Can't use windows update?!

#1 Philipp

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Posted 13 January 2002 - 09:38 PM

Posted by Palos (Senior Member) Can't use windows update?!

Yea, I just installed XP Home edition, and tried to use the Windows Update site. Found a bunch of updates, but it refuses to download/install them. It gives me an "update failed" message...I can tell by looking at the ingoing/outgoing packets, that there is not much being downloaded from the WinUpdate site.

#2 Galilee

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Posted 14 January 2002 - 01:45 AM

Same here, and on my girlfriends computer.

It does'nt have anything to do with me having a oem version?
Is it down for all people?

#3 Galilee

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Posted 14 January 2002 - 01:57 AM

Here is a fix that worked for me

Quote:

Open with notepad the file:

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

and add the following line

207.68.131.20 www.download.windowsupdate.com

#4 Palos

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Posted 14 January 2002 - 12:47 PM

I also have an OEM version of Home. It's not a recovery version though, it's a full installation. I will try to add the server to my /etc/hosts

and give it a try later tonight.

I don't think it's down for all people, cos I crosschecked with some people last night, and they had no problems getting there.

What happens is as follows:

It installs that Windows update component, I accept it. Then I search my PC for updates, it finds about 5 critical, 8 for Windows XP and 3 new drivers (logitech, realtek and creative). Then I choose to install them now, and I getting a little window with a licence agreement that I'm supposed to accept. The problem is that there is no agreement showed, only an IE window stating that "page not found" with an DNS error. I accept it anyways, the download/install progress window shows up, but there is nothing downloaded. Then it quits the installer, saying that Update failed, and try again...

#5 Palos

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Posted 14 January 2002 - 09:23 PM

Yes, adding the download server in the hosts file helped

Thanks a lot!

#6 Palos

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Posted 15 January 2002 - 12:47 PM

Well, this one seems to have been quite widespread...
Check @ http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23666.html

#7 AndyFair

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Posted 15 January 2002 - 02:30 PM

I used to have problems with this too - I worked out in the end that it was to do with my ISPs proxy server, that it had obviously cached previous hits to windowsupdate and was trying to give me those - if I turned the proxy details off in IE, it worked fine.

Just a thought...

AndyF