Win7 SP1: Win Update fails with 80080005; Always "Preparing to configure new updates" on...

[TheBloke]

Hi all,


I have a perplexing problem, or series of problems, which appears to have started about a week ago.


The summary of the issue is that Windows Update will not run, reporting error 80080005. As well as breaking new updates, more urgently it's also preventing me from using basic USB devices on new ports (even my mouse and keyboard), which means I can't use a new USB hub I purchased. It's also preventing me from upgrading to Windows 10.


I have spent the last two days trying to resolve it, trying a myriad of different fixes found on this site.


As you can see from the below I have already tried a great deal, including many things that have resolved issues for others. I'm willing to try anything and everything else that might resolve the problem, short of a full re-installation.


I do realise that my system sounds pretty screwed, but I can't currently re-install because I do not have any Windows 7 media. (I hoped I could download it from Microsoft, but it seems only Windows 8 is still available for download.) And in any case, what I ultimately want to do is upgrade to Windows 10, but I can't do that unless I can get Windows Update working so that I can download it!


Apologies for the long post but I hope all the detail provided will help narrow down the problem and rule out things I've already tried.


Thanks in advance!


Summary:


System:

• Windows 7 Professional x64, SP1, build 6.1.7601.18766
• Microsoft Genuine Advantage Diagnostics Tool shows valid and no errors.
• Malware scans report no issues.
• OS installed two years ago
• Updates last successfully installed 31/08/2015
  
• Check for new Updates last worked 26/09/2015 - this is, I guess, when the issue started
• I do not currently have access to Windows 7 install media, my original disk being broken.
  • I have been planning to soon upgrade to Win 10, but without Windows Update I can't right now even download it to do the update.

Problems:

1. I can't install USB devices on new ports because it hangs when checking for drivers in Windows Update
2. Windows Update persistently fails with error 80080005, including after:
   1. clearing SoftwareDistribution and catroot2
   2. running the Windows Update Reset Fixit (twice so far)
   3. re-installing Windows Update components and re-registering them (twice so far)
   4. running the System Update Readiness Tool and it installing a lengthy update.
3. Every time I restart, Windows hangs at "Preparing to configure Windows / Do not turn off your computer."
   1. I have on multiple occasions left it at this point for several hours; no hard drive activity is visible and it never proceeds.
   2. I tried removing the file C:\Windows\winsxs\reboot.xml, which made no difference.
4. I cannot run sfc /scannow due to error "Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service".
   1. But TrustedInstaller (Windows Modules Installer) service is working fine, which is the most frequently mentioned fix for this problem.
   2. Running sfc /scannow generates the following Event Log error:
      1. The server {8F5DF053-3013-4DD8-B5F4-88214E81C0CF} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.
5. Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> "Turn Windows features on or off" : shows no features listed at all; I cannot add or remove Windows features
   1. I looked at this with a view to disabling Windows Search, as my Windows Search service hangs on boot.
   2. I don't particularly need/want to remove or change Windows features, but it is another system problem that's occurring that perhaps is indicative of something?
   3. When I go to "Turn Windows features on or off", it shows "Please wait.." for a couple of minutes. Then this message disappears, but no list of features appear. It just shows an empty control with OK/Cancel buttons.
   4. Screenshot showing the empty Windows Features control.
   5. When opening the Windows Features control, I see the following Event Logs:
      1. The Windows Modules Installer service entered the running state.
      2. The server {752073A1-23F2-4396-85F0-8FDB879ED0ED} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.
      3. The WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service service entered the stopped state.

Problem(s) trigger:


I believe the problem started around September 26th, as that is when Windows Update was last able to check for updates.


I have not installed any significant software on or since that date - just a couple of minor third-party programs. To be safe, I have uninstalled everything I installed since then, but to no avail.


The only possible cause I can think of is that a week or two ago (I am not sure of the exact timing), I suddenly found myself out of disk space. My C: drive is a 64GB SSD drive and so I am always quite low on space, but I try to keep it to always having 5GB free. A week or two ago I suddenly found I had no space free at all. This resulted in explorer.exe crashing. Once it had restarted, I quickly removed some downloads and uninstalled some programs to resolve the issue,


I believe the sudden loss of disk space was probably related to Windows Update downloading Windows 10 in the background, though I can't be sure. Later I found I had 2.6GB used in SoftwareDistribution, and a few hundred MB (can't remember the precise amount) in C:\Windows.~BT - both of which I have subsequently removed.


I don't know if the timing of this disk space issue relates to when updates stopped working, as I only noticed the problem a couple of days ago when I found USB devices weren't working. But it's the only issue I can think of.


What I've tried in detail:

1. A malware scan with two different tools; no problems found, only a couple of regkeys relating to "potentially unwanted programs", removed by the first scan.
2. Running sfc /scannow
   1. It fails each time with "Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service"
   2. Investigating this, I found multiple references to the problem being related to the Windows Modules Installer service, AKA "trustedinstaller"
   3. My trustedinstaller service runs fine - it is in Disabled state, and starts fine when I manually start it
   4. I also checked the registry keys mentioned in fixes for Trusted Installer, for example in this KB959077, and found them to be fine.
   5. This screenshot of an elevated command prompt shows me successfully starting TrustedInstaller, followed by sfc /scannow failing.
   6. After running sfc /scannow, I see the following error in the Event Log:
      1. The server {8F5DF053-3013-4DD8-B5F4-88214E81C0CF} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.
3. Running the System Update Readiness Tool (KB947821)
   1. After a very long process, this installed itself; seemingly successfully.
   2. However the only noticeable result was that the system now takes longer to get to desktop - it used to be that after I clicked on my username on the Login screen, I would see the desktop in ~15 seconds. It now takes up to two minutes, including 1.5 minutes of a black screen with just a mouse cursor visible.
4. Moving C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution and C:\Windows\System32\Catroot2
   1. I am now not sure if I should have done CatRoot2 - it was mentioned in one lengthy answer to a similar Windows Update problem, but I later realised that the answer was related to Vista.
   2. I was going to move it back, but I saw that it had by then been rebuilt by the Windows Update Reset Fixit
   3. I still have my original Catroot2 directory that I could move back if needed, however the problem has not changed since it was moved/rebuilt - and the newly re-built directory is of a similar size to the original.
5. Ran the Windows Update Reset Fixit, twice:
   1. Both times it took at least twenty minutes to run.
   2. Both times it listed a bunch of issues that it said it fixed - I think the same list each time, though I didn't save the first report so I can't be absolutely certain.
   3. Though the second time the overview screen seemed to say that it had not fixed some of them, but then when I went to the full report it said it had Completed all the fixes.
   4. This is a link to the full report from the second time I ran the fixer, printed as an XPS file (the only option the fixer seemed to give me to save the report was to print it, so I printed it to an XPS file.)
   5. This is a link to the zip file of log files the fixer created, again from the second run. It contains DataStore.edb, dism.log and WindowsUpdate.log.
6. Installed the latest versions of the Windows Update Agent, from this Fixit: How to update the Windows Update Agent to the latest version
   1. After doing so, I then re-registered the components as follows (following advice from Shenan in this thread), all of which completed successfully:
      1. regsvr33 Jscript.dll
      2. regsvr32 wuapi.dll
      3. regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
   2. The first time I tried this (I've now done it twice), it resulted in the only change I've seen throughout the whole process:
      1. I installed the Windows Update Agent, then rebooted, then I ran the three regsvr32 commands as above, then rebooted again
      2. After this second reboot, I did not get the "Preparing to configure Windows.." screen; the first and only time I have not seen it.
      3. However the next time I rebooted it was back again, and has always been present since then, including after I repeated the re-installation of Windows Update Agent and then re-registering the three components a second time.
7. Run the Microsoft Genuine Advantage Diagnostics Tool, which reported no problems.
8. Ran chkdsk c: /f /r, which ran on reboot and reported no problems.
9. Moved the file C:\Windows\WinSXS\reboot.xml, in an attempt to remove the persistent "Preparing to configure updates.." screen on restart
   1. I had only reboot.xml, not the related file pending.xml
   2. This did nothing: on next restart the Preparing screen still showed, displaying this time with no reboot.xml present at all (it was not re-created.)

Further information:

• This is the precise error shown (repeatedly) in my C:\Windows\SystemDistribution\ReportingEvents.log:

{D3C67710-B33A-4F02-ADA6-D1B0AEB78E37} 2015-10-02 04:42:27:791+0100 1 148 101 {61CA813A-7585-442E-A66B-B0D15CE6BDC0} 1 80080005 SelfUpdate Failure Software Synchronization Windows Update Client failed to detect with error 0x80080005.

• All Services listed as Automatic are currently Started, except Windows Search
  • Windows Search gets stuck at Starting, and I don't know how long this has persisted for - I have tried disabling the service so it doesn't try to start, and this makes no difference to anything. Currently it is on Automatic again.
  • Windows Update is set to Automatic (Delayed Start) and starts correctly whenever I try Windows Update, or if I start it manually.
  • Windows Module Installer (TrustedInstaller) is set to Manual, and starts correctly if I start it manually, or when I install/remove software.
  
  
• 
  I have the following random errors in my Event Logs
  
  
• 
  A couple are obviously related to the issue, but I do do not know if the rest are, or even whether they are new or have been going on for a while, as I regularly clear out my Event Logs (using the tool CCleaner Professional) to save disk space, of which I am very short on my SSD C: drive (6GB remaining at this time)
  
  
• 
  I am pretty sure that I've definitely seen the WMI error (related to the "Event filter with query.. ") in the past, long before these issues started, so I doubt that's related.
  

The Windows Update service did not shut down properly after receiving a preshutdown control.


Triggered by running Windows Update, and by running "Turn on or off Windows Features":

The server {752073A1-23F2-4396-85F0-8FDB879ED0ED} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.


Triggered by running sfc /scannow:

The server {8F5DF053-3013-4DD8-B5F4-88214E81C0CF} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.


The Peer Networking Grouping service depends on the Peer Name Resolution Protocol service which failed to start because of the following error:
%%-2140993535


The Peer Name Resolution Protocol service terminated with the following error:
%%-2140993535


The Peer Name Resolution Protocol cloud did not start because the creation of the default identity failed with error code: 0x80630801.


The Windows Search service hung on starting.


Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.


-----------------

Fault bucket , type 0


Event Name: WindowsUpdateFailure3

Response: Not available

Cab Id: 0


Problem signature:

P1: 7.6.7601.18937

P2: 80080005

P3: 61CA813A-7585-442E-A66B-B0D15CE6BDC0

P4: Scan

P5: 1

P6: 0

P7: 0

P8: SelfUpdate

P9: {9482F4B4-E343-43B6-B170-9A65BC822C77}

P10: 0


Attached files:

These files may be available here:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\NonCritical_7.6.7601.18937_a87c742de8ff51352ea85b2eb479b872bf32c4_18a87f8b


Analysis symbol:

Rechecking for solution: 0

Report Id: 7a154436-690f-11e5-818c-00241dc64523

Report Status: 0

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