Please HELP with hung up Windows Updates

When I try to perform a wndows update, my 9 month old HP notebook keeps getting hung up or says the download failed. It just says it's downloading the updates but continually says 0 KB total and 0% complete, that goes unchanged for HOURS! I eventually have to stop the download but have several important updates that are waiting to be installed. I dont know what to do. HP says I must remove all saved document and file data and reinstall the whole operating system.

I have same problem,sorry no help to you.I have never got any help here.Don't hold your breath

when i shut down, i get the message ->
'don't turn off, windows will do it for you. but first it hast to install (18) updates.'
however ->
it shut's down before it can even install the first update!
i'm on xp sp2.

I have had this problem for the longest time. First, it started in Windows XP Home Edition and now with Windows Vista, both the Ultimate 64-bit version and Home Premium 32-bit version. With time, the problem seemed to have been corrected on Windows XP 32-bit Home edition and Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit edition.

With experience and consultation on other forums, I believe the problem to be that Windows creates for itself some kind of a graphical map outlining the process to be undertaken. It also appears that the Windows Genuine Activation tool seems to play a part in slowing down the download process.

One thing is for sure: Patience is key. All my updates eventually get downloaded and installed, even if it meant waiting between four and ten hours. It is ridiculous, but, unfortunately, we have to wait before Microsoft corrects the problem. The company does not take it seriously because it knows that most people do not use the update feature directly.

Neal Bangia
[email protected]

'patience' isn't my problem,
wondows switches off automatically, before evem finishing the first update.

(where) can i check, whether the updates have been installed and only the message ('18 left ...') is misleading?

Well, if now, you are complaining about Windows, which is switching off before it even installs the first update, that is an entirely different issue.

I was under the impression that this forum dealt with Windows Update in that it is taking forever to download the updates.

And with respect to this aspect, what I do to ensure that Windows Update is indeed working and downloading, I regularly check the following file path: C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download and I look for new files that are being created even though Windows Update states that it is still waiting to download. And lo and behold, new files are indeed being created even though no indication is being given to that effect in the Windows Update window.

The end result? Windows Update is not hung, but rather working. The defect in Windows Update is that, under certain circumstances, it takes forever to apparently download updates and tests the patience of its user by not regulary notifying him or her to reassure him or her that it is indeed working. Such circumstances appear to be situations where are implicated a whole bunch of updates that are weighty (more than 10 megabytes) and are similar in nature, function and/or modifications to be made to the operating system, exempli gratia: language packs.

If your computer shuts down before even installing an update, then I suggest that you start a new forum and describe in detail what happens. Specifically, you should identify exactly when the computer shuts itself off.

As far as your question is concerned, if Windows Update reports that there are eighteen updates yet to be downloaded or installed, I would trust it and not consider it to be misleading, especially because, as you have reported, Windows shuts down even before it finishes installing the first update. As of now, I do not know specifically where else to look to verify whether certain updates have been installed other than the usual places:

1) Control Panel-->System and Maintenance-->Windows Update-->View Update History

and

2) Control Panel-->Programs-->Programs and Features-->Installed Updates.

In Windows XP, there used to be another way to check if Windows updates were installed: in the C:\ drive or maybe C:\windows\ or C:\windows\system32\ (I do not remember exactly), all the updates, identified by the following nomenclature: "KB+article number" appeared as compressed (blue-coloured) files. I do not seem to find this in Windows Vista. But, I shall keep checking.

I repeat: With your computer shutting down before it even downloads or installs (you did not explicitly specify) an update, your situation merits a different discussion forum and even a grace case with Microsoft Support Services, even though I would take with a grain of salt what the agents tell me because they are not hired for their computer saavy, but rather for their ability to read how-to internet web sites and instruction booklets and as such, have caused me considerable headaches in the past, for want of an intelligent answer, not just a text-book response.

Neal Bangia
[email protected]

my computer downloaded the updates all right. it told me that (18) updates were waiting, but didn't install them is indicated after i pressed the shut down button.

in the meantime i managed to install the updates via explorer/extras/window-updates.

sorry for ending up in the wrong thread unintentionally.

It sounds to me like there may be a problem with the shutdown button on your start menu. If there are updates waiting to be installed, then the button is supposed to be automatically modified to let you know that it will first install the updates and then shutdown your computer. You should call Microsoft if this problem indeed exists, because it would involve a registry edit.

Also, another way to make sure that Windows Update is indeed downloading is to check in the Task Manager and verify that every so often the process, trustedinstaller.exe, takes up about 50% CPU. If so, then everything is copacetic.

Neal Bangia
[email protected]

For me it was my Zone Alarm Internet Security firewall that was blocking the update from downloading.No mater what I did to give it permission it just would not do it.I had to uninstall the latest version 8.0 and clean out the left over files to get rid of the code.My first uninstall and reinstall of the previous 7.1 ver of ZA did not work.I had to delete the keys in Local Machine and the internet logs in system32,then install clean and give permission to all windows services,scvhost and windows update.Now it works again.:D This may not help you but if anyone has ZA then check it out.
Mark