Windows Update downloads but fails to install updates -- This mighthelp!

This morning at work, I was tasked with getting 5 older laptops (Dell
D505's) formatted and installed with just a base Windows XP OS. I did
everything like I normally do, clean-formatted the drive, installed
the OS, installed all the hardware drivers and then went to do Windows
Updates. The Windows Update site showed 98 high-priority updates and
11 optional updates. I unchecked IE 7, checked a few of the optional
updates, told it to install and went to work on other things while it
downloaded and installed. I figured it would take about an hour, so
after that I checked on the machine and was puzzled to see that every
single update had failed to install. I attempted to install just the
high-priority updates, minus IE7, and got the same result.

For the next 4 hours, I scoured the web looking for any possible
solutions. I found solutions to re-register DLL's, to reinstall the
Windows Update Agent, registry keys, clearing the SoftwareDistribution
folder and countless other solutions, but nothing fixed the problem.
The Windows Update logs were showing that the Install phase was
failing with two different error codes, 80240FFF and 80070057. I
searched for any information on these codes, but all I got were the
other solutions I'd already tried and failed.

One other test I performed was to do a clean install on another D505
with an identical hardware configuration, but this time, only install
the chipset and wired-ethernet card drivers. Just enough to get the
machine onto the Internet and to Windows Update. One of the solutions
I read suggested a driver may be interfering with Windows Update.
This test also failed. This was as close to a pristine installation
that I could get, and still was not able to do updates.

Just before I was about to give up, I rebooted the machine once more
and decided to try just installing a few of the updates at the bottom
of the list. To my surprise, I SUCCESSFULLY installed 7 updates.
Then I tried another 15 at the bottom of the list. It worked!
Hmmmmm....So then, I decided to push my luck and try the remaining 74
updates. They worked, too!

At this point, I believe there is a bug in the Windows Update Agent
that if you give it too many updates to process in one go, it fails.
The sweet spot seems to be somewhere between 74 and 89 updates before
it starts to have problems.

If you are also having an issue where the updates download but all
fail to install, and it's a large number of updates, try doing only
half or a third of the updates and see if that works. Hopefully
someone at Microsoft will see this and look into it a bit further.

CrystalBall© sez...

Updates are not installed successfully from Windows Update, from Microsoft
Update, or by using Automatic Updates after you perform a new Windows XP
installation or you repair a Windows XP installation
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144

If at some point you installed the current version of Windows Update Agent,
that was your fix.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

Beholder wrote:
> This morning at work, I was tasked with getting 5 older laptops (Dell
> D505's) formatted and installed with just a base Windows XP OS. I did
> everything like I normally do, clean-formatted the drive, installed
> the OS, installed all the hardware drivers and then went to do Windows
> Updates. The Windows Update site showed 98 high-priority updates and
> 11 optional updates. I unchecked IE 7, checked a few of the optional
> updates, told it to install and went to work on other things while it
> downloaded and installed. I figured it would take about an hour, so
> after that I checked on the machine and was puzzled to see that every
> single update had failed to install. I attempted to install just the
> high-priority updates, minus IE7, and got the same result.
>
> For the next 4 hours, I scoured the web looking for any possible
> solutions. I found solutions to re-register DLL's, to reinstall the
> Windows Update Agent, registry keys, clearing the SoftwareDistribution
> folder and countless other solutions, but nothing fixed the problem.
> The Windows Update logs were showing that the Install phase was
> failing with two different error codes, 80240FFF and 80070057. I
> searched for any information on these codes, but all I got were the
> other solutions I'd already tried and failed.
>
> One other test I performed was to do a clean install on another D505
> with an identical hardware configuration, but this time, only install
> the chipset and wired-ethernet card drivers. Just enough to get the
> machine onto the Internet and to Windows Update. One of the solutions
> I read suggested a driver may be interfering with Windows Update.
> This test also failed. This was as close to a pristine installation
> that I could get, and still was not able to do updates.
>
> Just before I was about to give up, I rebooted the machine once more
> and decided to try just installing a few of the updates at the bottom
> of the list. To my surprise, I SUCCESSFULLY installed 7 updates.
> Then I tried another 15 at the bottom of the list. It worked!
> Hmmmmm....So then, I decided to push my luck and try the remaining 74
> updates. They worked, too!
>
> At this point, I believe there is a bug in the Windows Update Agent
> that if you give it too many updates to process in one go, it fails.
> The sweet spot seems to be somewhere between 74 and 89 updates before
> it starts to have problems.
>
> If you are also having an issue where the updates download but all
> fail to install, and it's a large number of updates, try doing only
> half or a third of the updates and see if that works. Hopefully
> someone at Microsoft will see this and look into it a bit further.

Hi PA Bear.

I am not convinced that this is the case. I have the same issue as has been
described on an XP Pro machine. I have followed all of your advice in
previous posts without any success. I have tried to install the latest
update agent from the microsoft site manually as you or other suggested,
rebooted and it still not succeeded. The question in my mind is how do I
confirm I have the latest update agent installed? Because according to your
advice below success only follows after installing this latest version.

There must be something else missing from what I am doing compared to the
advice I have read that is preventing the update agent from loading.

I am about to re-install the whole OS again and any other advice would be
very useful.

Kind regards

Peter

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

> CrystalBall© sez...
>
> Updates are not installed successfully from Windows Update, from Microsoft
> Update, or by using Automatic Updates after you perform a new Windows XP
> installation or you repair a Windows XP installation
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144
>
> If at some point you installed the current version of Windows Update Agent,
> that was your fix.
> --
> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
> MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>
> Beholder wrote:
> > This morning at work, I was tasked with getting 5 older laptops (Dell
> > D505's) formatted and installed with just a base Windows XP OS. I did
> > everything like I normally do, clean-formatted the drive, installed
> > the OS, installed all the hardware drivers and then went to do Windows
> > Updates. The Windows Update site showed 98 high-priority updates and
> > 11 optional updates. I unchecked IE 7, checked a few of the optional
> > updates, told it to install and went to work on other things while it
> > downloaded and installed. I figured it would take about an hour, so
> > after that I checked on the machine and was puzzled to see that every
> > single update had failed to install. I attempted to install just the
> > high-priority updates, minus IE7, and got the same result.
> >
> > For the next 4 hours, I scoured the web looking for any possible
> > solutions. I found solutions to re-register DLL's, to reinstall the
> > Windows Update Agent, registry keys, clearing the SoftwareDistribution
> > folder and countless other solutions, but nothing fixed the problem.
> > The Windows Update logs were showing that the Install phase was
> > failing with two different error codes, 80240FFF and 80070057. I
> > searched for any information on these codes, but all I got were the
> > other solutions I'd already tried and failed.
> >
> > One other test I performed was to do a clean install on another D505
> > with an identical hardware configuration, but this time, only install
> > the chipset and wired-ethernet card drivers. Just enough to get the
> > machine onto the Internet and to Windows Update. One of the solutions
> > I read suggested a driver may be interfering with Windows Update.
> > This test also failed. This was as close to a pristine installation
> > that I could get, and still was not able to do updates.
> >
> > Just before I was about to give up, I rebooted the machine once more
> > and decided to try just installing a few of the updates at the bottom
> > of the list. To my surprise, I SUCCESSFULLY installed 7 updates.
> > Then I tried another 15 at the bottom of the list. It worked!
> > Hmmmmm....So then, I decided to push my luck and try the remaining 74
> > updates. They worked, too!
> >
> > At this point, I believe there is a bug in the Windows Update Agent
> > that if you give it too many updates to process in one go, it fails.
> > The sweet spot seems to be somewhere between 74 and 89 updates before
> > it starts to have problems.
> >
> > If you are also having an issue where the updates download but all
> > fail to install, and it's a large number of updates, try doing only
> > half or a third of the updates and see if that works. Hopefully
> > someone at Microsoft will see this and look into it a bit further.
>
>

I am having the same issues with the windows update. The update download, but
all installs fail.
This only happens on the system that I have installed an new hard drive and
reinstalled Windows XP. All updates on my other system install fine.

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

> CrystalBall© sez...
>
> Updates are not installed successfully from Windows Update, from Microsoft
> Update, or by using Automatic Updates after you perform a new Windows XP
> installation or you repair a Windows XP installation
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144
>
> If at some point you installed the current version of Windows Update Agent,
> that was your fix.
> --
> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
> MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>
> Beholder wrote:
> > This morning at work, I was tasked with getting 5 older laptops (Dell
> > D505's) formatted and installed with just a base Windows XP OS. I did
> > everything like I normally do, clean-formatted the drive, installed
> > the OS, installed all the hardware drivers and then went to do Windows
> > Updates. The Windows Update site showed 98 high-priority updates and
> > 11 optional updates. I unchecked IE 7, checked a few of the optional
> > updates, told it to install and went to work on other things while it
> > downloaded and installed. I figured it would take about an hour, so
> > after that I checked on the machine and was puzzled to see that every
> > single update had failed to install. I attempted to install just the
> > high-priority updates, minus IE7, and got the same result.
> >
> > For the next 4 hours, I scoured the web looking for any possible
> > solutions. I found solutions to re-register DLL's, to reinstall the
> > Windows Update Agent, registry keys, clearing the SoftwareDistribution
> > folder and countless other solutions, but nothing fixed the problem.
> > The Windows Update logs were showing that the Install phase was
> > failing with two different error codes, 80240FFF and 80070057. I
> > searched for any information on these codes, but all I got were the
> > other solutions I'd already tried and failed.
> >
> > One other test I performed was to do a clean install on another D505
> > with an identical hardware configuration, but this time, only install
> > the chipset and wired-ethernet card drivers. Just enough to get the
> > machine onto the Internet and to Windows Update. One of the solutions
> > I read suggested a driver may be interfering with Windows Update.
> > This test also failed. This was as close to a pristine installation
> > that I could get, and still was not able to do updates.
> >
> > Just before I was about to give up, I rebooted the machine once more
> > and decided to try just installing a few of the updates at the bottom
> > of the list. To my surprise, I SUCCESSFULLY installed 7 updates.
> > Then I tried another 15 at the bottom of the list. It worked!
> > Hmmmmm....So then, I decided to push my luck and try the remaining 74
> > updates. They worked, too!
> >
> > At this point, I believe there is a bug in the Windows Update Agent
> > that if you give it too many updates to process in one go, it fails.
> > The sweet spot seems to be somewhere between 74 and 89 updates before
> > it starts to have problems.
> >
> > If you are also having an issue where the updates download but all
> > fail to install, and it's a large number of updates, try doing only
> > half or a third of the updates and see if that works. Hopefully
> > someone at Microsoft will see this and look into it a bit further.
>
>

Peter, please begin a new thread about your issues, etc., to avoid
confusion. Thanks.

Always state your full Windows version (e.g., WinXP SP3; Vista SP1) when
posting to this newsgroup, please.
--
~PA Bear

Petervdb wrote:
> I am not convinced that this is the case. I have the same issue as has
> been
> described on an XP Pro machine. I have followed all of your advice in
> previous posts without any success. I have tried to install the latest
> update agent from the microsoft site manually as you or other suggested,
> rebooted and it still not succeeded. The question in my mind is how do I
> confirm I have the latest update agent installed? Because according to
> your
> advice below success only follows after installing this latest version.
>
> There must be something else missing from what I am doing compared to the
> advice I have read that is preventing the update agent from loading.
>
> I am about to re-install the whole OS again and any other advice would be
> very useful.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Peter
>
> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
>
>> CrystalBall© sez...
>>
>> Updates are not installed successfully from Windows Update, from
>> Microsoft
>> Update, or by using Automatic Updates after you perform a new Windows XP
>> installation or you repair a Windows XP installation
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144
>>
>> If at some point you installed the current version of Windows Update
>> Agent,
>> that was your fix.
>> --
>> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
>> MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
>> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
>> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>>
>> Beholder wrote:
>>> This morning at work, I was tasked with getting 5 older laptops (Dell
>>> D505's) formatted and installed with just a base Windows XP OS. I did
>>> everything like I normally do, clean-formatted the drive, installed
>>> the OS, installed all the hardware drivers and then went to do Windows
>>> Updates. The Windows Update site showed 98 high-priority updates and
>>> 11 optional updates. I unchecked IE 7, checked a few of the optional
>>> updates, told it to install and went to work on other things while it
>>> downloaded and installed. I figured it would take about an hour, so
>>> after that I checked on the machine and was puzzled to see that every
>>> single update had failed to install. I attempted to install just the
>>> high-priority updates, minus IE7, and got the same result.
>>>
>>> For the next 4 hours, I scoured the web looking for any possible
>>> solutions. I found solutions to re-register DLL's, to reinstall the
>>> Windows Update Agent, registry keys, clearing the SoftwareDistribution
>>> folder and countless other solutions, but nothing fixed the problem.
>>> The Windows Update logs were showing that the Install phase was
>>> failing with two different error codes, 80240FFF and 80070057. I
>>> searched for any information on these codes, but all I got were the
>>> other solutions I'd already tried and failed.
>>>
>>> One other test I performed was to do a clean install on another D505
>>> with an identical hardware configuration, but this time, only install
>>> the chipset and wired-ethernet card drivers. Just enough to get the
>>> machine onto the Internet and to Windows Update. One of the solutions
>>> I read suggested a driver may be interfering with Windows Update.
>>> This test also failed. This was as close to a pristine installation
>>> that I could get, and still was not able to do updates.
>>>
>>> Just before I was about to give up, I rebooted the machine once more
>>> and decided to try just installing a few of the updates at the bottom
>>> of the list. To my surprise, I SUCCESSFULLY installed 7 updates.
>>> Then I tried another 15 at the bottom of the list. It worked!
>>> Hmmmmm....So then, I decided to push my luck and try the remaining 74
>>> updates. They worked, too!
>>>
>>> At this point, I believe there is a bug in the Windows Update Agent
>>> that if you give it too many updates to process in one go, it fails.
>>> The sweet spot seems to be somewhere between 74 and 89 updates before
>>> it starts to have problems.
>>>
>>> If you are also having an issue where the updates download but all
>>> fail to install, and it's a large number of updates, try doing only
>>> half or a third of the updates and see if that works. Hopefully
>>> someone at Microsoft will see this and look into it a bit further.

Beholder is absolutely correct. I had *exactly* the same issue as him (scary).

I tried unticking about 20 of the updates (including IE7) and installing
again - Worked perfectly.

I have seen plenty of long winded 'solutions' to this problem. Reality is
Microsoft needs to get their sh*t together and fix the installer.

Cheers

"Beholder" wrote:

> This morning at work, I was tasked with getting 5 older laptops (Dell
> D505's) formatted and installed with just a base Windows XP OS. I did
> everything like I normally do, clean-formatted the drive, installed
> the OS, installed all the hardware drivers and then went to do Windows
> Updates. The Windows Update site showed 98 high-priority updates and
> 11 optional updates. I unchecked IE 7, checked a few of the optional
> updates, told it to install and went to work on other things while it
> downloaded and installed. I figured it would take about an hour, so
> after that I checked on the machine and was puzzled to see that every
> single update had failed to install. I attempted to install just the
> high-priority updates, minus IE7, and got the same result.
>
> For the next 4 hours, I scoured the web looking for any possible
> solutions. I found solutions to re-register DLL's, to reinstall the
> Windows Update Agent, registry keys, clearing the SoftwareDistribution
> folder and countless other solutions, but nothing fixed the problem.
> The Windows Update logs were showing that the Install phase was
> failing with two different error codes, 80240FFF and 80070057. I
> searched for any information on these codes, but all I got were the
> other solutions I'd already tried and failed.
>
> One other test I performed was to do a clean install on another D505
> with an identical hardware configuration, but this time, only install
> the chipset and wired-ethernet card drivers. Just enough to get the
> machine onto the Internet and to Windows Update. One of the solutions
> I read suggested a driver may be interfering with Windows Update.
> This test also failed. This was as close to a pristine installation
> that I could get, and still was not able to do updates.
>
> Just before I was about to give up, I rebooted the machine once more
> and decided to try just installing a few of the updates at the bottom
> of the list. To my surprise, I SUCCESSFULLY installed 7 updates.
> Then I tried another 15 at the bottom of the list. It worked!
> Hmmmmm....So then, I decided to push my luck and try the remaining 74
> updates. They worked, too!
>
> At this point, I believe there is a bug in the Windows Update Agent
> that if you give it too many updates to process in one go, it fails.
> The sweet spot seems to be somewhere between 74 and 89 updates before
> it starts to have problems.
>
> If you are also having an issue where the updates download but all
> fail to install, and it's a large number of updates, try doing only
> half or a third of the updates and see if that works. Hopefully
> someone at Microsoft will see this and look into it a bit further.
>