error 0x80240012

This states that another program is in progress or installing, or the system is waiting to restart.

The problem is I have all free programs; MBAM, SpywareBlaster, and Defender and only Defender has real protection.
I have checked task manager for other programs that may be running.
**Also, my wife's laptop is doing the same thing. Hers has been refreshed about 2 months agao and mine was reinstalled about 2 weeks ago. This has just begun.

Either Defender in both machines is faulty, MS is having an issue, there is an issue on my end with both pcs or??

I find it odd that both machines are doing the same thing.

Just to check for an easy solution, some Windows Updates require a restart or even shutdown and reboot to complete some updates.

I have also seen some anti-virus programs which will interfere with that operation during the reboot process. You seem to indicate you do not have anything running which would cause this type of problem, so maybe just check to make sure.

It is a recent event and I wondered if anyone else with 8.1 was experiencing this.
I have changed nothing and always reboot after Windows updates.
I will see if this behavior persists and let the forum know if it does.

If you applied the latest MS Updates released a week ago it is possible that is what's causing your problem. There were some unstable updates in the batch that you should probably uninstall in light of your problems. The issues that have been reported vary from serious to odd. MS has generally recommended uninstalling 4 of the updates.

See current article:

Microsoft yanks botched Black Tuesday patches KB 2982791, KB 2970228, KB 2975719, and KB 2975331 | Microsoft windows - InfoWorld

updates

I checked and none of the updates cited were installed in my machines, thank you.

The error 0x80240012 seems to mean:

registry value was read but is invalid

Click to expand...

Maybe this will help you search for an solution, but I will have to do some research.

windows update registry corrupt

Hi Peter,
see attached screenshot regarding this error , Source MSDN blog

Brink wrote a tutorial and its fix in the W7 forum, also applies to W8 Reset Windows update, id select option 2.

Roy

I found some registry keys that might be useful. Maybe these are mentioned in the tutorial indicated, not sure.

You might check the last one for the information indicated. Perhaps it will tell you the last time something was installed. The RebootRequired one may also be helpful.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\AUOptions

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsStore\WindowsUpdate

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\Results\Install

Check this enty: LastSuccessTime

The last success time was 8-20-13:04.

I think Defender was the cause. But whatever was causing this has not appeared again for a few days on either pc.

Does Windows correct their errors with follow up updates? I do not see any failed.
If so maybe they did do that to these 2 machines.

I think I did the right thing by typing in regedit in 'run' ; I did not see HKLM just HKY. I could follow a lot of the tree but not all of it.

Thank you for all the information and if the error occurs again I will let you all know.

P.S. If I made an error, would I click merge to restore the registry? I have deleted it as I made no changes.

There isn't an HKYM, but there is a HKLM set of entries. Hopefully, your system has straighteded itself out and will not have other problems...

I made an error. I had HKYM and meant HKLM which I could not find when I backed my registry up with regedit.
However, I have only HKEY not HKLM.
Is there something wrong with my Win 8.1 registry?

HKLM is HKEY-Local-Machine.

I appreciate the clarification.

error 0x80240016

Hello
The error appeared again only on the laptop as error 0x80240016 which is different from the other.
What should I do now?
Thank you
Peter

That error does mean something else is being installed. You can try checking the Event Viewer to see if anything relevant shows up.

I would copy the WindowsUpdate.log in the Windows directory to your desktop and check it to see if anything would give you a better idea of what is happening. You might compare the log from each system and see if something stands out. If you want to copy the last several days of the log and then paste into a notepad file and zip it and attach, maybe we can see something.

zip file

The best I could do was to highlight some of the 21st and the 22nd then copy and paste to a Word doc.
Then I saved it as a compressed zip file.
I chose the laptop b/c this is where it is still occurring although I ran the trouble shooter this am which changed 2 items.
It happens when the Defender is manually updated only.
I saw Defender in a few instances in the log but was not sure about the entries.

These logs can be hard to determine what is actually causing a problem. But from what I am seeing, the system is trying to sync up your data base and is having problems. The Quoted material is what is being shown, and as you see, you have gone through 66 loops and about 160 attempts of the Recovery operation.

From that, I would suggest an attempt to repair your data base. In Windows 8, using the DISM command may sometimes do that for you. So open an Administrative command prompt and type the following command to see if it finishes.

DSIM /online /cleanup-image /RestoreHealth

Then try a manual update again. You might also try turning the Automatic install of updates and make you settings so Windows will look for and download updates, but not install until you tell it to.

WU operation (CAgentProtocolTalker::SyncUpdates_WithRecover) started; operation # 161; does use network; is at background priority
WU operation (CAgentProtocolTalker::SyncUpdates_WithRecover, operation # 161) stopped; does use network; is at background priority
PT + SyncUpdates round trips: 66

Click to expand...

Edit: I also notice your latest Bios update is from 2010-2011, have you checked for any newer ones. Bios updates may not be necessary, but in some circumstances, they allow your system to work better with some devices.

log

Thank you for doing so much "looking over" my log file.

I have 2 of the 4 they recommend removing.

I have tried to get a feel for how this MS error is going to be handled and have had little luck. Many people have awful problems.

Perhaps I should wait until next Tues.or Wed to assess what the status is with more information.

I was just thinking that I have some images that were made prior to these last updates.

Those images could come in handy and I would then be in a position to handle updates as I have already set my pc to let me know before you download or install.

I watched how those updates need to be uninstalled and although I thought it was as easy as clicking on one and then clicking uninstall it appears a lot more difficult.

Btw, I will be trying to update Defender which is the culprit here I think in the a.m. and see what happens. The desktop Defender is ok now and let's hope the laptop will be also.

Do you have any suggestion with this information I have given you?

I suppose running the DISM command I suggested had no effect?

update trouble

I have been reading about the trouble the updates caused and it is awful.
I am lucky but I want o make sure my registry ins not corrupted.

Defender causes the error message when I click to update it. However, this a.m. I looked at the task manager before doing anything as the error always says 2 things are running and sure enough pc settings and Defender were running. I stopped pc settings and when I clicked update it was ok.

Now I have to wait until tomorrow b/c for some reason it only occurs during a cold fresh boot then I attempt to update Defender. We will see if two things are still running.

The desktop has cleared up since I ran the trouble shooter .

I ran DISM on the laptop which is the one with the issue as you suggested.
It said the corruption was repaired as the attachment shows. The word component was used in the error message so I think you fixed it.
Thank you very much for your patience and your help.
Peter