Windows Update error, stuck on restart loop.

[Steve The Dane]

Greetings Seven Forums crew,

I am having an issue with the Windows 7 Update Service. After installing the latest Microsoft Updates (November 2013), I am now stuck in a "restart your computer to finish installing important updates" message. No matter how many times I restart & check for updates, it keeps giving the same message even though the Update History tells me the updates were all successfully installed. When I restart, the "configuring your computer" message displays briefly with no percentage meter, before shutting down.

Before posting here, I had followed your Windows Update Posting Instructions to no avail.

1.SURT ran fine, installed a hotfix but returned to the same update restart loop message.

2.The sfc scan wouldn't run & gave the error message "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again". Restarting only returned the same error message.

3. I had no update error codes displayed on the requested screen as they were deemed successful but here is an error code from the Windows Update Log-
Handler FATAL: UH: 0x80070bc9: EvaluateApplicability failed in CCbs::EvaluateApplicability
2013-11-15 03:48:22:308 532 d80 Agent WARNING: Failed to evaluate Installed rule, updateId = {5E6A375D-B4CF-4CB3-A8B6-FD35C637F90E}.200, hr

4. Please find the requested CBS log zip attached.

 

[NoelDP]

Please follow the Windows Update Posting Instructions and post the requested data

 

[Steve The Dane]

Noel,

I believe I did follow the Windows Update Posting Instructions steps as I have listed them in my post, numbers 1-4.
Ran SURT, ran SFC unsuccessfully, found the update error code - 0x80070bc9 & attached the CBS logs.

 

[NoelDP]

There is no CheckSUR data in the posted logs.
The CBS data contains no SFC data at all - either you ran it too long ago, or it never started properly.

Please follow the instructions closely and try again.

 

[Steve The Dane]

I understand what your saying here but read my post closely.

2.The sfc scan wouldn't run & gave the error message "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again". Restarting only returned the same error message.

I can not get the sfc scan to run unfortunately. I tried the startup repair tool from the System Recovery Options menu 1st which returned with no errors found message then I tried to do the Offline System Integrity Verification with the elevated command- sfc /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=c:\ /OFFWINDIR=d:\Windows which only gave me the error message- Windows Resource Protection could not start the Repair service.

So it really has me beat how to post the relevant data you requested. :huh:

 

[NoelDP]

Yet you say that the CheckSUR ran OK?? - it should either have errored out, or have left the CheckSUR.logs behind.

OK - let's take another look at the CBS data...

2013-11-15 03:11:22, Info                  CSI    00000008 Pending transaction content must be resolved, cannot begin another transaction yet
2013-11-15 03:11:22, Info                  CBS    Failed to get transaction analysis because of pending operations. Disposition from Analyze: 0x1 [HRESULT = 0x80070bc9 - ERROR_FAIL_REBOOT_REQUIRED]
2013-11-15 03:11:22, Info                  CBS    Failed to get inventory. [HRESULT = 0x80070bc9 - ERROR_FAIL_REBOOT_REQUIRED]

is the operative error message here...


I suspect that the pending.xml file is stuck

1). Open an elevated command prompt
2). At the command prompt type the following commands:

takeown /f C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml
ICACLS C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml /grant AdministratorsF)
REN C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml.old


close the window, and reboot
now try running SFC again.

 

[Steve The Dane]

Thanks for the prompt reply Noel.

The SUR did run successfully, it seemed to hang at around 70% then after 30 minutes it completed so beats me.

It is correct that you can move the pending.xml file elsewhere to rectify this issue?

I'll do as you requested & reply asap.

 

[NoelDP]

What we're doing in this renames the file so that it's out of the way - it's not really recommended, as it can create a lot of problems.

Once you;ve rebooted, please post the C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml.old
file to your reply so I can see what's in it.

 

[Steve The Dane]

Ok Noel,

The command ran successfully & I rebooted to run the sfc scan again but it still returns the same error - There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again.

Apparently there is no C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml.old only C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml, poqexec.log & reboot.xml

Damn this!

 

[NoelDP]

Copy the pending.xml file to the desktop, then upload the copy

Are you sure the rename command completed successfully?

 

[Steve The Dane]

Yes Noel, the rename command completed successfully. Told me ownership was successful etc etc.

Pending file as requested attached.

 

[NoelDP]

There's an awful lot of data in that!

Please reboot TWICE - with 15 minutes at least between boots - and then post a new copy of the pending.xml file, and a new copy of the CBS.log file

 

[Steve The Dane]

Yep! Feast your eyes on that debacle.

Thanks for your patience in this issue Noel. I will do as you instructed & post back asap.

 

[Steve The Dane]

Ok Noel, here are the data files you requested. There was 30 minutes+ between boots.

I noticed the pending.xml file is still dated at 13/11/2013 22:58 though.

 

[NoelDP]

The news isn't great
There are about 600 'applicability' errors in the CBS data, involving a fair number of updates.
This is far more than I would hope to be able to fix manually.

I suspect that your best option is going to be a repair install
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R

 

[Steve The Dane]

Ok Noel, Here's something rather odd that has occurred. :huh:

So I go online yesterday to check in here & then I had to go out. I come back & boot up as normal but my option for logging in with my fingerprint scanner didn't show (which it seems do sometimes?). So I restarted from the log in screen, without logging in, to get it to appear again.

When it booted up, low & behold the configuring updates screen appeared & completed to 100%. I thought I'd run sfc again & it did successfully with no integrity violations reported.

I checked the update history & all the 13/11/13 updates were now reinstalled to 19/11/13. After checking for updates manually, I finally received the there are no updates green tick screen.

I looked through the cbs log & towards the end of the log I noticed the winsxs renaming command you instructed to do was completed.

I was hoping you could look over the latest cbs log to determine whether or not I should still go ahead with the repair install.

 

[NoelDP]

Now that is definitely strange - possibly the result of profile corruption.

The applicability errors seem to have gone - so the repair install shouldn't be necessary

Have any/all other symptoms disappeared as well??

 

[Steve The Dane]

Rather strange indeed Noel! :shock:

You say the admin profile was corrupted so are you sure I shouldn't repair install? I'd rather be safe than sorry.

It just seems to me this update issue may be solved for now but may be a false sense of security...

Such as when I receive the December updates, this will happen again leaving my system vulnerable.