Updater never stops checking, fresh install, 2 computers.

I'm also talking about win7, and not win10.

I just wanted to clear up any misunderstanding. When i questioned it saying 10+ and he was talking about running win10 with slow updates. Just making sure he didn't think i was talking about win10.

I've reinstalled the system ~6 times over a few days to try and resolve the problem, not once have i had issues with updates coming in slow. Which means it has to be that specific update, and it fails because it's slow?
But also note that i mentioned the update to win update failed and the issue starts afterwards. So i'm thinking it's unrelated to the speed of the update servers.

That's why i'm sceptic of the overloaded server being the cause.

Or did i misunderstand something ?

fusk said:

...I've reinstalled the system ~6 times over a few days to try and resolve the problem, not once have i had issues with updates coming in slow.
~~~
That's why i'm sceptic of the overloaded server being the cause.

Or did i misunderstand something ?

Did you happen to take note of which WU servers you were connecting to? There are a lot of them.

I have taken a W7 virtual machine that only had SP1 and fully patched it dozens of times this year. Sometimes the list of patches is built within 20 minutes - sometimes 20 hours.

I've tried several variations - like skipping the Windows Update Agent patch that it tells me it needs before getting the list of patches. Instead, I installed the latest Windows Update Client*... then tried to get the list of needed patches. I've also watched the network traffic with Wireshark. More than once - I have watched that network traffic for the full 20+ minutes until the list came in. Very little traffic flowed and the Wireshark captures did not help me know why it takes hours some times.

*MS changed the name from agent to client.

So - no matter what the cause is - the answer is the same: be patient.

If you cannot be patient, then keep restarting the computer and manually asking for the list of updates until you happen to get a WU server that likes you.

I see. No i do not know of the wu server. So that might explain things. But so far we're only assuming that is the problem. But i'll try patience.

fusk said:

I see. No i do not know of the wu server. So that might explain things. But so far we're only assuming that is the problem. But i'll try patience.

I agree with the rest of the replies Fusk. Windows 7 updates have been painfully slow lately. I regularly set up new VM's and my last one took around 8 hours before it even picked up the first load of updates.

There's nothing you can do other than wait.

After you've installed all the updates and activated Windows, take a system image and store it away on a separate disk. Then in future you can use that when you need a new install. It'll save you having to download hundreds of updates again.

fusk said:

I see. No i do not know of the wu server. So that might explain things. But so far we're only assuming that is the problem. But i'll try patience.

Patience is a virtue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've never experienced that before. That's why i had difficulties accepting that as the answer.

The patience thingie might have been the solution.