thecavern Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 For the last few days, when I've tried to download a new Windows Update from my list it never seems to finish. The progress meter just keeps on grinding away and never gets to the "Installing" phase. I've never had this problem before. Anybody with any ideas out there ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Did you make sure to install the Windows Update Agent 3.0? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecavern Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 Is Windows Update Agent 3.0 new ? This only started happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 No, it's not new. In fact I just realized this isn't in my forum, but Windows Vista. I'm still trying to get used to that so disregard my last post. How long have you been waiting for the updates to install? Is it a new installation of Vista or one that you've been working with for a while now? You might have to try and cancel the updates and try them again. I always hated the new Windows Update with this OS because it seemed to bugged out on me, that or a bunch of updates would fail to install for no reason at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecavern Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 I've waited for up to 45 minutes for a 91KB update. Then I cancelled the update. Size doesn't seem to matter. I've been using Vista for a number of years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Is it just a single update that's having problems or is it a multitude of them? It shouldn't take 45 minutes though. I'm assuming you've already rebooted the computer and tried again? Sometimes that can clear up the stupidest of problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneSerendipity Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 I have experienced the same exact issue with my Vista installations too, and nothing seems to fix it. I guess they have put the servers which have the 10 downloads on priority and thus why Vista's could be too late to deliver the updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenhillmaniac Posted March 20, 2016 Share Posted March 20, 2016 Try downloading the file from this article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/946928 It basically updates the Windows Update Agent to the latest version. There's also this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=1540 Hope it helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelC Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 (edited) In the context of Win 7, where people are reporting the same problems, I have found these things: 1. If you wait long enough, it will complete. Apparently there's just a hard loop on one core in wuausvc that does finally complete. I saw the looping behavior happen both before and after the point where you choose updates. 2. A recent security update that alters Win32k.sys actually seems to solve it. For Win 7 it's KB3139852. I don't know if that's applicable to Vista, but it may be. And, just to be clear, it's not a "server busy" condition, and only indirectly related to what's online. There is NO server or disk activity from wuauserv during this incredible waste of CPU resources. It's just a really tight loop that busies one core for a long time (25+ minutes on my Xeon system) BEFORE showing you the list of updates, and another 25+ minutes after. -Noel Edited March 21, 2016 by NoelC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenhillmaniac Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 4 minutes ago, NoelC said: It *may* apply to Vista, but in the context of Win 7, where people are reporting the same problems, I have found these things: 1. If you wait long enough, it will complete. Apparently there's just a hard loop on one core in wuausvc that does finally complete. I saw the looping behavior happen both before and after the point where you choose updates. 2. A recent security update that alters Win32k.sys actually seems to solve it. For Win 7 it's KB3139852. I don't know if that's applicable to Vista, but it might be. -Noel I know that Vista has the same problem as 7, regarding the long wait times for Windows Update, but on a fresh install of Vista, it will search for updates for atleast an hour and a half, and then report an error, even after updating the Windows Update Agent. You have to apply an update from 2014 that resolves this issue, and reboot (I think it's the one I gave in the second link, but I'm not sure. Haven't used Vista in a while). Also, Vista's Windows Update isn't nearly as bad as 7's. For starters, it doesn't fill the RAM and CPU, when searching for updates. In my VM of 7 with 2GB of RAM, it filled all of the RAM, and made the VM unusable. On Vista I don't have that issue. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
submix8c Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Err... no. v256 is "out there" in spite of the MS link to v226 (and the associated lie) given above. They just don't make it readily known (keep reading).http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/update-repair/23382428-fc43-4a53-98d8-de27009274b0?auth=1 The above link has three files inside the EXE. One determines which of the other two to run, Win7SP1 (v320) or "Older" (v256). Check your "wuapi.dll" version. This has been discussed in the XP threads, so I will assume that the "Downlevel" program is also meant for Vista (which MS also wants to die a slow and horrible death). It seems that XP will go ga-ga if you don't have minimum IE8 and the v256 to run WU. MU is a different story. HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecavern Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 NoelC ---- It looks like you hit on the correct solution. I looked for the Security Update you mentioned for Windows 7. It had to do with Windows kernel-mode drivers for Windows. I found that the same one, KB3139852, was in my list of pending updates. I went ahead and initiated this update. It took quite awhile but did finish. I tried two other updates of various sizes and they finished in a somewhat normal time period. SO -- if you're on Vista, before you apply any other update, install KB3139852. That looks like the solution to a slooooow download. THANKS NOELC !!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaguire Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 (edited) 45 minutes? Bah! I recently did a fresh install of Vista Business x64 and Windows Update took well over 13 hours to return results... This is on a Core 2 Duo with the latest update agent too. I'm about to look into the solution NoelC posted. Edited March 25, 2016 by MrMaguire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
submix8c Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 16 hours ago, MrMaguire said: 45 minutes? Bah! I recently did a fresh install of Vista Business x64 and Windows Update took well over 13 hours to return results... This is on a Core 2 Duo with the latest update agent too. I'm about to look into the solution NoelC posted. The v226 or the v256 one? You didn't say. BTW, you can extract the "v320" and use a CMD prompt run the Downlevel one with "/wuforce" parameter (guess what it means?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaguire Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 2 hours ago, submix8c said: The v226 or the v256 one? You didn't say. BTW, you can extract the "v320" and use a CMD prompt run the Downlevel one with "/wuforce" parameter (guess what it means?). How do I check? It was the most current 64-bit version at least 5 days ago. I've used the /wuforce switch on XP lots of times. It forcibly reinstalls the update agent, even if the installed version is the most current. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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