Solved Windows 8 on Dell Laptop fails to update,repair or restore

[Hollow]

Hey Guys

I am attempting to repair a Dell Inspiron 5520 Laptop for a friend of mine.

He's been having issues updating it for sometime and when he called me he was having a "Windows update needs your help. Windows update hasn't been able to check for new updates for 30 days" pop-up appearing every few seconds that was rendering the laptop almost unusable.

I managed to stop that by disabling automatic updates.

When I attempted a manual update I got the message

Windows could not search for new updates: Error Found Code 80070BC9

Other times it would say it needed to be restarted and would go into a restart loop that was generally
Restart one - no message
Restart two - configuring updates - 33%, 67%, 100%
Restart three - failed to configure updates - reverting - restarting
Then would go to the normal login screen

I tried SFC /Scannow which seemed to work and say a restart is needed to implement changes but then fails on restart

DISM didn't work when attempting to run it from the machine but got to 100% when I ran it from my own Win8 install disk but then failed and needed a restart to undo the changes.

I also tried a repair and a restore of the current Windows installation but got:
Error Code: 80070490 both times

I'm really not sure what to try next, the laptop didn't come with an install disk or serial so it seems restoring it from external media may be out of the question?

Any help is much appreciated!

Cheers
Brian

 

[jds63]

Try this Failed Update Error Code 80070bc9 - Microsoft Community

Fix It here from that article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

 

[jds63]

Also try run a CHKDSK, type chkdsk c: /f /r then DISM, type dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth , then a SFC. That order as ADMIN. command Prompt.

 

[Hollow]

Thanks, I'll give both of those a try and report back this afternoon.

 

[jds63]

Thanks, I'll give both of those a try and report back this afternoon.

Welcome!

 

[jds63]

Windows 8.1 has refresh and reset, you originally said did a restore, tried a repair.

Last resort try a refresh first.

 

[Hollow]

Sorry, Refresh and Reset was what I should have said. Both of those gave me the 80070BC9 error code.

Unfortunately I'm still stuck in Windows 8.0 on his machine, hopefully we'll get to Windows 8.1 with the solutions you posted above!

 

[jds63]

Oh, o.k. possibly you then may need to use the OS disc. try a repair or reinstall the OS again.

 

[jds63]

Sorry realized you said, no installation media with this Laptop, may need to boot to the recovery partition, try it there, repair or reinstall from recovery. Usually F8 or F9 at bootup, get you into it. Can't use someone else is install media.

 

[Hollow]

Hmmmm, things aren't going well so far.

The reset windows updates components fixed a number of issues but still didn't allow updates

DISM got to 100% but gave me error 3017 - a system reboot is required to to roll back the changes.

Going to attempt a recovery partition reboot next

 

[Hollow]

I couldn't find any way to boot from the recovery partition (there were no options in bios to select another partition), so I created a recovery USB stick from the Dell Recovery and Backup app and reinstalled W8 from scratch (I didn't know tht app existed when I started this thread) Seems to updating fine now.

Thanks for your help!

 

[jds63]

Well that is another way. As said usually F9 or F8 at bootup to get you to a recovery partition, this partition is hidden.
This was a last resort, to just do over the install, glad it worked out. Your welcome.

Do yourself a favor, make a system restore point now that you know everything is working well.

 

[Hollow]

Thanks a lot for your help!

From what I've read, F8 works fine with Windows 7 but with Windows 8, Dell recommends using the Troubleshooting option from Dell Backup and Recovery which wouldn't work for me. I guess maybe there is a way to re-enable the F8 setting?

Will definitely be creating a restore point for him!

 

[jds63]

Your welcome!!
In other post you said that was the way you did the recovery through the Dell Backup and Recovery, now saying would not work.

For one i did not know this laptop came with Windows 7 and you Upgraded to Windows 8. Possibly if there was a recovery partition you wiped it out on install of Windows 8. Most cases F8 should remain or Dell might have a fix for that listed on there site.
I am not sure exactly if there was a recovery partition or not, seems may have been. No way re enable if something was wiped on drive, that way for me with my system originally with Windows 7, but i purposely removed my partition to get back the space knowing i was not going back to Win7.

 

[Hollow]

Hey, sorry I think I was a bit vague and should clarify a couple of things...

The laptop I was fixing came with Windows 8 installed, I just read in another forum that pressing F8 at startup only worked on Windows 7 installed laptops (the answer was from someone at Dell).

As far as Backup and Recovery, the troubleshooting option from Dell's Backup and Recovery app wouldn't work for me - that's where you hold down shift and click restart and get the option to restore or recover your install when you restart. I got a 80070BC9 error code whenever I tried that.

What did work was using Backup and Recovery to create a USB stick with windows 8 and the drivers for the laptop and to reinstall everything from scratch.

Hope that clears everything up.

Cheers!