Windows 10: Feature Update v1809 Repeatedly Fails

I.have two PCs that are almost identical in hardware configuration terms. They are both Dell Precision 490 workstations but one is dual processor, has more memory and more disks but pretty well EXACTLY the same software. Starting with v1803 i started having problems performing feature updates on the higher spec PC of the two, the lower spec PC updated just fine. I tried ALL of the recommended ways of doing the update (including downloading the microsoft media tool and doing the update from DVD) but after doing a large number of attempts to upgrade, all would fail with the message “installation failed” and i would be returned to the previous version. Extremely frustrated by this i eventually did the upgrade by taking a copy of the working upgraded system from the lower spec PC and copying it to a partition on the higher spec PC. The hardware differences between the two systems were resolved on first boot.

i had hoped that the problem would not re-occur on future feature upgrades, but sure enough when v1809 came along it was the same story. The lower spec PC upgraded first time using Windows Update, the higher spec PC however refused to upgrade even when i used the microsoft media creation tool (MMC). However this time around i DID notice that when doing the upgrade using the MMC tool that it wasnt until the PC came to reboot for the first time that the installation failed. So learning from my v1803 solution i took an SSD with the system on it that i wanted to upgrade out of the higher spec PC, put it into the lower spec PC as an extra disk, booted it and did the upgrade. Everything went just fine. So i conclude from this that its not the content of the software on the system thats causing the problem, but the issue lies in some other difference in the environment on the two PCs, and that it likely relates to how the system boots.

This week the May windows update is due and I am expecting feature update v1903 to become available. I am expecting to have the same problem occur again on my higher spec PC. However having looked for differences that could affect how the system boots I have noticed that the position of the System Reserved partition is different on the two PCs. On the lower spec PC the System Reserved partition is on the first partition on the first disk. On the higher spec PC the System Reserved partition is on the third partition on the second disk. And I am wondering if this is what is causing the boot problem at the end of the installation. So this time I intend to move the System Reserved partition to be the first partition on the the first disk on the higher spec system to see if that fixes the problem.

Be interested if anyone from Microsoft could comment on the position of the System Reserved partition being the cause of my problems ?. (By the way I have an old style BIOS and not a UEFI one.)

:)

 

1709 Feature Update repeatedly fails

I have been having a persistent problem installing the Feature Update to Windows 10 version 1709 on Windows 10 Pro. I have updated drivers and tried several approaches but nothing seems to change the basic behavior, which is a “Reference_by_pointer” blue
screen following the “Working on updates” portion of the update procedure. My Update history currently features 9 failed attempts at this update, with four listed as “requires a restart to finish installing” and the other five listed as failed. The about screen
lists Version 1703 OS Build 15063.966.

Thank you for your help!

 

Windows 10 fails to update


When you finish testing the Avast suggestion, make sure that you restart your machine.

Then if the issue persists, please return to the trouble shooting list in post# 89

I think there are three steps that remain; the WU troubleshooter, reset WU components, and manual WU reset.

 

windows backup is repeatedly failing

windows backup is repeatedly failing due to some spp and vss problem. show step by step how to clear the problem and continue backup