Windows Updates Failing

[Zoom7000]

I have a couple of Windows Updates failing on 1 of my servers (Windows Server 2003 R2). It's an update for Silverlight. Everytime I try to run it I get the following error:

 

 

The location doesn't exist and when I press cancel, I get the following error:

 

 

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Silverlight and I get the same error every time. I've tried redownloading Silverlight, extracting the EXE and trying to fool the installer by pointing it to the new MSI, but it still doesn't want to play ball. So it seems I'm completely stuck. I'm getting the same error with a .NET Framework 4.0 update. Is there anything that I can do to resolve this?

[stylemessiah]

I have a couple of Windows Updates failing on 1 of my servers (Windows Server 2003 R2). It's an update for Silverlight. Everytime I try to run it I get the following error:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17205[/ATTACH]

 

The location doesn't exist and when I press cancel, I get the following error:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17206[/ATTACH]

 

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Silverlight and I get the same error every time. I've tried redownloading Silverlight, extracting the EXE and trying to fool the installer by pointing it to the new MSI, but it still doesn't want to play ball. So it seems I'm completely stuck. I'm getting the same error with a .NET Framework 4.0 update. Is there anything that I can do to resolve this?

 

The path you are seeing is stored in the registry in the installsource entry for Silverlight under the Uninstall key

 

For example on my PC its under:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{89F4137D-6C26-4A84-BDB8-2E5A4BB71E00}

The String Value Name: InstallSource

The String Value Data: c:\8082716c8f22f3c2b3\

 

This path youre seeing is a temporary one that is removed after install. It seems for whatever reason that the update you are running wants to access the original package, for whatever reason. Of course it will never find this.

 

I assume the Silverlight Update is actually a full package and not just a patch, as ive never seen a patch for it

 

My first thought is to:

 

Usual regedit warning applies, if you dont know what you are doing, seek help, deleting the wrong key/value can kill windows....

 

1) uninstall Silverlight via the control panel. while youre in there, turn off automatic windows updates

 

2) open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall and look for the subkey that houses the Silverlight info (i suspect that it is still remaining after uninstall, if not this guide can stop here:) ). It may be the same subkey as i see: {89F4137D-6C26-4A84-BDB8-2E5A4BB71E00} or it may be a random GUID...may take a bit of clicking, but it will be a GUID entry i.e.e {7e4a etc}. Clicking on each GUID will show the software name in the right hand pane.

 

3) delete the subkey (the GUID {7e4a etc} you just found that matches silverlight

 

4) reboot

 

5) download and manually install the latest silverlight binary

 

6) reboot

 

7) turn automatic windows updates back on and do a check for updates and see if this has resolved it

 

Without knowing more about the .Net 4.0 update...is it a hotfix or full package? i couldnt guess, but probably a similar process to above.

 

Lol, if you think thats bad, try only having remote access (2 states away in australia - its big down here) to a 2008 server that refuses to install SP1, and having a dodgy ADSL connection due to biblical floodwater getting into the lines. Most of the update failures ive fixed on a server have been by the method i used above, uninstall, regedit and manual hotfix/update. But when i hit the SP1 one, it was going to take to long to manually uninstall each pre SP1 hotfix/update and edit the registry for each one. In the end we drove down and rebuilt the thing! At the time i was remote admin'ing 43 servers remotely, and theres always one that wont play nice

Edited March 1, 2013 by stylemessiah

[m25man]

Ok its not a server but I had an incredible amount of trouble this week trying to update a clean Windows 7 wipe and rebuild!

Repeated failed updates, rollbacks etc at one point even though 56 updates had been installed it decided suddenly that there were no updates installed at all and said it had never been updated!

 

Turned out after running a memtest that the second memory module (above 2048) was actually defective, removed it from the laptop and everything started to work again!

 

As its an old 2003 box try using the Microsoft BSA Download Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.2 (for IT Professionals) from Official Microsoft Download Center

This easily lets you check for and select the available updates individually and install them one at a time if need be until you resolve the issue.

[stylemessiah]

Ok its not a server but I had an incredible amount of trouble this week trying to update a clean Windows 7 wipe and rebuild!

Repeated failed updates, rollbacks etc at one point even though 56 updates had been installed it decided suddenly that there were no updates installed at all and said it had never been updated!

 

Turned out after running a memtest that the second memory module (above 2048) was actually defective, removed it from the laptop and everything started to work again!

 

As its an old 2003 box try using the Microsoft BSA Download Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.2 (for IT Professionals) from Official Microsoft Download Center

This easily lets you check for and select the available updates individually and install them one at a time if need be until you resolve the issue.

 

Wow, your first paragraph would have had me doing my usual routine for stuck updates/failed updates/corrupt update catalogue

 

Stop Windows Update service

Delete C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder

Restart Windows Update service

 

Would never have guessed it would be memory related. would have expected other signs of it being a memory issue!

[m25man]

I think it was more to the point that with over 100 updates needed initially it used all of the available RAM (4GB) at which point it either locked up, gave up, BSOD'd itself or threw another non descript error like "Update Failed".

If you did a few at a time it never got as far as writing to the bad memory, taking the memory out forced it to use a disk page file instead. Bizzare, more luck than judgement.

[stylemessiah]

I think it was more to the point that with over 100 updates needed initially it used all of the available RAM (4GB) at which point it either locked up, gave up, BSOD'd itself or threw another non descript error like "Update Failed".

If you did a few at a time it never got as far as writing to the bad memory, taking the memory out forced it to use a disk page file instead. Bizzare, more luck than judgement.

Bizarre indeeed, ill put that one away for future reference !