that, everyone go uninstall all your updates to throw off the shackles of your corporate overlords, then go do some banking on wifi at McDonalds.
 
#18 ·
^ I disagree, too much trust in corporate updates is a bad thing. But instead of stinking up the OP's thread w/ that never-ending argument, maybe open up another thread so you can fart there? I'll join you if you want.

To the OP, for this one update, it might be tough getting it to work unless you bypass it or troubleshoot it using the error message number indicated by vertigo
 
#24 ·
Don't worry about it, by 2025 your laptop will most likely be officially extinct like mine because it cannot run windows 11 and was designed to have an expiry date. As was windows 10. The incredible update death cycle of windows OS and the related hardware has always been a great way to get users to buy new computers and this has been the norm for over 20 years. The "security" death cycle of windows 7 on largely intel chips caused the sale by our governments of many millions of dollars of Lenovo and HP computers that were designed to die as certain "security" features were added to the hardware of new computers.

If your laptop is capable of 1.2 or better hardware encryption and the processor is not supported under windows 11 then just switch to Ubuntu if you cannot update to windows 11 and avoid the windows 10 security update death charade.

You can easily save everything off the harddrive first by running Ubuntu from a thumb drive and writing the files to another one or external high capacity usb hdd and not touching windows at all until you put windows to death by overwriting the OS completely.
Something which I will do with this laptop if it gets fried with a so called "windows update" like my web creation one did with windows 7.

I switched my web creation and music daw computer to all Linux years ago and have never looked back.

The only reason why I still use windows at all is because my current employment in support services at a seniors facility requires Microsoft Office and nothing else. As I retire from this our household will officially do in the windows addiction for good! Windows 11 just ain't happening and the worm has turned in this household!
 
#28 · (Edited)
Mine has the AMD Radeon RX 580 card. I updated to the latest drivers to be sure it's up to date. Since I do play some games on it, I always make sure to check the drivers monthly. I don't even think mine has a built in gfx to even try switching to.

I did some more checks of the drive physically and the system files. I have now turned my updates to manual for the time being. I will wait and check for updates myself. Since I generally use the laptop more for my forum checking and a little online searching, I don't think manually checking is the worst thing I can do to "fix" the issue. Since doing the checks and switching to manual, the speed is back on my laptop and the aggravatingly slow load and wait times are gone. It's not a SSD, so the slow down and 100% disk usage will always be there when I do download/install an update.
 
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