Vista - error 80072EFD at wits end.

Hello,

I had posted this in the installation forum, because I was thinking of reformatting my pc.. I figured I'd see if anyone might know a solution to this problem.. I'm currently running windows vista 32bit and am having problems with my pc. I noticed my pc was running slow the other day and when I looked at the updates tab it states the last time it updated was in March. I tried to update it, it gives me an error that when I look it up states its firewall related. (error 80072EFD) I uninstalled all of my anti virus programs and disabled firewalls... nada. I've tried to have the pcsafety people do a remote assist 3 times and they cant find the problem. We've scanned the pc for spyware and malware 3 different times (Norman antivirus (the tech did this) spy sweeper and also the tool built into windows. They've tried resetting the batch etc with no luck. I'm to the point of just reformatting my pc

One thing I did remember and Im not sure if this is related, is about a month ago I had gotten a virus on my pc that when spy sweeper deleted it, I would get a .dll error when I booted up. I did a checkdisk and it fixed the error but I think around that time is around the time it stopped updating windows. We've ruled out spyware, malware and firewalls.

I can connect to the internet fine etc, but neither windows update, nor defender can update. Please help.

Hi Karaliecaitsith

This might help:

In other words, have you added the belowmentioned 3 x Windows Update website addresses to the exceptions list in your Antivirus / Firewall programs.
Windows Update error 80072efd

Applies to all editions of Windows Vista.
Which edition of Windows Vista am I using?
If you receive Windows Update error 80072efd while checking for updates, it usually means that a program running on your computer is preventing Windows Update Services (SVCHOST) from accessing the Internet. Programs that might do this include firewalls, anti-spyware software, web accelerators, Internet security or antivirus programs, and proxy servers.
To correct the problem, you might need to add the Windows Update website addresses to the blocking program's exceptions or "allow" list or allow Windows Update Service to connect to the Internet through port 80 and port 443.

To add the Windows Update websites to a firewall exceptions list


•Windows Firewall ships with this version of Windows and should already include these sites in the exceptions list. If you use a different firewall, refer to the software publisher's help to see how to add these websites to your firewall exceptions list:
•http://*.update.microsoft.com
•https://*.update.microsoft.com
•http://download.windowsupdate.com

Hope this helps. Let us know if you need further assistance.

Regards, Neil

We tried that while troubleshooting with microsoft. The ports arent being blocked, and the addresses are on the allow list.

I've been getting the same error code 80072EFD since downloading windows update (KB955430)......this update is apparently to prepare one's PC for the downloading of service pack 2 when available. I went through the whole firewall disabling trip too and it made no difference. I have vista home premium 64 bit.
I'm looking at trying to uninstall that update to see if it does the trick. Not only will Windows Update fail to connect but my email wont work through Windows Mail. I have to log onto my ISP homepage and use webmail.

Still getting the error after trying the above suggestions. Microsoft again tried to do remote assist on my pc last night, no such luck. Im beginning to think my only option may be to reformat my pc.

I went through the error logs, and the first known error for updating was on 3-20 when it says it failed to connect.