Windows Update Hangs at "Checking for Updates"

Any new ideas? Is there anyone else out there who can help?

I've been *attempting* to work with Microsoft Technical Support to resolve the problem. Don't even get me started on them.... For anyone else who might be reading this post, if you want to try to use Microsoft Technical Support, expect them to control your entire life for the time they are "helping" you. They will remote control your computer. They will uninstall whatever software or drivers they want. They will call you whenever they feel like it, regardless of your local time or when you might reasonably be expected to be asleep.

Well....of the approximately 30 hours I have spent so far interacting with Tier I technicians (otherwise known as give-you-the-runaround technicians) or waiting for Tier II technicians, maybe 1 or 2 of those hours have actually been spent on the phone with a Tier II technician. In retrospect, wiping my computer would probably have been less frustrating and taken less time, but here I am, all the same.

These are the steps the Tier II technician took me through:
1) Reverting my Wifi driver to one from 2010.
2) Step #1 caused Windows to automatically detect and install the "Microsoft Virtual Wifi Miniport Adapter" a driver from 2006.
3) Installing Microsoft Security Essentials (and by the way, the Tier II technician was ready to uninstall WebRoot without replacing it with anything, insisting that my computer, even though it was connected to the Internet, was not going to be vulnerable to viruses unless I downloaded something myself!)
4) Uninstalling WebRoot.
5) Downloading the Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 setup disk here: Windows 7 Home Premium Free Download ISO 32 Bit 64 Bit
6) Running the Windows Installer, with the options "Do not get the latest updates" and "Upgrade", which got partway through, then failed with no error code displayed.

At the time, none of these steps appeared to make any difference. Windows Update still hung on the checking updates screen.

As I attempted to use my computer for other things, I noticed that it was becoming incredibly sluggish. So I opened up Task Manager and found that svchost was leaking memory. Now I had seen this issue before, so I knew where to look. I opened up Services and saw that the Windows Update service was running, even though I had previously set its startup type to "Manual" and stopped it. I can only assume that Microsoft Security Essentials started the service for me. I stopped it again and immediately, the svchost memory leak was resolved.

I left the house. When I came back, I noticed my computer had actually crashed! Perhaps MSE had restarted Windows Update again and the memory leaked until it ran out.

Wow, MS Tech Support, what a big improvement! (<---sarcasm)

Here is the crash message I received when I rebooted:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 9f
BCP1: 0000000000000003
BCP2: FFFFFA80046A0060
BCP3: FFFFF800051604D8
BCP4: FFFFFA80079E56C0
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\090115-29562-01.dmp
C:\Users\Ribona\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-252378-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
Windows 7 Privacy Statement - Microsoft Windows

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

----END OF MESSAGE----

I have attached a zipped version of the dump file. I was unable to find the XML file. Perhaps it was already overwritten.

Now here is where things get really interesting.....

I left my computer on overnight. I assume that MSE started the Windows Update service again. This morning, I got a message from Windows Update that updates had been installed and my computer needed to be rebooted! I checked the Windows Update window and it apparently successfully checked for updates at 3am and installed them at 8am. I rebooted.

Then, I ran Windows Update again. It took about 15 minutes to get past the checking updates screen, but it did, and offered me a few other updates to install. I am about to do that now.

I have no idea how this problem actually got resolved, or even if it IS resolved in a sustainable way. I suppose my computer can survive with WiFi drivers from 2010 and 2006, so I will probably leave those alone. However, I don't trust Microsoft and I don't trust Microsoft Security Essentials. So, my next steps will be to reinstall WebRoot, uninstall MSE, and see if Windows Updates still works. And I also want to see if the Windows Update memory leak issue returns.....

So please keep this thread open, and I am very happy to get any input from anyone who has a clue about what is going on.

Thanks!

There have been several threads as of late mentioning Windows update hanging. I've been following your thread and you had a reason for the hang, but several new members just were not giving it enough time. It seems that tons of people are hitting the update servers so that they can move to W10.

Now that you are seeing some updates, set the computer not to sleep and let it scan over night - if need be.

As far as MS tech support. Yep, they called me while I was asleep too. Don't be surprised if level II support wants to start all over - repeated the same scripted steps that level I support did. In my case, (years ago) I had several XP computers that would not update Microsoft Security Essentials. I spent way more than 30 hours with MS support. They did not solve the problem. I was letting them remote into a virtual machine, so I did not care what they changed.

I eventually found the solution in a MS forum post from a user (not MS staff) that had the same issue. It seems that MSE hard coded the location of the OS temp folder. If the OS environmental variable pointed to a different temp folder location, MSE failed to update.

It's previous overnight scans did not move past checking for updates. The most recent one did. Most of the troubleshooting steps I took failed. Of the ones that succeeded, I am baffled as to why media sample files, or a WiFi driver, or WebRoot would be interfering with Windows Updates, but otherwise working fine.

I am now more concerned about the Windows Update service memory leak, restoring WebRoot and getting rid of MS Security Essentials.

Shelli said:

It's previous overnight scans did not move past checking for updates. The most recent one did. Most of the troubleshooting steps I took failed. Of the ones that succeeded, I am baffled as to why media sample files, or a WiFi driver, or WebRoot would be interfering with Windows Updates, but otherwise working fine.

I am now more concerned about the Windows Update service memory leak, restoring WebRoot and getting rid of MS Security Essentials.

I understand that previous overnight scans failed. You were wise to at least leave it that long. My point is: even though you saw some updates come thru in a relatively short time frame, you might still need to let it sit for a long time on occasion.

If you plan on working with MS support again, you might as well leave MSE installed. MSE is good to use while troubleshooting numerous issues. Perhaps the chances of Webroot being the cause of the WU failures are slim, but the quickest way to find out is to replace it with MSE. MS knows that there are no known conflicts between MSE and WU.

How can you tell a WU memory leak from WU working normally? I'm not being sarcastic. I'm just wondering how that is done.

UsernameIssues said:

How can you tell a WU memory leak from WU working normally? I'm not being sarcastic. I'm just wondering how that is done.

First, open Task Manager and get it to show you processes from all users. (I am assuming you have some basic knowledge of these troubleshooting steps, but I'm happy to provide more detailed instructions if you need them.) You'll see that one instance of svchost is consuming ridiculous amounts of memory (in my case, the leak will easily surpass 1GB of memory).

Next, open Services and locate the Windows Update service. It will be running. Arrange your windows so that you can see what happens in the Task Manager while you manipulate Services. Stop the Windows Update service. Watch svchost go back to its usual ~100MB memory consumption.

That's how I can diagnose a WU memory leak. One service using 1GB of memory can't possibly be normal operation for a 64-bit operating system that claims it can run on 2GB of memory. I mean, I have 4GB of memory, and when this leak starts happening, my computer becomes unresponsive and (presumably) crashes if I don't kill the WU service. Questions?

Thanks for the great answer. I knew how I would look for that leak. I was just wondering what steps you took. Sorry for not being clear. My last sentence did make it look like I wanted instructions.

1GB seems a bit much, but I've never paid much attention to it in the past.

I would say that a fresh install would be best - but you could end up in the same state. That is what happened to me at work. Tech support insisted that a fresh install would cure the issues that I was having. I had to put up with a fresh install just to show them otherwise. All of the issues remained.

Work with the current install for as long as you can. Learning the root cause is of value.

Any ideas of how else I could go about looking for the root cause?