[SOLVED] Failure configuring windows updates reverting changes...

[cottonball]

Would appreciate some help with a friend's Dell Inspiron 660S / Windows 8 (64-bit).

Windows updates gets hung up at about 98%, and then gets the: Failure configuring windows updates reverting changes...

Used MS: How do I reset Windows Update components?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971058
It detected a service issue with BITS, a WU error (0x8007045), and a third issue that escapes my thoughts ATM.

WUs keep failing over and over. All sorts of them when looking in History.

In C:\Windows\WinSxs\ there was a file named: pending.xml
It was loaded with entries.

Did a power depletion, unplug power cord and all devices, press and hold down the Power button for about 15 seconds to drain any residual electrical charge from the capacitors that protect the memory. After draining the power, the pending.xml file was no longer present...?

At the beginning of May, used the option to: Refresh PC without affecting your files, and, after the Refresh, was able to download a multitude of updates, Windows got configured without reverting changes, and all appeared well, but now, we are back to the same problem.

Any suggestions besides taking the PC back to Factory defaults? Not even sure that will fix the problem, since a Refresh did not.

Thanks for any suggestions!!

 

[BrianDrab]

Hi and welcome to Sysnative. Sorry for the delay. If you are still in need of assistance, please do the following.

Step#1 - DISM /RestoreHealth Scan
Warning:this fix is specific to the user in this thread. No one else should follow these instructions as it may cause more harm than good. If you are after assistance, please start a thread of your own.

1. Right-click on the Start
   
   button and select Command Prompt (Admin) Note: If it's Windows 8 and not 8.1 you will have to hover your mouse over in the lower left corner until the Start Screen icon shows and then right-click on that.
2. When command prompt opens, Copy (Ctrl+C) and Paste (Right-click > Paste) the following command into it, then press Enter
   Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
3. Once it finishes, copy and paste the following into the command-prompt window and press Enter. If prompted to overwrite the existing file go ahead.
   copy %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log "%userprofile%\Desktop\cbs.txt"
   
4. Once this has completed please go to your Desktop and you will find CBS.txt => Please zip/upload to this thread.
   Please Note:: if the file is too big (over 7MB) to upload to your next post, please upload via a service such as Dropbox or One Drive or SendSpace and just provide the link.

 

[cottonball]

BrianDrab,

Thanks for the reply.

Decided to restore the computer (Dell/Windows 8) to factory defaults. Believe it or not, it did not fix the issue.

What did fix the issue (so far) was disabling Secure Boot in the UEFI settings. So far, so good.

Secure Boot makes Windows 8 resistant to low-level malware, such as rootkits. However, after hours and hours of trying different options, the issue would not go away.
The person who owns the computer is not known for going to dubious websites, so, guess we will take our chances.

 

[BrianDrab]

Thanks for letting me know. I've seen the Secure Boot issue a few times now. Take care.