Windows update never stops checking for updates

Ah -- thanks for the update. I've already done the other two, so it's down to waiting for now.

I appreciate all the feedback, but I have tried everything found on this forum and elsewhere all around the web -- I've lost count of how many strategies I've tried, including the useless Microsoft Troubleshooter -- and nothing has made the slightest bit of difference. The only thing I haven't tried is reloading 7, and aside of being a major pain in the neck, I don't have any faith that it will make the slightest bit of difference.

I'm not blaming anyone here, I'm just blowing off steam. There are several separate threads just here on this forum, many marked solved, and none of them is providing any help. I'm thinking an upgrade to 10 might be in order, but that's an extra expense now.

This is absolutely ridiculous, and it makes me wonder if, when the problem cropped up, Microsoft stopped doing anything about it with the hope that people would take the 10 offer.

BTW, I should note that the last time I checked (I'm on my own PC right now) the CPU usage was around 28% and RAM usage was a little under 2 gb, so it does not appear that the update process is overloading the CPU or RAM. Something else is getting in the way, but I'll be darned if I can figure out what.

Thanks, Blackink. That's actually more encouraging than anything else I've come across so far.

So far, updates are still not found, and one or more of the measures I took reset Update, so the history was deleted. However, as of this morning it is turning up a little history. One update, KB3050265, was successful on 1/7/17.

There were 6 listed that failed (attempted on 1/7/17) so with Update turned off (i.e., "don't look for updates") I tried downloading and installing the ones that failed, and they failed again. One gave me a notice after reboot but just before the sign-in screen that read "update failed, reverted" followed by 7 rebooting without the update. I suspect that was the case with all, except one that read "not applicable" today.

For what it's worth, these are the updates that failed:

KB3125574 (this is the one with which I saw the "reverted" message)
KB3172605 (I think this one read “not applicable” when I tried it today)
KB3161664
KB3156417
KB3175973
KB3185278

I know there are many more that failed over the past several months, but I can't call them up anymore.

Something else that occurred to me is the dreaded KB3035583 "free 10 upgrade." I just found it on this 7 PC even though 10 is no longer offered for free or being forced. When I tried to uninstall it, Windows returned a the message "An error occurred. Not all of the updates were successfully uninstalled." Could this be the wrench in the works?

Here’s another thought, also for what it's worth. I apologize if it sounds like a tangent, but I believe it's relevant.

I tried the 10-over-7 upgrade on my PC and it didn’t take, followed by the Update message "Windows 10 was not installed" and a "try again" button. Clicking on “check for updates” blanked that message and looked for 7 updates, but it took hours just to find anything. I finally gave up and installed 10 on a new drive, keeping the drive with 7. Recently, after several months with 10, I needed something from the 7 drive so I plugged it in, got sidetracked with the Update problem, and went looking again for a solution. This time I found one, which was going into the registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade\Rollback

...and deleting the Rollback key. When I did that and rebooted, 7's Update no longer displayed the “not installed” message and found a slew of updates within a minute, followed by installation that took no more than 10-15 minutes.

Long story short: That Rollback key doesn’t exist on my wife’s PC because I never tried to upgrade it to 10, but the OSUpgrade folder is there, with several keys and a sub-folder called State.

Could OSUpgrade be getting in the way? Since 10 is no longer free (or forced), I can’t see why it would be needed, but I don't want to delete it without more information.

Thanks!

Hi, @cpmusic
Post this report in a new question
Windows Genuine and Activation Issue Posting Instructions

Well you really have to cull Optional updates
Once the 10 crap is there it may hose the entire system :)
Items I avoid at all cost


Also just install the security only rollups
KB3207752 and KB3212642 Update for Windows 7 SP1

Blackink, thanks for the clarification. When I was following your directions previously I followed them to the letter, but they didn't help. That's not criticism, just my experience. Eventually I switched Update to "never check" because it made life things simpler when I was trying other fixes.

I think part of the problem here is that Windows just won't install some updates and/or may have some corrupted files. I ran sfc /scannow but it returned a message that the requested operation couldn't be performed, or words to that effect. I ran chkdsk /f but it didn't turn up any problems. I still think there are some internal problems down in there somewhere, but I suspect that a clean installation will be the only thing that helps -- assuming, of course, that 7 doesn't go back into the update loop. I trust nothing like this where Windows is concerned.