Solved Windows Update NOT Downloading - Diagnostic Tools Indicate Nothing

[mc5w]

I have 2 laptops that dual boot Windows 7 64-bit and 32-bit. When updating Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit on the smaller laptop Windows Update appeared to be stuck at 0% downloaded. SFC and the other diagnostic tools showed nothing wrong. I did all the other usual fixes such booting in safe mode and renaming the SoftwareDistribution folder.

So, I ended up having to go to Windows Update Catalog and download a bunch of standalone updates. The first standalone that I installed took what seemed like 2 hours to check to see if it was already installed. After I gave it permission to install it did seemingly nothing for about an hour and then the progress bar moved very slowly. The next standalone took about half as long. The next 7 or 8 standalones worked faster. I then tried installing the last 2 through Windows Update and that worked just dandy.

Looks like Maxisquash er I mean Microsoft has released some stinkers that take almost forever just to decide if they are already installed which will stall downloading at the 0% stage. These few updates are just like 11 snails and 11 slugs playing American football on a full size field!

Just try this fix. Download some standalone updates, install 1 at a time, and then do some housekeeping or go to sleep whilst it does the Slow Cooker bit. It may be this simple.

Mike Cole, Columbus, Ohio

 

[Snick]

For Windows Update problems - Windows Update Posting Instructions

 

[mc5w]

I Already Read The Directions

Hi Snick,

I already read the Windows Update Posting Instructions and read through the dialogs for this particular update error or another when Windows Update came back with this or that update error code when previous Windows Update errors came up.

This time around there were NO error codes, all the diagnostic tools indicated that Windows Update was copastetic. I even tried renaming the SoftwareDistribution folder to force Windows Update to create a clean folder. Nothing worked until I downloaded the updates that I needed as standalone updates and installed them one at a time. The first two took almost forever just to decide if they were already installed which would make Windows Update appear to be stuck at 0% downloaded. These same 2 updates then took almost forever for the progress bar to show any amount of green. Rebooting after each of these 2 also took almost forever. The next few standalone updates went very quickly and then I tried using Windows Update in the normal manner and the problem seemed to be fixed.

I have no explanation for the "stuck at 0% downloaded no update error codes" problem other than that Microsoft has released 2 or 3 stinkers that take almost forever to install.

There is also the possible problem that some updates need to be installed 1 at a time and the machine rebooted in between instead of installing a bunch of updates in a big batch.

I also found something on the Internet that 2 Windows Updates actually need to be uninstalled to get Windows Update too work and Microsoft has since then withdrawn those. Those 2 are vKB2534311 and KB2639308 .

 

[Snick]

Hi Snick,

I already read the Windows Update Posting Instructions and read through the dialogs for this particular update error or another when Windows Update came back with this or that update error code when previous Windows Update errors came up.

OK & where are the logs you are supposed to post? Re-read the instructions or PREFERABLY, in the alternative.
Run AutoSURT64
CBS Folder will appear on your desktop when the program completes.
If the CBS folder is larger than 8 MB compressed/zipped it will not upload, remove the CAB files, zip/compress the CBS folder and upload please.

Bill

 

[mc5w]

No Errors Windows Update NOT Downloading

There were NO logs to post. The diagnostic tools said that there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH WINDOWS UPDATE and DID NOT GENERATE ANY LOGS. The only thing that was wrong was that some updates take ALMOST FOREVER to install.

 

[mc5w]

It Was Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit

Does AutoSURT64 run in Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit? That was the version of Windows that had the problem and it only happened on the 1 of the 2 laptops has only a 720p screen. It seems that some of these updates do not like a screen resolution below 768p.

The matter that these updates installed albiet extremely slowly and then Windows Update worked right would be a pretty good indication that there was not anything wrong with Windows Update itself but rather that the updates themselves had some type of defect that caused them to install extremely slowly.

 

[mc5w]

System Update Readiness Tool

I already have Microsoft's System Update Readiness Tool and ran that. It found ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with Windows Update.

I cannot find a download link for your autoSURT32.exe .Please post a download link so that I can run it. Google is NOT helpful.

There is some software that will only run under Windows 32-bit such as the Computer Aided Manufacturing plug-in for TurboCADv which is one of the few CAD programs for which it is possible to buy a perpetual commercial license for a reasonable price. Back when you could buy a perpetual commercial license for AutoCAD it more along the lines of AutoTHEFT!

Eventually both of my laptops will run Windows 95B and MS-DOS 7.10 under Oracle Virtualbox so that I can run Fortran and PL/I compilers that I can afford. They will also run VM370 and MVS370 using the Hercules emulator.

 

[torchwood]

Hi

just a general comment
Allthough you have 16gb Ram a 32 bit OS has a max limit of 4GB usable.
now if you were running your CAD program at the same time somethings gotta give.

Roy

 

[Snick]

Thanks Torchwood, I run VmWare Player free quite often, or at least I did. One ram slot is down on the MoBo, won't even run Black Arch or Kali Linux, they load but won't run, Win7 Home Premium x64 won't even load completely.

Running a CAD/CAM Video Editing, etc you need RAM lot of RAM or your machine is going to crawl and as the ram and swap space have to continually read and write to manage the data and place it when it need to be, in the inadequate RAM. This takes up CPU GPU cycles, data transfer time, nano-seconds and it adds up to possibly part or all of your issue.

How much free drive space do you have? Have you run Windows Update Cleanup (WUCU)? Have you tried to run Disk Cleanup? I have a Very-Low-Disk-Space (VLDS) version that I recommend everyone run when performing a Windows 7 Repair Install or an Upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10. Yes, it includes WUCU, it wipes crash dumps, windows logs, win update leftover/cleanup, etc. The less unnecessary juink on your drive when you upgrade or update the faster everything happens, no read, write, read write of unnecessary junk. Much faster & your Windows.old file is as small as it can be, yes, it is a backup stored on your hard drive.

Yes, it's a batch file that runs the Windows VLDS. Forum blocked batch file upload, it accepts zipped/compressed folders
View attachment Disk Cleanup Very-Low-Disk.zip

 

[mc5w]

These are DUAL BOOT

Hi Torchwood,

Both of my laptops are dual boot systems. The smaller one boots Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit which is the original operating system AND boots Windows 7 Ultimate 32--bit. It has TurboCAD Pro Platinum 2017 64-bit and 32-bit.. It also has the student version of Autocad 2018 n64-bit and 32-bit.

The larger laptop has Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and 32-bit.

Hi Snick,

Without AutoSURT32.exe I cannot get a log file for you to examine.

 

[mc5w]

Some Log Files

I found the C:\]Windows\Logs\CBS older, copied it, and turned it into a zip file. The zip file is 512MB so I will try uploading just a few files.

 

[mc5w]

Running CAD in Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit

Hi Torchwood,

When I run the 32-bit versions of Turbocad and Autocad Resource Monitor shows that total RAM consumption never exceeds 3 GB. 32-bit TurboCAD does better than Autocad on CPU and RAM consumption because the Turbocad is a perpetual license and does not hog resources like AutoCAD does because the latter has online license verification and checking for updates.

When the student license for AutoCAD runs out in 3 or 4 years I should be able to buy Turbocad 2022 or later for about 1/3rd suggested retail price on the surplus/closeout market. By 2022 TurboCAD will be able to do different layers of a drawing in different colors like AutoCAD 2018 does. For the kind of commercial work I will do "drawing space" can be black and white.

Very likely Windows 12 will have a built-in virtual machine that runs 32-bit applications in 1 or 2 4 GB RAM partitions so that Maxisquash er I mean Microsoft will not have to build and sell separate 32-bit and 64-bit editions and make people do either-or booting and having to download 2 sets of updates. Instead, Windows 12 will boot both a 32-bit version and 64-bit version simultaneously.

Actually Digital Equipment Corporation did that in the 1970s with the DECsystem-20 which used a program called PA1050.exe that converted DECsystem-10 OS calls to Tenex OS calls without using a virtual machine to run both OSes.