vista stuck on "checking for updates"

when checking for updates, the green bar is moving but nothing else happens.

i used the ms fix-it tool several times but it always reports back with "Windows Update error 0x8024402C(2016-05-20-T-06_59_04P) " which it cant fix.

after this i left updates running for over 6 hours with no success.....

Hi msvista2001:

According to the support article KB883821: You may receive an error message when you search for available updates on the Windows Update Web site or on the Microsoft Update Web site "The 0x8024402C or 0x8024502D error codes typically occur because an incorrect character exists in the proxy override settings".  Open your IE9 browser, go to Tools | Internet options | Connections |  LAN Settings and see if your LAN is configured to use a proxy server.  If you have enabled a proxy server for your LAN, this support article has instructions on how to clear any exceptions in the Advanced settings of your proxy server.

If you don't use a proxy server, please note that there are many Win 7 and Vista users who currently see the "Checking for updates..." phase of Windows Updates run for long periods of time without throwing an error message.  In most cases, "Checking for updates..." will run for several hours but will eventually report that updates are available and the download and installation of updates will proceed normally.

If you only see this 0x8024402C error when you run the MS FixIT tool but don't see an error message while Windows Update is "Checking for updates...", see the 16-May-2016 post in my thread August 2015 Windows Update for Vista Requires One Hour to Run to Completion for a possible workaround.  This temporary workaround requires users to download and install any missing Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32k.sys) updates listed on the webpage Search for Windows Updates takes forever? - A possible solution before they run Windows Update.  If you managed to install your April 2016 Patch Tuesday updates last month there should only be one missing Win32k.sys update for your 32-bit machine - KB3153199 for Vista x86 - that you have to download and install from the Microsoft Download Center to see if this speeds up your May 2016 updates.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v46.0.1 * IE9 * NIS v21.7.0.11
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

hi,

in IE9, no boxes are ticked in "LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN) SETTINGS.......

i am currently using firefox 46.0.1 as a browser,

and to clarify my problem,  I only see the 0x8024402C error when I run the MS FixIT tool, but don't see an error message while Windows Update is "Checking for updates".

Hi msvista2001:

Since you don't use a proxy server, I'm guessing that you're suffering from the same slow Windows Updates that seem to be afflicting many Win 7 and Vista users, including myself.  I would suggest that you turn off automatic Windows Updates (Windows Update | Change settings | Important updates | Never check for updates (not recommended), re-boot your computer, and then start a manual Windows Update one evening and just let it run overnight while your computer is idle.  The more updates pending the longer "Checking for updates...." will hang, so if you haven't successfully installed updates for a few months it could take much longer than six hours.

For a temporary workaround, other Vista users are now reporting that my previous suggestion to update any missing Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32k.sys) updates listed on Dalai's webpage Search for Windows Updates takes forever? - A possible solution solved their slow Windows Updates - see copiman's VistaForums thread Current tips on updates for one example. All 5 of the suggested Win32k.sys updates for 32-bit Vista (Vista x86) that are currently listed on Dalai's webpage were automatically installed during past Patch Tuesday updates on my machine, so you would only have to manually install any updates that were missing from your list at Windows Update | View installed updates.  The approximate release dates of these updates are: KB3078601 (18-Aug-2015); KB3087039 (08-Sep-2015); KB3109094 (07-Dec-2015); KB3145739 (12-Apr-2016); KB3153199 (10-May-2016).  As noted in Woody Leonhard's InfoWorld article Windows 7 update scans taking forever? KB 3153199 may solve the problem, Win 7 and Vista users who successfully installed last month's April 2016 Patch Tuesday updates should only have to download and install KB3153199 from the Microsoft Download Center to speed up their Windows Updates in May 2016.

If none of this works, you could try downloading the 32-bit Vista version of the System Update Readiness Tool (also known as MS CheckSUR) from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows7/what-is-the-system-update-readiness-tool.  The WindowsClub article titled CheckSUR: System Update Readiness Tool to Repair Windows Update has instructions on how to run this tool from an elevated command prompt (i.e., with Administrator rights) as well as a description of what the tool does, but I don't see 0x8024402C in the list of errors this tool can repair and I suspect your MS FixIT error is just a symptom of the widespread problem that other Win 7 and Vista users are currently having connecting to the MS update servers.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v46.0.1 * IE9 * NIS v21.7.0.11
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

hi

i downloaded, then installed KB3153199, KB3145739 which were confirmed when i checked the "view update history"

i also d/l KB3109094, KB3087039 but these did not installed - i got a message saying they are not for my system.

KB3078601 was stuck at "installing", after an hour i turned the machine off.

today i powered up, and checked for updates, and after 10mins it reported back with 1 new update

KB3153731.

i will give you some background to the run up of the update problem. about 2 months ago the machine was running slow with 100% cpu usage, after a bit of looking it seems svchost was using up the cpu.

i ran the "ms fix-it"  tool and things were ok, then the slow running returned, i think the thrid occassion i ran the "ms fix-it"  tool it returned the 0x8024402C error, whereas before everything was "fixed".

Lastly i think this problem coincide when moving from chrome to firefox???

thanks for the help so far.

Hi msvista2001:

As I noted in my previous post, there are five Wink32.sys updates listed for Vista on Dalai's webpage Search for Windows Updates takes forever? - A possible solution but you only needed to install the updates that were missing on your computer.  If you downloaded the Vista x86 (32-bit) versions of KB3078601 (rel. Aug 2015) , KB3087039 (rel. Sep 2015) and KB3109094 (rel. Dec 2015) updates and got a "not compatible" warning that likely means they were already installed on your computer.  You successfully installed KB3145739 (rel. Apr 2016) and KB3153199 (rel. May 2016) so that suggests to me that you were only missing updates from the April 2016 and May 2016 Patch Tuesday updates.

KB3153731 (May 2016 DST update for Azerbaijan, Chile, Haiti, and Morocco in Windows) looks to me like it should be an optional update but it was listed as one of 14 important updates that were recommended during my May 2016 Patch Tuesday update so I went ahead and installed it.  If KB3153731 was the only update that your last Windows Update found then I also suspect that you're fully patched now.  Try another Windows Update and see if it finds any available updates.



As far as I know the Windows Update client uses services that run independently of your browser - see the MS Support article How the Windows Update client determines which proxy server to use to connect to the Windows Update Web site.  I've been using Firefox as my default browser since January 2011 (then FF v3.6) and never had any problem with my Windows Updates until August 2015 - see my thread August 2015 Windows Update for Vista Requires One Hour to Run to Completion for images of my CPU consumption.  Since Aug 2015 I've seen svchost.exe constantly consuming ~50% of my CPU (i.e., complete saturation of one of my Intel dual cores) during my "Checking for updates.." phase.  When I use Process Explorer I can see that all this CPU is consumed by the Windows Update service (wuauserv) running under the svchost.exe process, and more specifically by a thread for the Windows Update Agent (wuaueng.dll) - see my image below as well as Kayla77's VistaFourms thread Processes in Task Manager during updates.  If svchost.exe is consuming 100% of your CPU during "Checking for updates..." then you might have an older CPU processor that only has a single core.



I don't think it's a coincidence that my Windows Update problem started the month after Windows 10 was officially released in July 2015, and my updates have gotten progressively slower as more and more users have upgraded to Win 10.  I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Microsoft is deliberately throttling bandwidth on their update servers (or at least ignoring the slow update problems for Vista users with limited amounts of RAM) to give priority to Win 10 users and "encourage" Win 7 and Vista users to upgrade their operating systems.  The Windows Update Agent (WUA) on my 32-bit Vista system at C:\Windows\system32\wuaueng.dll is currently v7.6.7600.256 and hasn't been updated since June 2012, and I don't think Microsoft has any plans to release an updated Vista WUA to fix this problem.

If you have a problem with your June 2016 updates just wait for a few days after the Patch Tuesday updates are posted to the MS servers on 14-Jun-2016 and then check Dalai's webpage Search for Windows Updates takes forever? - A possible solution to see if a new Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32k.sys) update is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.  I haven't had a chance to try Dalai's workaround yet but quite a few Win 7 SP1 and Vista SP2 users are now reporting that pre-installing these Win32k.sys updates each month  (e.g., KB3145739 in April 2016; KB3153199 in May 2016) reduced the "Checking for updates..." phase of their Patch Tuesday updates from hours to minutes.

That's a lot of information to absorb in one post, but take some time to review everything and then post back if you still think there's something wrong on your system that the Win32k.sys updates haven't (temporarily) fixed.  I can't explain why MS FixIT threw a 0x8024402C error the third time you ran this tool but this might have been a temporary glitch with your connection to the Microsoft proxy servers, because almost every other symptom you've described so far sounds very similar to what other Vista users are reporting these days in ScousaJAY's (very long!) VistaForums thread windows update just seems to hang while checking.

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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v46.0.1 * IE9 * NIS v21.7.0.11
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

thanks for the detailed picture, it is needed to try out the various "solutions".

i did another update check (10-15mins) and got back with more than a dozen new updates.

i have got the setting for updates to "never check" and intend to manually check once a month.

if i get no updates or it starts to hang in the future, is there a way to see what updates have been released and just download and install manually?

i have got the setting for updates to "never check" and intend to manually check once a month.

if i get no updates or it starts to hang in the future, is there a way to see what updates have been released and just download and install manually?

Hi msvista2001:

Microsoft posts a Security Bulletin Summary every month (see their May 2016 summary at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms16-may.aspx) and Martin Brinkmann posts a similar list of monthly Windows updates on ghacks.net (see his May 2016 summary at http://www.ghacks.net/2016/05/10/microsoft-security-bulletins-may-2016/) but it would be a huge task to read each of the dozen or more individual security bulletins (e.g., MS16-067 / KB3155784 : Security Update for Volume Manager Driver) to see if the update was applicable for your 32-bit (x86) Vista OS, to check for any prerequisite KB updates that had to be installed first, etc.

A better suggestion would be to wait for a few days after the June 2016 Patch Tuesday Updates are posted to the MS servers on 14-Jun-2016 and then check Dalai's webpage Search for Windows Updates takes forever? - A possible solution to see if a new Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32k.sys) update is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center in June 2016.  Once you have installed the June 2016 Win32k.sys update (assuming a new update is actually released next month and added to Dalai's webpage) your remaining dozen or so June 2016 updates should download and install normally the next time you run Windows Update.  That's the current assumption at the moment, but I won't be able to test this on my own 32-bit Vista machine until after 14-Jun-2016.

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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v46.0.1 * IE9 * NIS v21.7.0.11
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

i will give you some background to the run up of the update problem. about 2 months ago the machine was running slow with 100% cpu usage, after a bit of looking it seems svchost was using up the cpu.

Hi msvista2001:

I don't know if this is relevant, but I just discovered that Windows XP had a similar problem three years ago after Win 8.1 was released where the Windows Update Agent (running under svchost.exe) would lock machines with 100% CPU consumption.  Microsoft eventually acknowledged the problem and released a fix for Win XP.   From Woody Leonhard's article It's time for Microsoft to fix the Windows 7 update slowdowns:

"Back then, Microsoft said it would trim the supersedence tree: 'We're working to expire these exceptionally old, dated, unnecessary updates in the chain. The expirations for these didn't happen as planned'.... Looks like it's time to trim the Win7 tree and back off those recursive calls."

Here's more from Woody old's Nov 2013 article Microsoft to fix Windows XP update SVCHOST redline issue 'soon':

"In other words, when you run Windows Update, the program has to bang against Microsoft's internal database of patches and figure out which patches need to be applied and which ones have been superseded and can be ignored. Since IE6 and IE7, in particular, have been around since the dawn of time, that's an enormous pile of patches to sort through."

I wonder now if the Microsoft could permanently fix this problem by expiring some of the outdated updates in the supersedence chain for Vista's IE browser and programs like the MS .NET Framework.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v46.0.1 * IE9 * NIS v21.7.0.11
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

(1) try install the KBs mentioned after downloaded but the KB installation didn't complete successfully - instead a KB installation seemed to hang at "search..." for several hours.

(2) The method to install the KBs using "...  install them via WUSA on a CMD shell (as Administrator)  ..."

via this link:  http://wu.krelay.de/en/

as mentioned in:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/windows-update-long-time-to-check-for-updates.379435/page-13