Windows 7 updates stall

[eugeneg]

I have been trying to update Windows 7 Home Premium x64 but after several hours it remains 'Checking for updates...'

I have uninstalled all virus protection software
I have tried turning automatic updates off, rebooting then back on.
I have tried disabling non Microsoft services and startups
I stopped the appropriate services, deleted the cache, re registered the DLLs
I did an inplace update of Windows
I restored the image I took a couple of days ago then asked the already downloaded update to install - that too stalled.
Most recently I have downloaded a fresh copy of the .ISO and burnt it to a USB stick, then replaced the disk drive and did a fresh installation to that.

I looked in the event log and see that "Failed extract of third-party root list from auto update cab at: <http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/authrootstl.cab> with error: A required certificate is not within its validity period when verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signed file."
I see that my system clock is set correctly. I have deleted all the url cache entries.

I can reach any website I try, and other (admittedly not Windows 7) PCs will update fine through the same router.

I have manually downloaded and installed KB3179573 August 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Update Agent 7.6.7600.320

The idea bin is now dry and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[hang-the-9]

Every time I have run across a failed Win 7 update issue, the two patches that fixed it every time were KB3020369 and then KB3172605. If you run the patch and it sits at checking for updates when you run it, kill the wusa task, then stop and start the update service. Run the patch again, it will install.

 

[eugeneg]

hang-the-9, elevating you to genius would be to understate your wisdom.

 

[hang-the-9]

hang-the-9, elevating you to genius would be to understate your wisdom.

Does that mean it worked? Or are you looking to sell me something LOL?

 

[feistynancy]

Every time I have run across a failed Win 7 update issue, the two patches that fixed it every time were KB3020369 and then KB3172605. If you run the patch and it sits at checking for updates when you run it, kill the wusa task, then stop and start the update service. Run the patch again, it will install.

How do you run a patch? I can't get anything other than failed when I try to download updates to my windows 7 home premium 64 bit.

 

[eugeneg]

Search Google for 'KB3020369 download' and that will take you to
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46817
As hang-the-9 said, you will need to use Task Manager to kill wusa then restart the update service.

 

[Johnnyderp]

Hang-the-9 is the ONLY person I've ever seen, to post a reliable and sure solution for this problem. I looked high and low for solutions, from microsoft themselves to every other help website, and downloaded many "fixes" and tools. Nothing worked all the time, until I installed both of these updates.
The only thing I have to add, is that I was never allowed to kill wusa. I just installed immediately after a fresh system boot to install, and everything went well.

 

[cekweb]

Every time I have run across a failed Win 7 update issue, the two patches that fixed it every time were KB3020369 and then KB3172605. If you run the patch and it sits at checking for updates when you run it, kill the wusa task, then stop and start the update service. Run the patch again, it will install.

 

[cekweb]

I have searched the internet for the better part of a week, searching for this solution! Everything I tried was a waste of time until this. I have to happily go along with the rest of the posters, hang-the-9 is a flippin' GENIUS!!!! Thank you X 10!!!

 

[hang-the-9]

I have searched the internet for the better part of a week, searching for this solution! Everything I tried was a waste of time until this. I have to happily go along with the rest of the posters, hang-the-9 is a flippin' GENIUS!!!! Thank you X 10!!!

Well really I just went over some other existing posts on forums and tried things on quite a few systems till I got the magic combination. The biggest issue is that the failing updates can be caused by several things, but for a clean setup not getting updates, updating the windows update service manually first does the trick and the later update roll-up helps as well. This combination likely won't work to fix issues on a corrupt update catalog or some other issue outside of after a clean setup.

The trick to kill wusa and update service was also mostly based on other things I found and a hunch about why the setup kept searching for updates. I figured that if the damn thing was broken it won't find any properly, so why not kill the service. Sure enough that did it.