Difficulty performing a Microsoft Windows Update to Windows 7 Home Premium OS

Fotocano

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Jan 15, 2015
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I have a 3 year old HP Pavilion Laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. I guess I had assumed that it would automatically run updates, as I have checked all the appropriate boxes in the settings.I assumed that Microsoft was constantly producing updates to their operating systems, particularly Windows 7. I thought, today, I would see how the updates were doing, and when I click on Windows Updates, check for updates, I get the above error report: "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer". I have restarted, shut down and restarted my computer 4 times, and each time I get the same report. What do I need to do? I am using Google Chrome as my browser.
 

Samat

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Aug 21, 2006
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You shoould first try restarting the services for windows update. You can do this by opening the administrative command prompt (windows key + x and select administrative command prompt). In the command prompt type (press enter after each line):
net start bits
net start wuauserv
Then try running windows update again. If this does not work you should check these two Microsoft knowledgebase articles for more information:
http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2730071
http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/971058
Also checking computer for viruses etc would not hurt.
 

Fotocano

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Jan 15, 2015
5
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4,510


 

Fotocano

Estimable
Jan 15, 2015
5
0
4,510


 

Fotocano

Estimable
Jan 15, 2015
5
0
4,510
Thank you, Samat. I have just spent an hour doing all the things you recommended. I had Norton Security check my computer for viruses and install all the latest updates. I went through the administrative command exercise and after typing in the "net start bits" and "net start wuauserv" I got the same "response": "The requested service has already been started". When I tried running Windows update again, I got exactly the same error report: "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer". I checked the first of the articles you suggested and asked Microsoft to "FIX IT"………still coming up with the same error report! I'm getting pretty frustrated, and I'm not sure I can fix this issue myself. Yet, I really would like to be sure my operating system has the latest updated! (I did not get into the second article you suggested, as I suspect I'll get the same response.
 

Samat

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Aug 21, 2006
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The 2nd article is more thorough and you should definitely try it. You could try these bits before going the full solution (in administrative command prompt):

net stop bits
net stop wuauserv
net stop appidsvc
net stop cryptsvc

At this point make sure each of the services stop, sometimes windows update service can get stuck on stopping service. If so you will need to manually kill it with taskkill (you need to check the process PID number from task manager), type: taskkill /pid pidnumber /f (for example taskkill /pid 12345 /f)

Del "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr*.dat"

Ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.bak
Ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.bak

net start bits
net start wuauserv
net start appidsvc
net start cryptsvc

after this you need to check again for updates.