Windows 8 If Windows Update Fails...

[Drew]

If Windows Update is failing, especially if the Win8 install was an Upgrade from a prior Windows OS, do the following:

Command Prompt, Run as Admin

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Hit ENTER

After that finishes...

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Hit ENTER

Reboot & retry Windows Update

Cheers,
Drew

 

[Medico]

I had not seen this before, so after reading Drew's post I had to see what this does. The Windows Servicing Guy explains in the TechNet Blog. Thanks for the info.

It does appear though that ScanHealth scans and logs corruption, whereas RestoreHealth scans and logs corruption, then fixes that corruption.

ScanHealth technically would not be needed, you can just run RestoreHealth.

 

[davehc]

I believe this was the same function as was released to Vista Beta testers, and updated through Windows 8 (. "System Update readiness tool". Same command line, and the same function?

System Update Readiness Tool fixes Windows Update errors in Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008


A real Magic tool. It saved a lot of reinstallations. It is , I believe, the "refresh" option in Windows 8.

 

[Drew]

David, I have had experience w/ this & I assure you it is definitely not the Refresh of Windows 8. Refresh keeps data loses applications. This does nothing like that, @ all. If I were to try to compare it to anything, I say it's closer to when we used to use MS Fix-it to solve Update issues.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[Moofus21]

I recently upgraded from Vista to Windows 8. The new system is running fine but every time it runs the updates it says there is a problem with the computer. Clicking on the autofix does not solve it, so I have to System Restore to get a working computer. I looked through some Windows Forum and tried using Action Center/troubleshooting problems/fix problem with Windows update. I got a message saying "Stopping Bits service" but this ran for 30+ mins without completion and I abandoned it.
Would the DISM/.../RestoreHealth work?

 

[Drew]

Moo,

Yes, it is very likely & I would certainly recommend giving it a shot, absolutely & ASAP.

Also, > Services to BITS; stop it & Restart it or Refresh it but, get it running. Make sure WU Service is active. For both of these > Properties > Dependencies and make sure their dependencies are active, as well.

> CP > Windows Update, make sure is set to (Recommended) Auto.

Keep in touch.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[Moofus21]

Drew,

I ran Action Center>troubleshooting problems>fix problems with WU and it ran to completion this time with the following messages:
(I also checked WU services and I had stopped it when it was causing problems and so restarted it. The dependencies - RPC & DCOM were running ok).

Windows Update components are incorrectly configured and must be repaired (not action - red cross)
Potential WU database error detected 0x80070490 (this was fixed - green check mark)
then on getting more details... Default WU data location have changed and must be repaired.

I checked the BITS service and it said it was "stopping".

I have not run the DISM.exe yet. I wanted to check with you first.

Thanks very much for your assistance.
Moofus21.

 

[Drew]

Ok, so far. Go ahead & run DISM. exe & reboot afterwards. At any point have sfc/ scannow & CHKDSC been done? If you mentioned, I don't recall.

Also, anything regarding success w/ WU (or not) is a FREE call to MS Tech Support, btw. # is 1-866-727-2338

I would recommend this rather than putting yourself through any time or fuss. Let them deal w/ it for you.

Although, I'd do the DISM thing, 1st.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[Moofus21]

Ok, so far. Go ahead & run DISM. exe & reboot afterwards. At any point have sfc/ scannow & CHKDSC been done? If you mentioned, I don't recall.

Also, anything regarding success w/ WU (or not) is a FREE call to MS Tech Support, btw. # is 1-866-727-2338

I would recommend this rather than putting yourself through any time or fuss. Let them deal w/ it for you.

Although, I'd do the DISM thing, 1st.

Cheers,
Drew
View attachment 1180

Thanks Drew.

No I have not run CHKDSC or scannow (not familiar with this one). I believe I may have CHKDSC a while ago. No updates have been successful since I upgraded to Windows 8, so I will call MS Tech Support. And I will run DISM.exe/Online/Cleanup-Image/RestoreHealth from the command prompt first.

Thanks again fro you assistance. I'll let you know how it turns out.

regards,
Moofus21.

 

[Drew]

Yes, in that case contact MS. Anxious to read your update(s) (no pun intended :S) You're welcome for my help.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[Moofus21]

Drew,
Here is my successful experience with MS Tech Support. It is a little long, but I figure you are probably interested.

First off, I ran DISM.exe ... RestoreHealth. It came back with "Error 0x800f0906, Source files could not be downloaded. Use the Source option to specify the location of the files that are required to restore the feature."

So I called MS Tech Support and, surprisingly, despite the heavy load warning, I got through in a couple of minutes. I explained the story-so-far and was forwarded to a technician (in Jaipur) who seemed familiar with the issue and assured me he would fix it.

I tried to follow what he was doing, but much of it went by too quickly. He did a couple of things which caused the PC to reboot a couple of times. He also downloaded an MS Support Diagnostic Tool. Then he ran Action Center as I had before. AC fixed two issues.
He then ran DISM.exe ... ScanHealth, which came back with an issue and message "component store is repairable". Then he ran DISM.exe ... RestoreHealth. So things looked good. After this ran, there appeared to be an issue which was not fixed. He did not pause here, so I was unable to see what it was and when I asked him about this, he said not to be concerned, it was ok.

He then downloaded and installed 13 updates, rebooted and it came up with the message I was getting before! "PC ran into problems". The PC tried to auto-repair itself, with two reboots, but as before, it came back with "could not repair' and gave me the usual options (proceed to Win8, shut down, or Advanced Troubleshooting). We selected the third option and (as before) were given three options: Refresh your computer, shut down or other options. (I had selected the third option twice previously and ended up doing a System Restore). In this instance, the technician told me to Refresh the computer. We discussed this a little, but he was confident to go ahead.

After the Refresh and reboot, he said everything was solved. I told him I would not be assured until I had gone through a couple of updates. Well I went through the first round yesterday and it went smoothly, so, so far, so good. With all of the reboots, scans, refresh, it took over 4 hours!

I am not sure if any of this is useful or interesting to you, but I thought I owed you the end result for your much-appreciated assistance. So thanks once again.

best regards,
Moofus21

 

[Drew]

Yes, I am interested & thanks for the 'update'. Terrific, amazing & rare that you were not on 'Hold' for long. I am glad it sounds like they dealt w/ things for you and good all is ok, now. I'm glad if I was any help in any way, you're welcome for that.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[TuoKenny]

I'm getting QUITE annoyed with Windows 8! There are several things I really like about it, but the problems are getting to be overwhelming.

First off, I did a clean install of WIN8 from a purchased upgrade disk onto a brand new SSD. After much fiddling, I got things working nicely. Then I started getting problems with File Explorer. It would slow down, slower, slower, then effectively stop. Via Task Manager I would restart, but this kept getting worse and worse. I searched this forum for info, but nothing has worked yet. There are times now when I can't copy a file, or save a file from an application in anything but the default location, as everything stops when I try to navigate to a different folder or drive.

The next major issue was in Windows Updates. Every time I started up the computer it would try to install updates - and fail. This meant LONG waits to start up, only to have the system revert back, then start up. It was always the same updates that failed (though I personally failed by not writing them down!), but it seemed to update things like Defender definition files. I tried various suggestions in this forum, but instead of correcting the problem, it left me with a strange situation - now when I look at Installed Updates, the newest ones are from January, even though Defender says it is up to date! When checking manually for updates, Windows Update fails due to Code 80244FFF. When I try to find out what this code means, Windows Help says it knows nothing about it.

SO NOW - I can't update anything.

I have run Defender scans and Malawarebytes scans - nothing found.

Oh, one other thing - I did update firmware of one of the HDD data disks. Since I did this, I now always get a "Non-system disk, press any key to continue" error when booting up. Very strange, since the firmware update had nothing to do with the system disk (the SSD). The updated HDD is NOT set up as an alternate boot device in BIOS.

This is getting annoying beyond belief! Any suggestions?

 

[Drew]

Kenny,

1st, sorry about taking so long to reply.

My recommendation is disconnect all your peripherals (Printer, external drive, et al) and install the OS over again, from scratch. You can even undo the HDD until after the OS is live. Never mind fussing about, just do it afresh.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[TuoKenny]

I went ahead and (after doing a lot of backup) did a clean install of Windows 8. Before that, though, I removed the PCI USB3 card, as well as one of the two HDDs. Things seem to be back to normal, though I still have problems with File Explorer. It still occasionally stalls or stops. And Search is ridiculous! I do not have the SSD indexed, but I do have the one remaining HDD indexed, but it still takes literally hours to complete a "Search Computer" action.

Good news on one front, though - Updates seem to be working fine now.

Sigh.