Windows update checks for updates for hours without any actions

mblue said:

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I am a bit perturbed with that wait time to download core updates.
~~~

It is annoying and perplexing. I've spent way to much time looking into possible causes and workarounds. See my ramblings in this post: Windows Update stuck at scanning for updates... forever

Layback Bear,

I think that mblue was talking about 3 different computers in the part that you quoted:

"No, neither of these* were fresh installs. I left it** run on Friday just before dinner...


*from post #4:
I can say that updating my friend's PC (W7) only took ~1 min of waiting.
Updating my work laptop (W7) also took 1-2 min of waiting.


**the fresh install in the OP
The 170+ updates were for that computer

I am still in the process of downloading and installing updates on a fresh install.

The latest one started last Saturday and yesterday there were some of the downloads that were installed but again taking loads of time.

What I noticed however was that, while in the process of searching for updates, the processor use was at 100% all the time.

(you can check this by running task manager/processes at the same time you start updating, you will see processor use going way up to 100%.

So I searched on the internet for posts that reported similar problems and found this:
Searching for updates takes ages on freshly installed Windows 7 Pro - Super User

It gives links to updates that should eliminate the problem.

Download Update for Windows 7 (KB3050265) from Official Microsoft Download Center

Download Update for Windows 7 (KB3102810) from Official Microsoft Download Center

So MS seems to be aware of these problems and even has updates for it, at least that is what they want to make us believe because after installing this the problem wasn't gone and processor use stayed as high.
The first one, addressing a svchost.exe problem, even had the same problem, it kept “searching for updates on this computer” for hours and failed to bring up any positive result.

Also I tried other different fixes relating to slow download of updates that MS offers but none of them gave any relief.

After these updates failing to do what they were supposed to do I shut down the PC and will wait updating until I found a solution to this processor use problem because it probably isn’t very healthy for a processor to run for days at end on a 100% use, who knows what problems that might bring and maybe even physically damaging the PC.

So we can be quite sure that the problem lies with svchost.exe but the way to fix it did not yet work for me on this PC but maybe it will do the trick on any of yours on this thread.

Please let us know.


RI.