Windows Update error 800F0246 and cannot install any drivers

wingers · Jun 7, 2013

Hi

Getting 800F0246 when using windows update (most of the updates are drivers)

Also getting error when trying to install any new hardware i.e. amazon kindle fire

Even if I install drivers manually through device manager I get "windows encountered a problem installing the driver software for your device - one of the installers for this device cannot perform the installation at this time."

Any ideas please?

Machine is running Windows 8 Pro 64-bit, Intel Core i5, 8gb RAM

wingers · Jun 7, 2013

have also tried running sfc /scannow - but get error "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation." almost straight away

wingers · Jun 7, 2013

View attachment 4235

cbs logs attached

wingers · Jun 11, 2013

Any chance of a reply please??? really need some help to get this sorted - preferably without having to reinstall/reset windows etc

tom982 · Jun 11, 2013

Hi wingers, welcome to Sysnative!

Sorry for the delay, Richard and I are both very busy at the moment.

Upload a file to Dropbox

Note: If you prefer, the same techniques can be applied to your Skydrive however these instructions may not necessarily work for Skydrive.

If you haven't already created a Dropbox account, please do so Here
Although this procedure can be done directly through the website, it is much easier to do so via the Windows client which can be downloaded from the Dropbox website:

https://www.dropbox.com/install
After you have downloaded and installed that, you should now see Dropbox in your Favourites box in Windows Explorer. This is the folder that will be synchronised with the Dropbox servers, anything that you wish to back up online can be put in here, but today we will be using it to transfer files.
To access your Dropbox folder, just click on the link in the top left hand corner of Windows Explorer (accessible from any location - Documents etc.). Alternatively, you can double click on the icon

found in your system tray (next to the time). If you are still having issues locating this folder, unless otherwise specified, it can be found under this location: C:\Users\{Your username}\Dropbox
Copy all of the following files to the Public folder in your Dropbox:
- C:\Windows\system32\config\components (it has no file extension)
Select all files by pressing Ctrl+A then right-click and select Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder
This will create a .zip

file in your Public folder.
Right-click on this file and select

Copy Public Link then Paste (Ctrl+V) this link into your next post for me please

Tom

wingers · Jun 11, 2013

Hi Tom - that's fine, completely understand - was just concerned my post may have been missed

Hope the link below works for you?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/181909925/COMPONENTS.zip

EDIT: changed link, as new dropbox accounts don't have public folder by default - had to enable it from https://www.dropbox.com/enable_public_folder first - sorry

tom982 · Jun 11, 2013

Hi wingers,

Thanks for understanding, and I can certainly appreciate your concern.

I'm afraid I have some bad news for you, your registry is damaged beyond repair. I didn't even have to download the file to know, on the download page it listed the file as:

Code:

 COMPONENTS.zip
3 mins ago ·  50.4 KB

50.4KB is significantly lower than the size of what a real COMPONENTS hive should be (they should be ~50MB) and this is something we see all too often here. I downloaded the file anyway, just in case Dropbox incorrectly listed it, but it was correct.

Do you have any system images, full backups or system restore points from before this problem started? You should be able to use one of those to fix this but apart from that, the only way to fix this is going to be by reinstalling Windows.

Tom

wingers · Jun 11, 2013

okay thanks for letting me know - that is a shame - apart from driver installs, everything else seems to be working fine, so all a bit odd

I don't have a system image or full backup of the system - but will have to try some restore points to see if they go back far enough, but not sure when it started, as only noticed when trying to install a wireless usb adapter - apart from that had no other symptoms of a problem at all

wingers · Jun 11, 2013

FIXED!!! - found a system image I had created when first installing this computer last year - as not many hardware changes since then I recovered the components file (22.5mb) from this and placed it in my c:\windows\system32\config folder - rebooted and now drivers install fine and sfc /scannow also completes properly

Thanks for pointing me to the correct file that was causing me the problem

tom982 · Jun 11, 2013

Hi wingers,

While that may have appeared to fix the problem, you'll almost certainly run into problems in the future as a result of doing that. The COMPONENTS hive contains details on the components, ie files, on your computer - the versions, the file hashes, the updates they came from etc. and is very cross linked with files on the computer; for example under COMPONENTS\DerivedData\Components, Windows will look for a manifest file with the name of each of the subkeys in that registry key - if they don't match up, which they won't now, then Windows will get very confused.

If you've got an image, then I'd highly recommend you restore to it. I know it's a lot of hassle now but honestly, you're just prolonging the problem :)

Tom

niemiro · Jun 11, 2013

@wingers, I cannot agree more with Tom's assessment. You have fixed today's problem, but you are likely to run into problem after problem in the future, unfortunately

]

I too would suggest restoring the image. It takes a deep breath, but usually doesn't take too long once started to reinstall all programs (I know it isn't fun, but it usually doesn't take as long as people think it will).

Richard

wingers · Jun 11, 2013

okay fair point - will get round to doing that at some point, but as it is running "okay" for now and I have got the driver installed that I needed too - then I can limp along until I find time to do it

Think I already have one of the issues anyway - as trying to install windows updates gives me error 80070003

tom982 · Jun 11, 2013

Sounds like a plan :) If you need any help with the reinstall then you know where to find us.

0x80070003 (or 0x3) translates to ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND which is almost certainly related to this.

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Windows Update error 800F0246 and cannot install any drivers

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