Windows Update fails on cumulative update - 'Something didn't go as planned ...'

Win 11 Home 23H2, Windows Update tries to install the 11-2024 Cumulative Update. It goes through the entire process, then at the end it says something like, "Something didn't go as planned. Don't worry, we'll undo any changes."

Then it takes a while to undo the changes and the pc reboots. Everything is ok, but the update wasn't installed, so the next day windows tries (and fails) again. It keeps on going like this, so for now I've paused windows updates.

If I use the system file checker ( sfc /verifyonly ), it returns that the system files are ok.

What can i do to resolve this problem?

Hello @winmark and welcome to ElevenForum.

Generally I try sfc /scannow ...first.
The I run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

If the updates still don't work, you can try...





And if that doesn't work... then I would just do an In-Place Upgrade... Option #2 (ISO method)...

An In-Place Upgrade "compares" what is installed on the computer, with the Windows ISO image.
Then, it overwrites any corrupted Windows files, with clean copies from the ISO image.
This is how it "repairs" Windows while allowing you to keep your programs and personal files.

Also, I gave you 10 points for filling out your computer specs.





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Here's some other things that you may find useful...

Welcome to the forum These are general WU troubleshooting steps. Before doing step 5, I would do 1-4 and then try the update again.

Disable any third party AV

1. Run troubleshooter-settings-system-troubleshoot-other troubleshooters-windows update-RUN.

2. Reset Windows update using Brink's tutorial Reset Windows Update in Windows 11 Tutorial

3. Run sfc after resetting update components. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer

4. CLEAN UP COMPONENT STORE - from command prompt as administrator dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup
Analyze and Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 11 Tutorial

5. Do a repair install. Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial
(Iso must be of same or later version/build than what is installed)

Ghot said:

Hello @winmark and welcome to ElevenForum.

Generally I try sfc /scannow ...first.
The I run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

If the updates still don't work, you can try...

Reset Windows Update in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to completely reset Windows Update components and policies to default in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows Update keeps Windows 11 updated by automatically downloading and installing the latest updates, drivers, and hotfixes released by Microsoft. Sometimes you...

www.elevenforum.com

And if that doesn't work... then I would just do an In-Place Upgrade... Option #2 (ISO method)...

An In-Place Upgrade "compares" what is installed on the computer, with the Windows ISO image.
Then, it overwrites any corrupted Windows files, with clean copies from the ISO image.
This is how it "repairs" Windows while allowing you to keep your programs and personal files.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

Also, I gave you 10 points for filling out your computer specs.





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Quickie Eleven Forum Setup Guide for new Members

Quickie Interface tour... Quickie set up... At the top right, click on your name, then choose "Preferences". Then go through everything on the left side. Quickie navigation... Click Forums and choose a subforum, OR... Click Forums, then New Posts or What's New Ranks, Trophies...

www.elevenforum.com

Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper and Hasleo Backup Suite - GUIDES

How to use backup software... 1. When everything is working perfectly... make a full Windows backup. 2. Then, if something breaks... restore from the latest backup. 3. Then... try "whatever you were doing" a different way. If it still breaks Windows, then... go to step #2. 4. Repeat...

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Windows 11 Tweaks - Leader Board.

These are tweaks I've seen asked for... many times. They are collected here for easy access. All of these and more can be found in the Eleven Forum Tutorials section. Make sure to read the "notes" in the various tutorials. At the bottom of the first post in all the "tutorials", there are...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I tried the first suggestions, but no joy.

Then I tried the reset windows update option and that literally BRICKED my computer!! When it restarts, the screen is blank and upon restarting again it goes into automatic repair mode which then fails! There is nothing that I can do, except it does allow me to go into command mode which does seem to work.

Previously, I had tried to create a recovery disk, but windows wouldn’t create it. So I’m totally stuck. System restore doesn’t work either

I hate windows so much when it doesn’t work.

What should I do now?

What ever happened to safe mode? I guess as they kept “improving“ windows they didn’t think it necessary any more.

At this point I need to use my phone to access this forum.

See if you can find some flash drives that you can format and a working windows computer.

On the working windows computer plan to create tools that can be used on the problematic computer

zbook said:

See if you can find some flash drives that you can format and a working windows computer.

On the working windows computer plan to create tools that can be used on the problematic computer

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I can do that, but what tools should I put on the flash drive?

winmark said:

What should I do now?

Click to expand...

The reset Windows update shouldn't have caused any problems. It either fixes Windows Update or has no effect.
It should not have "bricked" your computer.



Probably the easiest/fastest solution now, is to just clean install Windows 11.
When finished... it will automatically activate.



@zbook can also help with various diagnostic tools, etc. It won't be fast, and may end up, not helping.
IF... there is some "other" issue that is the original cause... he will find it.

He "may" be able to fix the problem without a clean install.
This would save your installed software and personal files.

This is a choice you'll have to make. A Clean Install is very fast, but will NOT save your programs or files.
A Clean Install will NOT affect your files on "storage" drives.
But it will wipe out everything on the Windows drive.



EDIT: I still can not understand how resetting Windows Update could brick your comp.
We've all done it... lots of times with no problems.

@winmark

Depending on what is causing the problem... @zbook 's tools might allow you to access system restore?
If you could do a System Restore, then you would be able to do an In-Place Upgrade instead of a Clean Install.

An In-Place Upgrade can repair Windows with out you losing your programs and files.
BUT... it has to be done from "within" Windows.

Another alternative way to save your personal files (if the data is viable) is a custom install. Custom Install Windows 11 Tutorial

1) Create a bootable Sea Tools flash drive > run Sea Tools Long generic test > take pictures > post images or share links






2) Create a bootable Windows 11 Media Creation Tool (MCT) (Windows 11 iso)





3) Pending Long generic test results

a) Long generic test fail > backup files > replace the drive

b) Long generic test pass > Windows 11 custom install > restore files from Windows.old

Thank you to everyone who tried to help. This has been a major hassle. In hindsight, I just should have turned off windows update and relied only on the AV. Windows update is a nightmare when things go wrong.

In the end, I used a friend's laptop to create a Win 11 bootable usb boot drive. I tried the update reinstallation first, but that just did the same thing as before. Then I tried a clean reinstallation of Win 11, losing everything previously on the machine. That went through the whole process but at the end failed with the very informative message "Windows 11 Installation failed."

I was ready to try Linux, but I found an old Win 10 pc and used that to create a Win10 usb boot disk. With the Win 10 boot drive I was able to do a clean reinstall of Win 10 on this laptop (which originally shipped with Win 10 before upgrading to Win 11).

Now I have a vanilla install of Win 10 working on the laptop. Maybe all these problems were due to some type of hardware incompatability with the latest Win 11 update? It's strange because I've run Win 11 for a while with no issues until the last update. Of course, there's no way of knowing what the problem is because windows provides no useful error messages.

I guess I'll stick with Win 10 now and spend the time putting everything else back in place.

Thanks again to everyone who tried to help with this issue!