[SOLVED] Windows Freezes/Restarts after trying to update to 1909

thunder0024

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I saw the little icon on the taskbar pop up telling me I had to update. So I check for updates, and it showed four:
Windows 10 version 1909
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool x64 - November 2019
2019-10 Update for Windows 10 version 1803
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows 10

It tried to install 1909, then got stuck at 80% and restarted. Ever since then, it just restarts itself after about 30 seconds after logging in. Issue isn't present in safe mode. When opening the Update Settings, I can see it trying to initialize the updates. It tries to do 1909, restarts, tries to do 1803, then repeats. My computer is unusable at this point.
I've tried using the Update Assistant from the Microsoft website to no avail.

Any suggestions? I'm trying to avoid doing a reset due to some practically irreplaceable programs on the boot drive. I've tried reverting to a restore point, but those have never worked for me.
 
Solution
Did you try any of these? https://windowsreport.com/windows-keeps-installing-same-update/

settings screen does not function in safe mode, so that could be reason safe mode works fine and yet normal mode doesn't.

If the USB isn't the solution, Clean install of 1909 is likely the fastest way out of this, especially if you already had problems updating 1803 before. with windows update stuck in a loop, there isn't much you can do.

Copy anything you want to save onto another drive
d/c the extra drives before you clean install - win 10 might use space on it to put the efi partition.
follow this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/how-to-do-a-clean-installation-of-windows-10.3170366/
once pc boots off ssd without any...

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
What version of win 10 were you running?

The order is wrong, it should if anything update 1803 before installing 1909. 1909 is just bug fixes but if you so far behind, its hard to tell what it does.

running USB install as an update will at least get him onto 1903, as that is current ISO. Hopefully win 10 update smart enough to not install updates in the wrong order again.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
"practically irreplaceable programs "

You need to get a handle on this. What if the actual drive were to die?

For your update, I had mostly the same issue with my wife's PC.
It would not move past v1803. And it's attempts to do so would take a LOT longer than 30 secs. A couple of hours of 'frozen' and a couple of reboots, and finally.."Update failed, going back to the previous version".

After months of it doing this, I finally gave up and did a full wipe and reinstall.
Sometimes that IS the answer, no matter how painful that may be.
 

thunder0024

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Thank you for the replies!

I legit couldn't tell you what version I was running, but I think the last time I updated it was in September. Managed to reach the update history, before it rebooted, and it says it successfully installed 1803 last night, then proceeded to try and download it again.
I'll give the USB a shot.
"Irreplaceable" is the wrong word. More like "a pain in the butt to keep track of and get back". It was 4am and I was frustrated, cut me some slack :p
If it's of any help to you, windows is on an SSD with a pretty large amount of space left on it.

Oh! One more thing: Prior to the update issues, it said that the Windows Update Service was missing when I checked for the update, but then that seemed to have fixed itself after a restart.
 

thunder0024

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Just tried the Media Creation Tool. A curious thing just happened: As soon as I launched it, the PC froze and rebooted itself just like it does while trying to update.
EDIT: Launched it in Safe Mode, and it worked up until the actual download, where it gave me the 0x8007043C - 0x90017 error.
 
Last edited:

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
create installer on another pc that isn't half way through update process.

I was wrong yesterday, 1909 is current new ISO. They must have swapped it in last few days.

I would guess you on 1803 since that is the version the update is installing for. And yet you had 1909 install... I am not sure how that works, All the version updates until its release would replace the install with a new one... 1909 took 3 minutes to install on my pc, literally as long as it takes to do a restart. SO its not like the others, it just fixes errors, but I wouldn't expect it to install unless you on 1903 already

I don't know how it works
 

thunder0024

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Yeah, I'll try that later, Colif.
I still find it strange that Windows decides to reboot whenever ANYTHING tries to update it. Whether it's the Update Assistant from Microsoft's website, the Media Creation Tool, or it's own Update Settings. I'm getting the feeling that there's a Service or something causing it to halt any update attempts. Initially I thought it was a virus of some sort, and ran a few different scans to no avail. The fact that I can launch the Media Creation Tool in safe mode tells me there's something going on outside of safe mode causing it to reboot.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Did you try any of these? https://windowsreport.com/windows-keeps-installing-same-update/

settings screen does not function in safe mode, so that could be reason safe mode works fine and yet normal mode doesn't.

If the USB isn't the solution, Clean install of 1909 is likely the fastest way out of this, especially if you already had problems updating 1803 before. with windows update stuck in a loop, there isn't much you can do.

Copy anything you want to save onto another drive
d/c the extra drives before you clean install - win 10 might use space on it to put the efi partition.
follow this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/how-to-do-a-clean-installation-of-windows-10.3170366/
once pc boots off ssd without any problems, reattach other drives.
 
Solution

thunder0024

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Thank you for all the help!

I ended up disabling the Windows Update Service and BITS in Services, which I suspected were the causes of the restarts. I also did a few more scans and deleted a trojan that may or may not have been related. After a few more restarts, the Media Creation Tool was able to be launched as an administrator outside of safe mode, and let me update it from there. I did at some point delete the contents of the SoftwareDistribution folder.

I'm still stumped as to what the heck happened, but I'm successfully running 1909 now without any issues yet.

Time for me to get some sleep, then mull over which reply to give "Best Answer" to. Thanks again, everyone!
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
I don't know what 1909 actually adds to win 10, if all it did was change the version number to 1909, it may not be a problem but it depends on what MIcrosoft looks at when it comes to installing updates, will an update for 1803 install if it sees a Version number its not expecting?

I know it added bug fixes but I suspect those all came in previous updates (or did on my pc, previous cumulative update had taken way longer than normal to install for just an update). ON my pc it took 3 minutes to install, compared to 30 minutes or so normally so the actual 1909 update only seems to have changed numbers.

I can see it doesn't seem to change build number as 18363.476 which is what I have installed exists for both 1903 & 1909... although this might be normal. I don't usually look at CU numbers for other versions apart from what I have installed.

Curious question we cannot answer now would be what build number your PC thought it had. If 1909 also changes the build number to 18363.476 then all upgrades for 1803 that follow would fail, and that would be really dumb of MIcrosoft.

Your problem could have been 1909 confusing 1803 or that update was just broken. I haven't seen anyone else come forward (yet) with same problem so I don't know.