Cannot download updates error 80070490

[anciano]

For a long time now, MS has been trying to install three updates. Every night they make the effort, and every morning I get the message that the installation failed. Inquiring about this, I was advised to do a clean boot and install from there. Several times I tried this, but each time I came to a point in the process where I instructed to click on something that just was not there. Each time I put that task aside and told myself, ‘Later’. This morning I opened the computer and found that I was in a loop; the first thing on the screen was the instruction not to shut off the computer because the three files were being downloaded and installed. I could not reboot without the same thing starting again. This had never happened before. So I went to Safe Mode and found that I could reboot there.

I went online and got advice to download and install the System Update Readiness Tool. I also got a message that that Task Manager had gone bugger-up, which no doubt explains why I had not been able to reboot out of the update download process. I did download the SURT, but could not install it in Safe Mode, so I tried to boot in normal mode and by golly it worked. The SURT was able to install one of the three updates, but the other two still met with failure again. I tried to find SURT (MS, of course, won't tell where it is putting programs it downloads to you), so I downloaded and installed another copy and tried again to install the outstanding updates. SURT is telling me that the ‘Updates are being installed’, but has been ‘Initializing updates’ for two hours now. Is that normal behaviour?

At least the Task Manager seems to have recovered from whatever was troubling it. But I don’t know what to make of the endless initialization.

 

[Snick]

anciano

If you ran System Update Readiness Tool, what did the CheckSUR.log indicate?
It is temporary in it's original location. C:/Windows/Logs/CBS

SURT running for two hours is not a good sign unfortunately! SURT isn't actually an update, it is a repair, well somewhat repair, and diagnostic utility.

Have your run sfc /scannow from Administrative CMD, which will attempt to repair or replace system files. If not please do.

Download from this link -> SFCFix.exe by Niemiro, & run it too please; more thorough than sfc /scannow. SFCFix.txt log will open and be on your desktop.

Please run SURT again and post CheckSUR.log & SFCFix.txt

Forum limit is 4MB for compressed files/folders rar or zip. Was 8MB up until several months ago. You can upload multiple files/folders to circumvent the 4MB limitation.

Here's some relevant info. Finding the corresponding KB and extracting the cat/mum pair or manifest can be...well...daunting!
How to Analyze the System Update Readiness Tool CheckSUR.log File
How to repair Windows Update Issues with the SURT (System ...
How to Fix Errors Found in the CheckSUR.log

Snick

 

[riffwraith]

For a long time now, MS has been trying to install three updates. Every night they make the effort, and every morning I get the message that the installation failed. Inquiring about this, I was advised to do a clean boot and install from there. Several times I tried this, but each time I came to a point in the process where I instructed to click on something that just was not there. Each time I put that task aside and told myself, ‘Later’. This morning I opened the computer and found that I was in a loop; the first thing on the screen was the instruction not to shut off the computer because the three files were being downloaded and installed. I could not reboot without the same thing starting again. This had never happened before. So I went to Safe Mode and found that I could reboot there.

I went online and got advice to download and install the System Update Readiness Tool. I also got a message that that Task Manager had gone bugger-up, which no doubt explains why I had not been able to reboot out of the update download process. I did download the SURT, but could not install it in Safe Mode, so I tried to boot in normal mode and by golly it worked. The SURT was able to install one of the three updates, but the other two still met with failure again. I tried to find SURT (MS, of course, won't tell where it is putting programs it downloads to you), so I downloaded and installed another copy and tried again to install the outstanding updates. SURT is telling me that the ‘Updates are being installed’, but has been ‘Initializing updates’ for two hours now. Is that normal behaviour?

At least the Task Manager seems to have recovered from whatever was troubling it. But I don’t know what to make of the endless initialization.

There an error?

 

[Snick]

Most likely errors. System Update Readiness Tool doesn't usually take more that 5-10 minutes at best.
The more errors it discovers & attempts to fix the longer the process.
Running System File Checker is also a suggestion.
sfc /scannow from Administrative CMD
SFCFix.exe by Niemiro is advised to be run as well.

Snick