Windows Update Stalls Checking for Updates

I have just installed SP4 on a neglected computer running Windows 2000
Professional. Since the update I have had very little success running
Windows Updates because the process usually stalls at the "Checking for the
latest updates for your computer" stage. Last night I left it running for 17
hours and it was still checking!!!

It did once manage to find, download and install a batch of 57 updates so
I'm not too far behind now. But this took several attempts and I have not
succeeded again since. I have no viruses that my antivirus program can find
nor spyware that Windows Defender can detect.

Nobody has dared to attempt an answer to my post. So here is some more
information. I managed a successful update today but it tokk a very long
time to begin. The in the WindowsUpdate.log file I found:

2006-09-13 16:06:03 860 754 Agent WARNING: Failed to evaluate Installed
rule, updateId = {C735DBB1-06B4-49F2-815F-97976B4B86A4}.100, error =
0x80041017
2006-09-13 16:13:19 860 754 Agent * Added update
{2EB5E46E-A527-452C-A97E-9D17EF9090B0}.101 to search result

then later

2006-09-13 16:15:54 860 754 Agent WARNING: Failed to evaluate Installed
rule, updateId = {C735DBB1-06B4-49F2-815F-97976B4B86A4}.100, error =
0x80041017
2006-09-13 16:21:20 860 754 Agent * Added update
{25812E83-F63C-4900-A53C-BD9AF4805AA0}.101 to search result

I highlight these two items because in both cases there is a warning
followed by six or seven minutes of no logged activity.

Can anyonyone shed light on this?

"AlanB" <> wrote in message
news:1387B124-2815-4ECF-97FC-...
> Nobody has dared to attempt an answer to my post. So here is some more
> information. I managed a successful update today but it tokk a very long
> time to begin. The in the WindowsUpdate.log file I found:
>
> 2006-09-13 16:06:03 860 754 Agent WARNING: Failed to evaluate Installed
> rule, updateId = {C735DBB1-06B4-49F2-815F-97976B4B86A4}.100, error =
> 0x80041017
> 2006-09-13 16:13:19 860 754 Agent * Added update
> {2EB5E46E-A527-452C-A97E-9D17EF9090B0}.101 to search result
>
> then later
>
> 2006-09-13 16:15:54 860 754 Agent WARNING: Failed to evaluate Installed
> rule, updateId = {C735DBB1-06B4-49F2-815F-97976B4B86A4}.100, error =
> 0x80041017
> 2006-09-13 16:21:20 860 754 Agent * Added update
> {25812E83-F63C-4900-A53C-BD9AF4805AA0}.101 to search result
>
> I highlight these two items because in both cases there is a warning
> followed by six or seven minutes of no logged activity.
>
> Can anyonyone shed light on this?


That code is not documented in the usual places.
Even searching for its possible decimal meaning doesn't really help.

http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/resul...-WMI&FORM=QBRE


I suspect that more information would be gleaned from the context
of the error code in the log (which you have excluded).

Have you tried activating verbose logging? (ref. KB902093)
Also, see my posts which refer to using RegMon and FileMon
to supplement and correlate information from an update's log

However, if it's just a performance issue I'd try to find a workaround
by using manual selection rather than trying to apply so many updates
at once.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

So it looks as if the error code is some bug which nobody has fixed because
it is not fatal? The context of the code in the log is that it comes
immediately before a long period of inactivity when the screen shows
'Checking for Updates', there are no logged events and it is hard to believe
anything is happening at all!

I find the log pretty verbose as it is, I'm not sure I could cope with more.


The interesting development is by sheer co-incidence I just repeated the
same sequence of events on another different machine and got the same
problems. This was a computer which had had a complete re-install of Windows
2000 Pro. I downloaded and installed SP4, tried Windows Update, again no
response as it stalls checking for updates. So I downloaded and installed
the SP4 update rollup. Spent a few hours then left it overnight checking for
updates and it managed a few installs. Finally got it to install the 41
subsequent updates and since then Windows Update has run quite swiftly.

My conclusion is that there is some incompatibility between the current
version of Windows Update and Windows 2000 SP4 in its new-born state but
somewhere along the road of all the subsequent updates this problem gets
sorted out. This incompatibility leads to a low probability of success in a
short time but hours of patience are eventually rewarded.


"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:
>
>
> That code is not documented in the usual places.
> Even searching for its possible decimal meaning doesn't really help.
>
> http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/resul...-WMI&FORM=QBRE
>
>
> I suspect that more information would be gleaned from the context
> of the error code in the log (which you have excluded).
>
> Have you tried activating verbose logging? (ref. KB902093)
> Also, see my posts which refer to using RegMon and FileMon
> to supplement and correlate information from an update's log
>
> However, if it's just a performance issue I'd try to find a workaround
> by using manual selection rather than trying to apply so many updates
> at once.
>
>
> Good luck
>
> Robert Aldwinckle
> ---
>
>
>