Windows 7 64bit: Windows Update Service Not Running (but it is running in services.msc)

Question

I just got a new desktop computer (Gateway FX6840-03e) It has Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (not sure what service pack, I'm new to windows 7 as of this computer so i'm not sure where to find that information). It came with a norton security that i didn't bother to activate, I uninstalled it and followed up with Norton Removal Tool. I then installed AVG Free 2011 edition

When I went to Windows Update I have the red x shield and clicking on the check for updates button gives me the error "Windows cannot check for updates because the service is not running. You may need to restart the computer." Windows update service is running in services.msc though.

The first thing I did that i had read about on the product reviews for the computer since it seemed to be a problem with a few other people that bought the computer was to disable the windows update service the go into C:\windows\SoftwareDistribution and delete everything in there and re-enable windows update service afterwords. According to the reviews this worked for most people. However the problem still persisted for me. Google searching has led me to these forums and i've gone through a few threads but haven't gotten a solution yet.

I've run the windows update troubleshooter with no luck

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-the-Windows-Update-troubleshooter

I ran the System File Checker tool

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

It came back with one problem, but the log file created was blank

I ran the Fix It tool in both default and aggressive modes

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

And in one post somebody mentioned that ATI Catylist Control Center was causing their problem so I uninstalled that with no luck (I have re-installed that)

There have been many restarts between all of that above and now i'm not sure what else to try.

Answer 1

Well doing some searches on the errors in the windowsupdate.log eventually led me to find that it the problem had something to do with my hard drive being large (1TB) and "Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST)" drivers needed to be updated. Once I got the driver updated my windows update started working fine. Thanks for the help that led me to the answer.

Answer 2

Hello Phabin,

I suggest that you boot your computer to Clean boot and check if you are able to start the Windows Update service.

a.     Click Start, type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

b.     If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

c.       On the General tab, click Selective Startup.

d.      Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup Items check box.

e.     Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.

f.        Click OK.

g.      When you are prompted, click Restart.

After the computer starts, check if the issue is fixed, then follow the steps mentioned in the following KB article to narrow down the exact source:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

You can also set the computer to normal startup once you determine the service causing the issue. See the section on how return your computer to a Normal startup mode by following the steps under “Reset the computer to start as usual” in the above article.

If this does not fix the issue, you can do a In place upgrade on your computer.

To perform an Inplace Upgrade of Windows 7:

a.     Disable or uninstall all security software’s on the computer.

b.     Remove all third party CD and DVD burning software.

c.      Click on Start, in the start search box type appwiz.cpl and press enter. 

d.     On the left side click on “Turn Windows feature On or Off”.

e.     Uncheck the following three components and then click on Ok.

.Net Framework 3.0

Remote Differential Compression

Windows DFS Replication Service

f.       Start the Inplace Upgrade.

Steps to perform an Inplace upgrade:

a.     Exit all programs before you upgrade to Windows Vista. These programs include browsers and media players.

b.     Insert the Windows Vista DVD into the DVD drive.

c.      When the “Install now” screen appears, click on “Install now”.

d.     On “Which type of installation do you want?” screen, click Upgrade and follow the instructions to install Windows Vista.

Once the upgrade is complete, follow the steps as below.

a.     Click on Start, in the start search box type appwiz.cpl and press enter.

b.     On the left side click on “Turn Windows feature On or Off”.

c.      Put a check mark against the following three components and then click on Ok.

.Net Framework 3.0

Remote Differential Compression

Windows DFS Replication Service

Thanks,

Irfan H, Microsoft Answers Support Engineer. Visit ourMicrosoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Answer 3

There is no reason for doing an " in-place upgrade " yet.

Please try another attempt at updating. If it fails again, please copy and paste the last 50 or so lines of the WindowsUpdate.log into your reply so we can try to determine where it's failing -How to read the Windowsupdate.log file

---

MowGreen Windows Expert IT Pro - Consumer Security

Answer 4

Alright, just got off work and tried the clean boot which didn't work. Also my purchase only came with the computer, keyboard, and mouse. I don't have a windows 7/Vista DVD.

Here's the last 50 lines in Windowsupdate.log

2011-01-10 20:22:57:25910647c8AU AU setting next sqm report timeout to 2011-01-11 02:22:57

2011-01-10 20:22:57:25910647c8DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:57:25910647c8Agent WARNING: GetServiceList failed with error 0xc8000247.

2011-01-10 20:22:57:25910647c8AU WARNING: QueryRegisteredProvider failed with error 0xc8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:57:25910647c8AU  # Approval type: Scheduled (User preference)

2011-01-10 20:22:57:25910647c8AU  # Scheduled install day/time: Every day at 3:00

2011-01-10 20:22:57:25910647c8AU  # Auto-install minor updates: Yes (User preference)

2011-01-10 20:22:57:25910647c8AU  # Will interact with non-admins (Non-admins are elevated (User preference))

2011-01-10 20:22:57:25910647c8AU  # Power management is turned off through policy

2011-01-10 20:22:57:27510647c8DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:57:27510647c8AU FATAL: Failed to get session from datastore, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:57:27510647c8AU FATAL: Failed to Unserialize from data store, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:57:27510647c8AU  # WARNING: Exit code = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:57:27510647c8AU ###########  AU: Uninitializing Automatic Updates  ###########

2011-01-10 20:22:57:27510647c8AU WARNING: InitAUComponents Failed, will restart AU in 30 mins, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:57:27510647c8AU AU Restart required....

2011-01-10 20:22:57:9611064828Report ***********  Report: Initializing static reporting data  ***********

2011-01-10 20:22:57:9611064828Report  * OS Version = 6.1.7600.0.0.66304

2011-01-10 20:22:57:9611064828Report  * OS Product Type = 0x00000003

2011-01-10 20:22:57:9921064828Report  * Computer Brand = Gateway

2011-01-10 20:22:57:9921064828Report  * Computer Model = FX6840

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0081064828Report  * Bios Revision = P01-A3        

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0081064828Report  * Bios Name = Default System BIOS

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0081064828Report  * Bios Release Date = 2010-05-17T00:00:00

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0081064828Report  * Locale ID = 1033

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0391064bd0DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0391064bd0DnldMgr FATAL: DM:CAgentDownloadManager::CheckAllCallDownloadStates: GetSession failed with 0xc8000247.

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0391064bd0DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0391064bd0DnldMgr FATAL: DM:CAgentDownloadManager::PurgeExpiredFiles: GetSession failed with 0xc8000247.

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0391064bd0DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:22:58:0391064bd0DnldMgr FATAL: DM:CAgentDownloadManager::PurgeExpiredUpdates: GetSession failed with 0xc8000247.

2011-01-10 20:23:03:0601064bd0Report CWERReporter finishing event handling. (00000000)

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU ###########  AU: Initializing Automatic Updates  ###########

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU AU setting next detection timeout to 2011-01-11 02:23:42

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU AU setting next sqm report timeout to 2011-01-11 02:23:42

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828Agent WARNING: GetServiceList failed with error 0xc8000247.

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU WARNING: QueryRegisteredProvider failed with error 0xc8000247

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU  # Approval type: Scheduled (User preference)

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU  # Scheduled install day/time: Every day at 3:00

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU  # Auto-install minor updates: Yes (User preference)

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU  # Will interact with non-admins (Non-admins are elevated (User preference))

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU  # Power management is turned off through policy

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU FATAL: Failed to get session from datastore, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU FATAL: Failed to Unserialize from data store, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU  # WARNING: Exit code = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU ###########  AU: Uninitializing Automatic Updates  ###########

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU WARNING: InitAUComponents Failed, will restart AU in 30 mins, error = 0xC8000247

2011-01-10 20:23:42:1401064828AU AU Restart required....

Answer 5

So can you please elaborate exactly what you did to solve this problem?  I have same problem running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and ran into this "Windows Update service not running" predicament on my ASUS laptop PC which I also have installed a Samsung HM100UI 1TB hard drive.  It became quirky after installing the 1TB hard drive.  I don't know if it is the Samsung disk is flaky and bad or is it something to do with the Intel driver you mentioned now.  Where and what Intel updated drivers did you get?  Can you post a link please.