PC Updating Issue

Hi,

For the past week, my wife's PC has been getting the Windows 10 message "we couldn't complete the update, undoing changes, ..."

It is a Dell XPS 8300 purchased May 2012 (I didn't realize it was that old).

Intel i5-2500 (6MB Cache, 3.3 GHz), 8 GB Ram. Radeon video card with 1 GB.

The PC has also become very slow. Malware Bytes and Norton do not detect any malware or virus'.

1. Suggestions on the update issue?

2. Is this still a useful PC, she primarily uses it for email and Facebook, occasionally the web and Word? Office 365 is installed on the PC.

Thanks,

Joe

Joe5 said:

Hi,

For the past week, my wife's PC has been getting the Windows 10 message "we couldn't complete the update, undoing changes, ..."

It is a Dell XPS 8300 purchased May 2012 (I didn't realize it was that old).

Intel i5-2500 (6MB Cache, 3.3 GHz), 8 GB Ram. Radeon video card with 1 GB.

The PC has also become very slow. Malware Bytes and Norton do not detect any malware or virus'.

1. Suggestions on the update issue?

2. Is this still a useful PC, she primarily uses it for email and Facebook, occasionally the web and Word? Office 365 is installed on the PC.

Thanks,

Joe

Click to expand...

Using for what is listed above in (2) -- the machine is just as good as one that is many times faster.

Joe5 said:

Hi,

For the past week, my wife's PC has been getting the Windows 10 message "we couldn't complete the update, undoing changes, ..."

It is a Dell XPS 8300 purchased May 2012 (I didn't realize it was that old).

Intel i5-2500 (6MB Cache, 3.3 GHz), 8 GB Ram. Radeon video card with 1 GB.

The PC has also become very slow. Malware Bytes and Norton do not detect any malware or virus'.

1. Suggestions on the update issue?

2. Is this still a useful PC, she primarily uses it for email and Facebook, occasionally the web and Word? Office 365 is installed on the PC.

Thanks,

Joe

Click to expand...

I am still using a 2007 notebook today as if it were new. The update issue is just a force update issue. Goto Microsofts website and download the update installer. It should force the update.

Here is the link to the update assistant.

Windows 10 Update Assistant (microsoft.com)

The PC has always updated automatically without issue. It’s only been the last week that problems started.



Thanks,

Joe

Joe5 said:

The PC has always updated automatically without issue. It’s only been the last week that problems started.

Thanks,

Joe

Click to expand...

Have you tried Windows' update troubleshooter?

It's been running for about 2 hours and now the PC appears to be locked up. This PC has become agonizing slow.

Joe

Joe5 said:

It's been running for about 2 hours and now the PC appears to be locked up. This PC has become agonizing slow.

Joe

Click to expand...

That sounds like more than a simple update problem. One possibility (of many):

A PC that old might have accumulated considerable dust inside; that could cause the processor to overheat and slow down. Perhaps a check of the inside is in order.

Had a 8300 for 10 years and recently upgraded to a 8940. The biggest speed up for the 8300 was a new SSD replacing the HDD. The new machine is super fast with a M2 MVMe SSD. All data cloned over with Macrium Reflect. As for updates I manually check regularly for anything new but often it shows an update but not ready to download for that particular PC.

How much free space do you have on the C: drive?

Windows update troubleshooter may help.

If you get a chance (or care to), swap in an SSD drive for the hard drive. SSDs help improve performance, and on something like a Windows Update the performance improvement is the most noticeable.

Austinian said:

Joe5 said:

It's been running for about 2 hours and now the PC appears to be locked up. This PC has become agonizing slow.

Joe

Click to expand...

That sounds like more than a simple update problem. One possibility (of many):

A PC that old might have accumulated considerable dust inside; that could cause the processor to overheat and slow down. Perhaps a check of the inside is in order.

Click to expand...

Older PCs with hard drives for the C drive (as opposed to Solid State Drives - SSDs - now near universal in new PCs) can be VERY slow to update. I manage some old laptops for a couple of voluntary groups, and some updates can take 12 hours or more, especially if the PC hasn't been run for a couple of months. No exageration.

Does the PC appear to be doing anything when it's locked up? Is the PC responsive, and can you run Task Manager - and if so, is it running with high cpu load or high disk load? If this is what is happening (high cpu load or high disk load), you might have to leave it overnight to finish.

Check your update history and see if either of these 2 updates are listed as the one that wouldn't install. Windows has acknowledged that updates KB5001330 and KB5000842 are causing problems such as not completing the install, slow computers and even BSODs. If one of these did install you can uninstall it and see if that helps. KB5001330 brought my PC to a crawl when running photo editing programs. I uninstalled it, set the reinstall clear into May (hoping they will have a fix by then) and my PC is fine,

Simon Garrett said:

Austinian said:

Joe5 said:

It's been running for about 2 hours and now the PC appears to be locked up. This PC has become agonizing slow.

Joe

Click to expand...

That sounds like more than a simple update problem. One possibility (of many):

A PC that old might have accumulated considerable dust inside; that could cause the processor to overheat and slow down. Perhaps a check of the inside is in order.

Click to expand...

Older PCs with hard drives for the C drive (as opposed to Solid State Drives - SSDs - now near universal in new PCs) can be VERY slow to update. I manage some old laptops for a couple of voluntary groups, and some updates can take 12 hours or more, especially if the PC hasn't been run for a couple of months. No exageration.

Click to expand...

"The PC has always updated automatically without issue. It’s only been the last week that problems started."

That's why I was guessing there's a problem rather than simple PC slowness.

Simon Garrett said:

Does the PC appear to be doing anything when it's locked up? Is the PC responsive, and can you run Task Manager - and if so, is it running with high cpu load or high disk load? If this is what is happening (high cpu load or high disk load), you might have to leave it overnight to finish.

Click to expand...

Definitely worth checking, OP.

Austinian said:

Simon Garrett said:

Austinian said:

Joe5 said:

It's been running for about 2 hours and now the PC appears to be locked up. This PC has become agonizing slow.

Joe

Click to expand...

That sounds like more than a simple update problem. One possibility (of many):

A PC that old might have accumulated considerable dust inside; that could cause the processor to overheat and slow down. Perhaps a check of the inside is in order.

Click to expand...

Older PCs with hard drives for the C drive (as opposed to Solid State Drives - SSDs - now near universal in new PCs) can be VERY slow to update. I manage some old laptops for a couple of voluntary groups, and some updates can take 12 hours or more, especially if the PC hasn't been run for a couple of months. No exageration.

Click to expand...

"The PC has always updated automatically without issue. It’s only been the last week that problems started."

That's why I was guessing there's a problem rather than simple PC slowness.

Austinian said:

Does the PC appear to be doing anything when it's locked up? Is the PC responsive, and can you run Task Manager - and if so, is it running with high cpu load or high disk load? If this is what is happening (high cpu load or high disk load), you might have to leave it overnight to finish.

Click to expand...

Definitely worth checking, OP.

Click to expand...

I quite agree and I had noticed, I was just making a general remark about older PCs with HDs being slow to update, and should have made that clear.

1) The PC is fine for those uses

2) Do you have an SSD?

3) My suggestion is that for Windows 10 you don't really need other AV software, as now you might have multiple scans running in the background.

@joe5

It's also possible that your primary drive is so full that it doesn't have the minimum swap space or scratch file space it needs for the update.

Have you checked the Recycle Bin lately?

Thanks for all the replies. Following are comments to the questions/suggestions that were raised

1. Have you tried Windows' update troubleshooter? After approximately 2 hours, the PC appeared to be locked up. Ended up having to shut down and restart the PC.

2. Free space on the C: drive. 81GB out of 918 GB

3. A PC that old might have accumulated considerable dust inside; that could cause the processor to overheat and slow down. Perhaps a check of the inside is in order. Quite a bit of dust on the intakes and a little on the bottom of inside. Clean now.

4. Update history. There is no mention of KB5000842. The update KB5001330 has failed to install 7 times. The first time was on 4-17-21. The current status of this update is “Pending Restart”.

5. Does the PC appear to be doing anything when it’s locked up? I can not get to Task Manager when it is locked up. Right now the CPU usage is low – jumping between 3 and 16%, mostly less than 5%. Disk usage is very low. The memory usage is steady at 52%. Google Chrome is the largest user – about 150 MB with 13 processes associated with it. Malwarebytes is second with 125 MB. A process called SyncUP is 4th at 101 MB – this is something that came with the PC and we don’t’ use it.

6. The Office 365 version that is installed is a 32 bit version. Could this be contributing to our issues? I also noticed that the Startup group has a Microsoft Office 2010 component enabled – this was the previous version that we used. I’m wondering how much other 2010 stuff was left behind?

7. Do you have an SSD? The PC does not have one. My son says that he has one that he is not using and I would like to install it with a clean copy of Win 10.

8. I emptied the Recycle bin about a week ago and it is still empty.

Thanks again,

Joe

Joe5 said:

7. Do you have an SSD? The PC does not have one. My son says that he has one that he is not using and I would like to install it with a clean copy of Win 10.

Click to expand...

Surely this PC will fly after a clean install on an SSD, easily handle web surfing / office etc.

I suggest not installing any AV programs, as Defender should be enough.

Norton is a heavy virus scanner. Removing it might speed things up. Windows Defender is better anyway and included with Win 10.

Listen to you're son install a SSD, no third party AV.