Windows Update is Frozen (Windows 7 64-Bit)

[Mathew Kirkegaard]

Hello!

Windows Update for Windows 7 64-Bit has been hanging in 'Checking for Updates...' mode. It used to hang at 0% (0KB) until I made some changes (listed below).

My computer is equipped with avast! Free Antivirus 2016 and Windows Firewall and my Internet connection (AT&T U-Verse on 2WIRE) appears to be functioning normally.

I have attempted to do the following:

• 
  Choose one update instead of all.
  Restart the computer.
  Shut down the computer, unplug, and drain residual power.
  Search Google for solutions.
  Disable avast! and check for Windows Updates again.
  Run Microsoft Fix It.
  Use Auglogics Registry Cleaner to find errors and fix them.
  Run avast! to check for viruses.
  Run MalwareBytes to check for malware.
  Purge the Windows\SoftwareDistribution directory.
  Boot into Safe Mode and run Disk Cleanup.
  Run a verified .bat file to reset Windows Update back to default state (logs and history).
  Uninstall avast! Antivirus and check for Windows Updates without antivirus software.
  Scan with Windows Defender.
  Reinstall avast! Antivirus and scan.
  Install Windows Update Agent.
  Quick-Search these forums for answers.

In addition, I had virus definitions from September 2015, but avast! told me that the definitions were the most recent. After reinstalling the software, the definitions appear to be from today. Despite all of the aforementioned efforts, I appear to have not made any significant progress. The only option I found in these forums is to use the WSUS Offline Updater, but I don't know how reliable that is. I am not certain what else to do at this point and while the computer functions and I can proceed with work, I must have functioning updates.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

 

[johnnyb105]

Try this and do as it says always worked for me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH3jJ1tpCDg

 

[Mathew Kirkegaard]

Thanks for replying! Unfortunately, none of the options in that video worked. I could have an infection, but the aforementioned software hasn't found anything. Also, when I went as far as using WSUS Offline, I received the following error:
ERROR: Download failure for ___ glb

The blank is filled with the type of update targeted for retrieval, such as Office 2010.

 

[Mathew Kirkegaard]

The problems were resolved yesterday at some point, but I can't specify what--if anything--corrected them. Basically, after over an hour of waiting, the 'Checking for Updates' status changed (despite having a fast Internet connection), but I've seen a set of updates before which also did not work, so that was nothing new to me.

Eventually, a small update (less than a megabyte, I think) took an hour or so to finally download and install, but the downloaded data was never shown (in percentage OR KB size). Eventually, I repeated this process for groups of other updates and the cycle became faster as time went on, even with larger updates. I managed to clear the whole update set over time and now Windows Update appears to function normally. I don't even know how to properly report the results other than what I mentioned, either. Thanks for your help.