Windows XP with SP2 installed, no access to updates.

I cannot get access to the Windows update site from my computer. Prior to
this week it was doing the scheduled automatic update downloads. Whe I try
to do it manually I get the error thing 0x80070305. Can anybody advise me
how to resolve this problem

I had the same problem. I have a system built in the last three months that
all of a sudden could not access Windows Updates, due to recent problematic
changes in their service. (Hopefully the upcoming v6 of this buggy service
will be better.)

Here's what you can try, which finally worked for me:

1) Go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. Click the "Show
Updates" checkbox at the top; this will let you figure out the last day on
which a patch was applied.

2) Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads , then search for "XP update"
in the upper-left corner. This will bring up a list of all updates matching
those terms sorted by relevance (in essence, not helpfully sorted at all), so
select "Date" from the dropdown at the right.

3) Now read the description of each patch carefully, and download all the
ones back to the last-patched date of your machine. Err on the side of
caution (download even ones you're not sure are SP2-only), since any patch
not appropriate for your system will notify you at run time. (Don't get
Office or other updates, since you're just trying to get your OS working
right now.)

4) Now, run each patch .exe you downloaded. It is not important to restart
between each one, so you can save yourself time by selecting the option not
to restart at the end of each execution.

5) Restart. Now go to microsoft.com and the Windows Update site, and see
if updates are working again. Even if not, you've successfully patched your
machine, but I hope it will work for you as it did for me.

It might be a good time to back up your important data before you start, not
that there's any scary part of patching your machine; Windows Update is the
culprit, not you or your practices. You might also want to do a
spyware/virus check before you start, even if your machine is always clean.
Lastly, there's one patch in there that updates HTTP.SYS; I'd make extra sure
to get that one if it's not already applied on your machine, as I have a
hunch that it's what got updates working for me again.

Happy patching! -Jeff Varszegi

"Bill-in-Ozz" wrote:

> I cannot get access to the Windows update site from my computer. Prior to
> this week it was doing the scheduled automatic update downloads. Whe I try
> to do it manually I get the error thing 0x80070305. Can anybody advise me
> how to resolve this problem

Thank you Jeff for the trouble that you have taken. I will print it out and
give it a go but I have to tell you that when I booted up this morning the
system automatically updated itself !!
I cannot click 'on update' now and get it to update as It won't let me into
the Microsoft update site to read my system, and then it goes and does it
automatically.
I am sure your post will be handy to others and I will file it for handy
future reference in my Tech folder . . . . . thanks again Jeff.
================================================

"Jeff Varszegi" wrote:

> I had the same problem. I have a system built in the last three months that
> all of a sudden could not access Windows Updates, due to recent problematic
> changes in their service. (Hopefully the upcoming v6 of this buggy service
> will be better.)
>
> Here's what you can try, which finally worked for me:
>
> 1) Go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. Click the "Show
> Updates" checkbox at the top; this will let you figure out the last day on
> which a patch was applied.
>
> 2) Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads , then search for "XP update"
> in the upper-left corner. This will bring up a list of all updates matching
> those terms sorted by relevance (in essence, not helpfully sorted at all), so
> select "Date" from the dropdown at the right.
>
> 3) Now read the description of each patch carefully, and download all the
> ones back to the last-patched date of your machine. Err on the side of
> caution (download even ones you're not sure are SP2-only), since any patch
> not appropriate for your system will notify you at run time. (Don't get
> Office or other updates, since you're just trying to get your OS working
> right now.)
>
> 4) Now, run each patch .exe you downloaded. It is not important to restart
> between each one, so you can save yourself time by selecting the option not
> to restart at the end of each execution.
>
> 5) Restart. Now go to microsoft.com and the Windows Update site, and see
> if updates are working again. Even if not, you've successfully patched your
> machine, but I hope it will work for you as it did for me.
>
> It might be a good time to back up your important data before you start, not
> that there's any scary part of patching your machine; Windows Update is the
> culprit, not you or your practices. You might also want to do a
> spyware/virus check before you start, even if your machine is always clean.
> Lastly, there's one patch in there that updates HTTP.SYS; I'd make extra sure
> to get that one if it's not already applied on your machine, as I have a
> hunch that it's what got updates working for me again.
>
> Happy patching! -Jeff Varszegi
>
> "Bill-in-Ozz" wrote:
>
> > I cannot get access to the Windows update site from my computer. Prior to
> > this week it was doing the scheduled automatic update downloads. Whe I try
> > to do it manually I get the error thing 0x80070305. Can anybody advise me
> > how to resolve this problem