WSUS continual failure . . .

[leco]

. . . to install a whole load of updates. This is on a laptop which is plugged into the network. The machine finds the updates required, notifies me with the yellow shield, and tries to install. Half an hour later I come back to find they have all failed - but there is a yellow shield in the sys tray once more.

 

Does anyone have any ideas, please? MS Update site states error code 0x80070641. Events log states error code 0x80040154.

 

Oh there it is again "Updates are ready . . . "

[srochford]

If you get error codes starting with 0x8007 then the last 4 digits tell you a useful error code. Start calculator, put it in scientic mode and then click Hex. Type in 0641 (in this case) and click Dec to convert to decimal - this gives you 1601. Open a command prompt and type net helpmsg 1601; you'll find that the error message means that there's a problem with the windows installer service.

 

This is needed in order to install the updates so if it's not there, all bets are off! If you can't quickly see the problem with the installer, try downloading it from Microsoft and installing it.

 

One other useful trick when updates keep failing is to clear them all out. Stop the automatic updates service (and BITS if it's running) and then delete the folder C:\windows\softwaredistribution and c:\windowsupdate.log - restart the service and it should download whatever's needed.

[leco]

Thanks Steve, will have another look at it tomorrow. Given up on it today.