Windows Update Broken

Ed989

Honorable
Oct 14, 2012
11
0
10,510
Hello everyone,

As the title says, Windows Update stopped working on my Lenovo ThinkPad T420 a little over a month ago. Windows Update claims the last successful check for updates occurred on September 20th. I know.....I should not have waited this long to try to fix it but I don't use the laptop that often and I just didn't want to take the time. The OS is 64 bit Windows 7 Pro.

Every time I try to use Windows Update I get the error message "Windows could not search for new updates. Code 80070422 Windows Update encountered an unknown error." When I click the "get help with this error" link, there is a downloadable utility on the Microsoft website that claims to fix the issue. I have downloaded and run the utility twice without success. I have run full system scans with both MS Security Essentials and MalwareBytes. Neither found anything. I was going to try a system restore, but it seems that the oldest restore point is in early October which would not get me back before this issue started.

Almost every time I shut down, Windows goes into the installing updates screen (which I find odd since supposedly no successful check for updates has occurred in over a month). Everything seems to be working fine, but the Windows 7 messaging center and the Lenovo Thinkvantage utility are constantly giving me warnings that Windows is not being updated. Also, even though Windows Update says it can't check for updates, the update history shows that updates are being applied every few days, and even now it is telling me that I have 13 important and 10 optional updates to install. Does anyone have any ideas? Is my best bet simply to try to repair the Windows 7 install or maybe even just reformat and start over?

Thanks for reading,

-Ed
 
Solution
its exactly the same as far as i know, if none of this works, its quite possible you may need to bite the bullet and call MS tech support, maybe take a xanax first and you'll be fine

sactorage

Honorable
Sep 19, 2013
41
0
10,560
I know this is not the same error message, but it appears that you have a corrupted update file. i would try deleting the temp update files, reboot and try to run win update again. I have ran into this issue before and it solved my problem

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/windows-update-error-80070002

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_update/how-to-remove-updates-in-the-queue-in-windows-7/e6e2c6d9-18fc-4269-80e9-8f7576f1b166?msgId=353fafc5-7b51-4895-96eb-7427e5021fb5
 

Ed989

Honorable
Oct 14, 2012
11
0
10,510
I'm running a scan in safe mode right now. I'll update once it's done. That utility you linked to is the one I had tried before. I ran it again just in case, but still nothing.
 

Ed989

Honorable
Oct 14, 2012
11
0
10,510


After I deleted the files that were indicated in that guide the system didn't try to update when I shut down, but Windows Update was still unable to check for updates when I rebooted.
 

Ed989

Honorable
Oct 14, 2012
11
0
10,510


I stopped/restarted Windows Update through the Control Panel-->Administrative Tools-->Services-->Windows Update pathway. I have stopped/restarted several times this way. Is doing it through a command prompt better?
 

sactorage

Honorable
Sep 19, 2013
41
0
10,560
its exactly the same as far as i know, if none of this works, its quite possible you may need to bite the bullet and call MS tech support, maybe take a xanax first and you'll be fine
 
Solution