Download / Install Failed - No Error Code

I had this problem before, thought i had resolved it by manually installing
SP2, but now its broke again.

Basically i go to windows update site, it finds all the right updates (with
the exception of trying to degrade my .NET 2 beta to 1.1 - but I ain't
worried abotu that). Anway, I choose some downloads or let the express thing
choose them for me .. and it lists all updates as 0KB (despite them being
many more than that...). I try to download... it says downloading ... within
seconds (even though my connection is 512kbps, and the downloads are many
megs) it says download complete. It then says install failed and thats it.

There is no entry in the WU log, nor the history... As mentioned already i
had this problem before, and was advised to put SP2 on manually. I did this
and for a while is updated fine. It did two updates, then just stopped
mid-way throught the third and went back to the original problem.

This is very annoying since Office/IE/ etc is unstable/unsafe and wants the
Critical Updates for SP2....

I know other people were having this problem too, and wondered if they had
found any working resolutions?

r9paul,

I would like to help. Were you able to completely install
Windows XP SP2? The reason I ask is that you mention you
were able to install SP2 manually, but then you mention
that Office and Internet Explorer are prodding you for
critical updates from SP2.

One other question: Did you back up your files before
installing XP SP2? While answering these questions, I
suggest uninstalling XP SP2 and reinstalling it.

Please do post back here with the results and answers, and
perhaps we'll discover what the problem is.

Pat Walters [MSFT]

>-----Original Message-----
>I had this problem before, thought i had resolved it by
manually installing
>SP2, but now its broke again.
>
>Basically i go to windows update site, it finds all the
right updates (with
>the exception of trying to degrade my .NET 2 beta to 1.1 -
but I ain't
>worried abotu that). Anway, I choose some downloads or
let the express thing
>choose them for me .. and it lists all updates as 0KB
(despite them being
>many more than that...). I try to download... it says
downloading ... within
>seconds (even though my connection is 512kbps, and the
downloads are many
>megs) it says download complete. It then says install
failed and thats it.
>
>There is no entry in the WU log, nor the history... As
mentioned already i
>had this problem before, and was advised to put SP2 on
manually. I did this
>and for a while is updated fine. It did two updates, then
just stopped
>mid-way throught the third and went back to the original
problem.
>
>This is very annoying since Office/IE/ etc is
unstable/unsafe and wants the
>Critical Updates for SP2....
>
>I know other people were having this problem too, and
wondered if they had
>found any working resolutions?
>.
>

> I would like to help

Thanks

> Were you able to completely install Windows XP SP2?

Yes. I downloaded the "network admin" or whatever its called version ... the
installer binary ... since Windows Update wouldn't work. SP2 didn't break WU,
it just didn't fix it.

> The reason I ask is that you mention you were able to install SP2 manually, but then you mention that Office and Internet Explorer are prodding you for critical updates from SP2.

When i goto the WU, it scans fine and tells me I need various critical
updates for IE and Office... but WU won't let me get any of them.

> One other question: Did you back up your files before installing XP SP2?

It had a manual sys-restore point, and my documents are backed up
automatically.

> Uninstall / Reinstall SP2

Yes, but its worth pointing out again that it wasn't SP2 which broke it.. it
was already broken. The problem began at some point while my machine was
running SP1... other posts here suggested perhaps installing SP2 would fix
it.. but it didn't

Since WU logs are not giving me any kind of help at all I am assuming that
something breaks before it even gets to startign a log event -- which
suggests the problem is in the webclient or the backend. In the same way my
auto-updates have not been working, they are enabled but don't do anything.