Windows 10: Windows 7 SP1 Windows Update stuck checking for updates

Just a few hours ago I installed a fresh W7 SP1 x64 and I looked at Win Update, it just keeps searching and searching for hours, and nothing happens.



:)

 

Windows 7 install stuck on "Checking for Updates" when doing 10 upgrade

I have not been able to do anything with this. By the time I was able to try your advice, it was too late: the upgrade had expired. Your suggestion would probably have worked. I'll never know. Thanks for trying to help.

 

Windows 7 install stuck on "Checking for Updates" when doing 10 upgrade

It is 1 plus days until the free upgrade is not available.

I have worked for a week trying to upgrade.

I have 3 systems to upgrade, and can't get past one, much less get the upgrade to get past its check for upgrades. (I don't have "24 hours" or "3 days" to wait and see if it starts (Is this a really a good business model; days, not hours, to install software?)

So, I have contacted Microsoft support twice, both saying "wait 24 hours". One had me download the 10 upgrade from the MS page and start it and "wait 24 hours". Same issue; stuck on "checking for updates". I guess my quest is over.

So, unless one of you out there knows of some way I can get an extension, or has some confident way of doing this install, MS is losing a longtime (30 years) customer.

I tried to keep my cool. Be reasonable. Play by the rules. It takes two co-operating entries to do this, and I seem to be playing all by myself.

Thanks in advance,

 

did you turn it off and reboot and try again

 

Yes, several times...

 

Hi, @Steffan:

If you check over at our sister forum, sevenforums.com (and practically every other computer support forum), you'll see that this has been a terrible problem for Win7 users for many months.
There have been serious issues with the Win7 Windows Update client.

There are a gazillion threads about it "next door" and a handful of KBs have been suggested, but, FINALLY, TMAVLSS, the 3 patches that seem to fix this for a new Win7 install are:

3125574
3020369
3172605

So, first, download and save the standalone installers for those 3 KBs.

Then, if it's "stuck" in perpetual "checking for updates" or "downloading updates" mode, you'll need to disable WU from services.msc (change to manual and then stop the service) and change the WU settings to "never check for updates" in the WU applet and then reboot. (Some users have also found it necessary to disconnect from the internet, but I did not find that to be the case on my 2 Win7 boxes.)

That should permit those 3 patches to install.
You'll need to reboot again when done.
Then, go back to services.msc and change WU back to Automatic (delayed start) and go back to WU settings and change it to "notify but do not install".
Do a manual update check and see what patches are now available....
Everything should work OK now.

Please let us know if this resolves your issue,

MM

 

I bought a refurbished laptop through newegg before the free upgrade to W10 expired, it's a Dell Latitude E6420 and had Win 7 Pro. It was purchased specifically to upgrade to W10 while it was still free.

Anyway, before the upgrade I wanted to update Win 7, it was just checking for updates and never moving along. I left it up the rest of the afternoon and all night, the next morning it had near 200 updates waiting to be installed. Seems it was just a matter of leaving it up long enough.

IMO MS is using social engineering by making it hard on any user that isn't upgrading to W10, just my opinion.

Try leaving it up for as long as you can and see what happens.

 

None of those 3 links has a download option

 

That would be ridicilous if true. I'll try that.

 

Microsoft are aware of the problems of doing a clean install of W7 SP1 then checking for (a gazillion) updates. They have issued the 'Convenience rollup update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1' (KB 3125574) to help with this (effectively an SP2 in all but name). It is only available through the Microsoft Update Catalog.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3125574

Installing this on a (glacially slow when checking for updates) W7 machine then using Disk Clean-up to clean up windows updates has been a permenant cure on both the W7 machines I've tried it on.

 

Yes, they do -- please scroll down on each page and select the version that corresponds to your architecture (x86 or x64).

Here is a screen shot for one of them:





Cheers,
MM

EDIT: OOPS! Sorry for the double screen-shot. Cannot figure out how to remove the duplicate. *Sad

 

Yep.

3125574
3020369
3172605

Those 3 should resolve the issue....

Cheers,
MM

 

MM's instructions are spot-on and correct. A few months ago I had to update some never used client laptops that had Windows 7 installed on them. I manually downloaded and ran the updates that she mentioned prior to executing Windows update itself, and every single one of them finished without issue.

 

Out of those 3 patches, one is W7 SP1, which I already have (as it says in the thread title), and the other two I managed to download, when I run them absolutely nothing happens, so now I will disable the services and reboot.

 

Problem:



Tried it twice and the result is same.

edit OK, so I ignored this, since it just says stopping but nothng changes, so I restarted it and pulled out the wifi antenna, after I ran the KB3020369 and KB3172605, they both installed in less than a minute!



Then, the computer rebooted, and now I re-set the service to delayed start and I set W.U. to Check but ask whether to download and install, now I am waiting to see if any updates will be found...