Windows 10 Windows Update "Error Encountered" and other Windows services failing

Polymelon

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Sep 19, 2015
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Hi,

After installing Windows 10 Home on a new (first time) RAID 0 machine, Windows 10 keeps failing to update. I have even gone as far as to re-install Windows and formatting all my drives. The first time this happened, which was yesterday, Windows failed to update with the message "Error Encountered" and "We couldn't connect to the update service." I then had a chat with a Microsoft support agent after going through the Virtual Agent. I ended up doing a /sfc scannow and reinstalling Windows. Windows Update still fails, but at least the Troubleshooter was able to run although it didn't discover anything.

Any help?
 

Polymelon

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Sep 19, 2015
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Hi, thanks for your reply.

I had a 250gb SSD with Windows on it and another one that was unused, so I wanted to combine them to install Windows and apps on it.

The specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 Boxed
Motherboard: MSI H170 GAMING M3
Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury HX421C14FBK2/16
SSD 1: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
SSD 2: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB

 

Polymelon

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Sep 19, 2015
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Yes, I've read about the possible data loss and the lack of performance boost with this setup. I simply wanted to "merge" the SSDs so that I could use a 500gb drive instead of 2 seperate ones, but it seems like it backfired. I can revert to the previous setup if it's really this bad.
 

Polymelon

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Sep 19, 2015
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Yeah the tools and keys I've used so far are all legit and Windows was activated every single time.
 
failing to connect to a update server can be caused by a network driver, two many tcp/ip connections or a router problem.

you can check your current connections by starting cmd.exe or powershell as an admin then run
netstat.exe /b

it will show the current stat of all of the network connections and the program that is using them. These are a limited resource. when one connection is closed there is a 300 second wait before it can be recycled.
run the program and see if something stupid is using all of your connections. if so, you can shutdown the program before doing your updated.

streaming programs you don't use can tie up connections.
programs streaming to a loopback driver can tie up connections.

generally, when you run out of connections the transport will put a event in the event log and will start to throttle the connections to slow it down.

there are some cases where you have to delete the software distribution cache before windows update starts working again.
there are some hacking programs that block access to the windows update and might fake a response. they do this so the activation appears to work. I think the block works for up to 180 days before you have real problems. updates tend to wipe out the hack and the true state of the activation is revealed.
generally these programs are run once a day in the task scheduler

generally it would be best to not use raid, in your case you would install windows on the first drive using sata AHCI then install the second drive as a subdirectory on your c: drive
see: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-mount-hard-drive-folder-windows-10
or google "how to mount a second drive as a ntfs subdirectory"

 

Polymelon

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Sep 19, 2015
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Yeah the Windows keys are linked to hardware or an MS account if you sign in with that, but that only worked for my laptop. I bought another key for my desktop (the second key for it..) to try that out but that didn't solve it yesterday. What's even more weird is that after so many fresh installs and different setups it still keeps displaying the same error and symptoms.
 
generally if you have a hack installed that is blocking updates, you could run powershell.exe or cmd.exe as an admin then run
dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

most of the hack also disable this fix by replacing the dism.exe command.

I would also go into cmd.exe as an admin and run
ipconfig.exe /all
so you can see the configuration of the network adapters
to check for proper router seteup (gateway, dns,...)
 

Polymelon

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Sep 19, 2015
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Alright, so we're one day further. I've now even tried it with a Windows 8 installation disk, and it still had issues. The errors are failing to run the troubleshooter, failing to activate Windows 8 or 10, failing to connect to the DNS servers, failing to run Windows update, etc.

I'm starting to think it's connected to a hardware or external issue. Although my other devices and laptop work on the same router.
 
OK, so there are a few reasons for this I can think of.
1. Servers down - probably not, it'd be widely known
2. Router blocking the path to servers - not likely as laptops work
3. ISO from a version of win10 that was not happy updating (my memory is triggering about something) - unlikely you said you had a fresh iso from MS, if not get a 100% fresh one
4. Bad install - unlikely given that you've done clean installs
5. Hardware incompatability - unlikely i5-6500
6. Not activating and therefore not updating - possible, it would tell you about not being activated
7. cracked ISO preventing updating - you say MS iso, so probably not
8. Bad/lack of update preventing another update - possibly? Was the spectre update a kind of mandatory thing that would stop later updates?
9. Some other program that is installed causes a problem - unlikely as it was a clean install.
10. Additional payload on the USB stick infecting the installation - possible I suppose?
11. PC that the iso is being downloaded on is some how impacting the install media - unlikely given the win8 disk (seems like an old disk by the description) results

There's one viable option in that list and I don't feel optimistic about it. Anyone got any other thoughts?
 

Polymelon

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Sep 19, 2015
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Thanks again for your reply. I'm currently trying it with a default Windows 10 Home key in offline mode with only one SATA drive attached. Maybe I can get something working this time and then upgrade to a new Windows 10 EDU key I have (might start a retail store for all of them lmao).

 

Polymelon

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Sep 19, 2015
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Well.. https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/6qj4xl/everything_fails_with_0x80072f8f_error_on_clean/
And I thought I would never need to use a VPN...