Update hangs but never fails.

[EggieOGeggie]

For several months now, Update has never worked. It seems to scan for updates ad infinitum, but never gets past that. I've tried running the SURT, but that seems to have the same problem--stuck on "Searching for updates on this computer".
I'm running Win7SP1 32-bit. I'd love to send you my CBS file, but the forum says it's too big.

 

[UsernameIssues]

You can set the computer to never sleep and let the search continue for 24+ hours. That should get you a list of updates to be installed. Or, you can manually download/install KB3112343. That KB should reduce the search time.

 

[EggieOGeggie]

It took all night, but when I got it, it finally asked me to confirm that I wanted to install KB3112343. Then it just took 10 minutes. After that it still took all day for it to check updates. Then it offered to install the better part of 100 of them. This morning it told me that configuration failed and it was undoing updates. As of now, it's gone back to checking for updates and it's been an hour so far, so I don't know how long it's going to take to tell me what still has to be installed. Is checking for updates going to always be like this
I'm finding a lot of this in my log:
Log Name: Application
Source: Windows Error Reporting
Date: 01/02/2016 8:32:01 AM
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Les-PC
Description:
Fault bucket 50, type 5
Event Name: WindowsUpdateFailure3
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: 7.6.7601.19077
P2: 800f0826
P3: 0E9F26E3-C341-4B63-82AE-682F4F5BCF04
P4: Install
P5: 203
P6: 0
P7: 1a22b9c
P8: AutomaticUpdates
P9: {7971F918-A847-4430-9279-4A52D1EFE18D}
P10: 0

Attached files:

These files may be available here:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\NonCritical_7.6.7601.19077_15a367ba7d944fa035d3fff33ff3c3e7e9a4e8d_09b659a3

Analysis symbol:
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: 18252837-c8e8-11e5-b29b-e50c6868e5a3
Report Status: 0
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Windows Error Reporting" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1001</EventID>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-02-01T13:32:01.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>205798</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Les-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>50</Data>
<Data>5</Data>
<Data>WindowsUpdateFailure3</Data>
<Data>Not available</Data>
<Data>0</Data>
<Data>7.6.7601.19077</Data>
<Data>800f0826</Data>
<Data>0E9F26E3-C341-4B63-82AE-682F4F5BCF04</Data>
<Data>Install</Data>
<Data>203</Data>
<Data>0</Data>
<Data>1a22b9c</Data>
<Data>AutomaticUpdates</Data>
<Data>{7971F918-A847-4430-9279-4A52D1EFE18D}</Data>
<Data>0</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\NonCritical_7.6.7601.19077_15a367ba7d944fa035d3fff33ff3c3e7e9a4e8d_09b659a3</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>0</Data>
<Data>18252837-c8e8-11e5-b29b-e50c6868e5a3</Data>
<Data>0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

 

[UsernameIssues]

Try steps 1 and 2 in this post:
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-...4840-windows-update-posting-instructions.html

 

[EggieOGeggie]

I did. But that was before you told me to turn off the sleeps and let processing take 24 hours.
Ok, I'll get back to you in a day or two.

 

[UsernameIssues]

SFC came out clean?

 

[EggieOGeggie]

Oh yeah, SFC... no, I had to skip that one, too. It seemed it was requiring me to make a rescue disk and everything. My laptop doesn't have an optical drive. Does it really have to be that complicated?

 

[UsernameIssues]

I don't see anything in these steps that mention a rescue disk.

Open the command prompt window using run as admin
paste in sfc /scannow
hit enter

 

[remm]

If sfc /scannow comes out fine, and the native updater still hangs (for more than the normal few minutes while it queries the server), just use Autopatcher to update the system. Click on the first link there that looks like a forum heading to download it. When running it, an initial screen will come up with tick boxes next to various update choices.... tick the box next to W7 64 (or whatever the OS is)... do NOT tick the NET Framework box at the same time... let it update the OS first. (If you even have NET F installed... some ppl do, some don't.)

Once you tick the W7 64 box, AP will find all updates for the machine. You can select the ones you want installed. Then it works just like the native installer, downloading and installing them with reboots, etc.

Once I ran Autopatcher once, updating my system, the native W7 updater worked fine again. I believe there was a bad patch prior to April of 2015 that screwed the updater up. Once the newer patch is installed, the updater works again. (The disadvantage of AP is it does not show a blurb about what each KB is for. I ended up uninstalling several I didn't want, but it worked flawlessly.)

Now that it's working, I am done "updating" W7 for personal reasons, but for those trying to update the OS and the native updater hangs, Autopatcher works great. (I heard about it here on the 7 forums, btw.)

Good luck.

 

[EggieOGeggie]

SFC came out clean and the SURT installed, although I don't know what difference it made--it only installed. The Autopatcher failed. However, Windows Update seems to be working, although I'm not going to try and install everything at once--just a few at a time--so far I haven't been told any updates failed. Also, it doesn't have to check my whole damn system anymore--it just offers to install updates that weren't installed the last time it did an install.
so might this be the end of it? The next time I need to check for updates, will it take all night do you think?

 

[UsernameIssues]

...The next time I need to check for updates, will it take all night do you think?

Subsequent checks/scans should take about 10 minutes.

 

[EggieOGeggie]

Well, it took a little while, but much less than 24 hours, and now it's all up to date. Thanks.