Solved Windows update broken, svchost at max CPU

[eab]

My Windows 7 update is just broken somehow. Whenever I try to manually update, I always end up with a svchost with 50% cpu usage (i.e., one core maxed out) and nothing ever finishes. It just sits there saying "Checking for updates". I've tried a number of solutions on the web - manual intallation of a couple of hotfixes Windows6.1-KB3112343-x64 and Windows6.1-KB3102810-x64, removing the Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, and being oh so patient. Nothing has worked. It just hangs there and spins.

When I look at my update history, I see that the last update listed is KB2825645 from August 11. Nothing has come in since then.

So, I have just disabled updates totally and downloaded the cumulative ISO files from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/913086 for the missing dates.

I want to install the ones for Windows 7 64bit. Can I just install them directly, in order? I know I am going to get reboot prompts after some of them, so do I have to do it right then or can I update, say, an entire month's worth and then reboot?

 

[eab]

Okay, after being gently scolded by the message about "Windows Update Posting Instructions", I have more information now. I ran the SURT utility and the SFC utility as requested. Unhappily, no errors got flagged and the log files showed nothing of real interest. The SURT log did show some problems being marked as "fixed", but I rebooted and tried to check for updates and once again hit the svchost CPI max issue, with no indication of progress, either retrieving updates or files being added to the Windows SoftwareDistribution folder.

So, I went ahead and fetched the ISO files with the cumulative updates and manually installed all the updates since August, which is where my Update History has stalled out. I went through one by one, in date order and installed them. Most of them prompted for reboot, which I did usually every fourth or fifth one. All of them installed fine.

I then went into Windows Update and this time the update located some missing updates - some security, some .NET. It had not reached this point before. I clicked okay to install everything found. Currently it is sitting on update 6 of 15, Windows Defender, but has not made progress for several minutes now. The taks manager shows high CPU usage by MRT.exe, but it fluctuates anywhere from 0 to 50. I will leave it this way for a while and if no progress is made I will cancel the update, unless someone replies to this thread very soon .

EDIT - Just now progressed to update 7 of 15.

 

[torchwood]

updates

Hi EAb,

There are 2 types of History
Update history top left in action centre
Installed history bottom left in action centre

Check the other 1

below is a list of my INSTALLED,from that week

Do you have them all.

In your SFC log what was the last update showing as installed.

Roy

 

[eab]

All 15 of the aforementioned updated installed successfully. I rebooted and ran "check for updates". Got "No important updates available". I am going to mark this as solved and re-enable automatic updates, with the restriction that they not be automatically downloaded or installed - just notification, as was the case before this problem first surfaced. If anything changes, I will repost.

To summarize - the solution was to manually install the missing updates from the ISO files.