Windows Updates Won't Install

(2013-05-16)

Problem

Brand new out-of-box Lenovo T530 won't install windows updates. Updates fail, you reboot, and they all roll back.

The internet suggests that this farce has been going on for the last year, across multiple Lenovo products, and there's no simple solution from Lenovo.

My out-of-box routine:

• power on system
• accept licenses at firstboot
• uninstall Norton
• install MSE (because free is cheaper than Norton's subscription)
• Windows update

This isn't even a one-off, we have a box of these things and four of them so far have failed. I've had to get my helpers to look at them because generally I don't have time to fuck around with junk like this.

Things found on the internet which I tried:

• deselect 2685811 and 2685818, roll all other pending updates (this failed completely)

What's worked the best so far:

• deselect all updates except 2647753, install that and reboot, then roll all other pending updates

You still get a rollback, but in my case it only leaves about 7 updates to fuss with manually.