Solved Windows Update suddenly broke on new PC

A few weeks ago I tried playing a game(The Witcher 3) on my almost brand new PC and I noticed that the game was really laggy, constant FPS drops. I restarted the game, and on the 2nd try the entire PC just went dark and rebooted... Event viewer told me the graphics card/driver crashed. Before it put me at the login screen, it shortly mentioned something about updates. So before troubleshooting the GPU I checked Windows Update and saw an update for "Steelseries - Aps".

I installed it and rebooted, and then it got stuck for over an hour on "Working on updates, do not turn your PC off" with no progress bar. I got back in and checked event viewer which was just spammed with "DCOM got error "1115" attempting to start the service UsoSvc with arguments "Unavailable" in order to run the server" throughout the "update" and then an error about Windows Module Installer force quitting. I've tried googling this but I haven't got any luck figuring out what causes it. And after this I've been unable to install any updates other than Defender definitions. They all get stuck on downloading at 4%, next reboot they're at 0% installed, then next boot they're "installed" and this cycle repeats with every restart... And in-between every single reboot it gets stuck at the updates screen for 60-70 minutes, spamming the DCOM error. But shutting down works fine? I had no problems updating up to this point. I'm not sure if it's relevant, but I do have the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" option enabled.

I've tried:

• Running sfc /scannow which found corruptions at first but now nothing.
• DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth just goes blank without a progress bar, but checking the cbs.log it seems to be running? Either way it's stuck blinking in the cmd and stops with some of these errors:
  

  <timestamp>, Info CBS FC: FCAcquirerWUClient: WULib DownloadProgress: [49 / 100]
  <timestamp>, Warning CBS Current tick count: 739 lower than last tick count: 760. [HRESULT = 0x8007000d - ERROR_INVALID_DATA]
  
  <timestamp>, Info CBS FC: FCAcquirerWUClient: WULib DownloadProgress: [49 / 100]
  <timestamp>, Info CBS DWLD: Cancelling...
  <timestamp>, Info CBS DWLD: Failed to request abort [HRESULT = 0x80070005 - E_ACCESSDENIED]

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  Sometimes the progress gets further, but it always just stops like this. Seems to be the same when I try to download a new update.
• Running the WU troubleshooter, it just keeps saying there's a pending restart when there's not. And after clearing the WU download folder it just gets just stuck after telling me that now.
• Booted into safe mode with networking, and their DISM and the Windows Update troubleshooter finally seem to work, but I have no internet because the network card driver is disabled?
• I've tried running these commands from the Microsoft documentation(not the ones below that though), and it seemed to reset WU, but they still just get stuck doing nothing with further errors

The only things that come to mind is to run DISM offline, but documentation for that is seemingly scarce. And I don't know if these options will work either since WU is so broken. I've heard others had success with "Windows 10 Update Assistant", but this doesn't seem to exist for Windows 11?

I'm really at a loss here. It's a completely fresh Windows 11 install that I've only used for 3 weeks total and apart from the aforementioned I don't know what to do apart from a complete restore, which I'd really like to avoid since I just finished setting everything up. Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this?

Welcome to the forum. You have a lot going on here.
First off off I believe that Steelseries-aps you referred to is related to your headphones.

From what you are describing with WU you seem to be in an update loop. But Even more concerning to me is your issues with SFC and DISM which indicates corruption of system files. I believe you can save yourself a lot of time and effort by trying a repair install. You should not lose any data if all goes well.
I suggest once you get your system back into a stable state that you consider some sort of backup solution to protect yourself in the future.
11 Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

glasskuter said:

Welcome to the forum. You have a lot going on here.
First off off I believe that Steelseries-aps you referred to is related to your headphones.

From what you are describing with WU you seem to be in an update loop. But Even more concerning to me is your issues with SFC and DISM which indicates corruption of system files. I believe you can save yourself a lot of time and effort by trying a repair install. You should not lose any data if all goes well.
I suggest once you get your system back into a stable state that you consider some sort of backup solution to protect yourself in the future.
11 Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

Click to expand...

Yep.. Been a stressful troubleshooting. I have a pair of Steelseries headphones and their software, so it is most likely that. Strange thing is that I've updated that specific driver twice before on this new system and nothing like this happened.

It seems to be so rare for DISM to not to work at all that I can barely find anything related to it...
I'll try the in-place upgrade and hope it works! Do you think it's enough to just quit Malwarebytes before running the executable?

Yes. If you have realtime MWB turn off all the protection and use task manager to make sure it's not running.

glasskuter said:

Yes. If you have realtime MWB turn off all the protection and use task manager to make sure it's not running.

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I only have the free trial, probably enough to just quit it then.

A little bit unrelated, but do you think it’s better to do a complete wipe to ensure nothing is going to haunt me in the future? Or should I just ignore that thought and try the in-place repair? Just considering it’s so new.

On Microsoft’s documentation for in-place upgrade, they say that some customization settings may disappear which isn’t mentioned in your guide? Not huge, but it’d be good to know which I should backup. Also, why should you disable “Get updates, drivers and optional features“?

Chime33 said:

do you think it’s better to do a complete wipe to ensure nothing is going to haunt me in the future?

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I suggested a repair install as it retains most programs and the user data. If you have your stuff backed up clean install is always a good choice to wipe completely clean and start over. However, you will have to verify that all the correct drivers and programs are re-installed afterwards and any user files on the system drive will be lost.

Chime33 said:

some customization settings may disappear which isn’t mentioned in your guide? Not huge, but it’d be good to know which I should backup. Also, why should you disable “Get updates, drivers and optional features“?

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I am unable to answer what you should backup as I don't know what changes you might or might not have made since you got your computer.
Regarding the handling of your drivers, You have not listed the specs on your system so I do not know what you are dealing with....OEM machine, custom machine??? It is the general consensus here that it is always best to acquire drivers directly from either the OEM or motherboard manufacturer rather than let Windows update handle drivers.

It would help us to give more direct advice if you would fill out the system specs section of your forum profile.

glasskuter said:

I suggested a repair install as it retains most programs and the user data. If you have your stuff backed up clean install is always a good choice to wipe completely clean and start over. However, you will have to verify that all the correct drivers and programs are re-installed afterwards and any user files on the system drive will be lost.


I am unable to answer what you should backup as I don't know what changes you might or might not have made since you got your computer.
Regarding the handling of your drivers, You have not listed the specs on your system so I do not know what you are dealing with....OEM machine, custom machine??? It is the general consensus here that it is always best to acquire drivers directly from either the OEM or motherboard manufacturer rather than let Windows update handle drivers.

It would help us to give more direct advice if you would fill out the system specs section of your forum profile.

Click to expand...

I have "most" things backed up, it's just that amount of time needed to reinstall and restore everything again that I was hoping to avoid. I was just wondering from your experience if I should just bite the bullet to avoid potential degraded performance/further errors or keep going, granted this succeeds.

I can fill out out if it helps, it's a custom machine with parts I handpicked. I always keep as many drivers as possible updated through the manufacturers software(GeForce Experience for GPU, motherboard's update tool etc.) rather than WU. It's only Steelseries so far who decided to keep some drivers with their software, and some through Windows Update.

If everything else seems stable, I would first attempt a repair install. Afterwards, check sfc, dism, and windows update. If anything is out of order, then you can do a clean install as last resort.

Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you

A repair install as suggested should fix your issues

Good news everyone, the repair install seems to have fixed the issue!
It got stuck on that 1+ hour reboot when the first part of the installer was done, which had me worried. But after that it booted back up, finished repairing/installing and I was finally able to install some updates after running the WU troubleshooter(which also now no longer claims there's a pending system restart)! Even DISM is working now!

Before I mark this as solved, I've just got a few more things:

• One update that was stuck before was a preview cumulative update for June(KB5027303), I don't think it ever managed to install properly as I got it literally a few minutes after the issues started, but before the repair I recall my OS build corresponding to it. After the repair it's no longer trying to re-install it every time I reboot, now it's just listed as "installed". When I finally got things working, I got a (preview?) cumulative update for July(KB5028254) and my build has changed to it. Does this one "overrule" KB5027303 or do I have to re-install that one somehow?
• I don't know if this is worth mentioning, but I got this one as well when things finally kicked off: KB4023057. It seems to be some sort of update for WU but it's from April? Maybe missing that could've been the culprit in the first place, or the in-place repair did something to re-install it.
• The Windows Update troubleshooter still claims there's an issue when searching for updates every time I run it, but it seems to be working fine? Not sure if I should just ignore this and hope a future update fixes it.

Thanks for the help so far, that in-place repair was just what I needed @glasskuter!

Not sure I'm understanding correctly. When a new cumulative is released it replaces the old cumulative one. In other words, lets say you never apply the June cumulative. When you apply the July cumulative, it includes everything that was in the June one plus anything MS has added since. As long as the latest cumulative is applied you are up to date whether earlier cumulatives were applied or not.
The preview updates contain same non-security updates that will be included in the Cumulative Monthly Rollup Update. I never manually apply the previews myself but wait until they come out as the official cumulative. However, if you choose the apply a preview , it will be replaced by the official cumulative roll-up when it is released.

glasskuter said:

Not sure I'm understanding correctly. When a new cumulative is released it replaces the old cumulative one. In other words, lets say you never apply the June cumulative. When you apply the July cumulative, it includes everything that was in the June one plus anything MS has added since. As long as the latest cumulative is applied you are up to date whether earlier cumulatives were applied or not.
The preview updates contain same non-security updates that will be included in the Cumulative Monthly Rollup Update. I never manually apply the previews myself but wait until they come out as the official cumulative. However, if you choose the apply a preview , it will be replaced by the official cumulative roll-up when it is released.

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I think you understood! Then I should already have June either way then since July successfully installed yesterday.
I’m guessing I get these previews because I have "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" on.

Backup Backup Backup

Chime33 said:

I’m guessing I get these previews because I have "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" on.

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Exactly.

MachineLanguage said:

Backup Backup Backup

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Yep, I have the most important things backed up but I'm going to make an effort to keep more things up there. I don't really trust full system backups+restore, so I am capping myself a bit when situations like this pops up.

Thanks again for the help, I'll mark this as solved when I can confirm everything has been working fine for a few days!

One day you possibly (likely) will be wishing you had a full system image.

It's been working fine now since the repair install, thank you so much for that suggestion and the answers!

Chime33 said:

I’m guessing I get these previews because I have "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" on.

Click to expand...

why not turn this option off or set a pause updates date?