Cumulative Updates failing to install on Gigabyte Z390 Motherboard

To avoid Windows Update replacing your drivers you either have to install the latest official version that is the same or higher than that offered by Windows Update or you have to block the respective updates, for older systems that the latest official version is earlier than that offered by Windows Update. Hiding (blocking) the respective updates makes your installed official version the latest available, so Windows Update won't find any higher version to replace it. Or, for newer systems, if you already installed the latest version there isn't any higher in Windows Update and it won't touch it. I miss the good old days of Windows 8 and earlier that where you could choose which updates to install and not get everything automatically.

spapakons said:

To avoid Windows Update replacing your drivers you either have to install the latest official version that is the same or higher than that offered by Windows Update or you have to block the respective updates, for older systems that the latest official version is earlier than that offered by Windows Update. Hiding (blocking) the respective updates makes your installed official version the latest available, so Windows Update won't find any higher version to replace it. Or, for newer systems, if you already installed the latest version there isn't any higher in Windows Update and it won't touch it. I miss the good old days of Windows 8 and earlier that where you could choose which updates to install and not get everything automatically.

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With all the security vulnerabilities MS doesn't give you the option to forego certain updates. I had to use WUSHOWHIDE to prevent certain updates from making my system unbootable. It seems that now if the update fails it won't do a forced install. As I mentioned earlier, MS is well aware of issues with their recent updates. There are numerous postings about it. I suspect that around August they added some Security features that made certain drivers that worked fine in the past fail during migration phase of the update boot process. Only reason I try and stick with MS supplied drivers is because I think they've tested and validated it with the OS. Part of the problem is when you're troubleshooting, they ask you to install all the latest drivers & bios for starters. Using 3rd party software to identify older drivers is the only way I know.

I don't think Microsoft testes every single driver they provide in Windows Update. They probably ask manufacturer to provide a light version of the driver reserving the full featured version for their support site. This explains why Microsoft drivers usually have only basic functionality (just make the device work, no control panel or other interface to tweak the driver), something I don't like. I prefer the fully featured official drivers from manufacturer support site. This involves to spare some time to search for and download the drivers from the individual component manufacturers. Using a utility such as Snappy Driver Installer is not guaranteed to download the latest official drivers. It might as well install the basic drivers like from Windows Update. I use Snappy only for some obscure devices that they are not worth my effort to search an official driver for. The official driver would make little difference in performance, such as a driver for a webcam or card reader etc.

Have you any guesses as to which software you installed that has drivers?

SIW2 said:

Have you any guesses as to which software you installed that has drivers?

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Check out this link What is a driver? - Windows drivers

We're used to thinking that all drivers are associated with a hardware device but that's not the case as the above link points out. In order to isolate my problem, I did an in-place upgrade and kept only personal files. In other words, all the programs & apps were removed and the update went in fine. Which means that it's not a hardware device driver that's causing my problem. Could be some software driver associated with one of the many programs on my machine that's not playing nice with Windows Update. The error message points to driver so if it's not related to hardware then it has to be related to software. That's my best guess.

Have you bothered to run through the troubleshooting steps in post #11? You have not indicated whether you have or not.

glasskuter said:

Have you bothered to run through the troubleshooting steps in post #11? You have not indicated whether you have or not.

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Yes, I've done that several times over the course of the last few months. Thanks.

After a successful upgrade create a restore point. Then install a couple of applications. If all is OK create a new restore point. Install a couple more and create another restore point. Any time something goes wrong you should be able to return to the last restore point and fix it. To be extra sure I sometimes skip the last restore point and return to the previous one. Been there done that.

I haven't had a System Restore work for several years. I rely on my frequent Macrium Reflect full disc (all partitions) images if I have to "Restore".

Probably a clone is better but it takes too long to complete. Also any recent files and other data not in the clone are lost, while a restore point does not affect your files.