Win XP Update problem (Error 0x80070420)

Yesterday morning I started up my wife's laptop, which is on a wi-fi LAN. The usual orange shield appeared indicating a Windows Automatic Update was ready. It downloaded and installed smoothly and quickly. Later when I went to my desktop, which is wired to the same modem and router, there wasn't any orange shield. All day, no shield. Evening came and I decided to try to manually download the updates. Each step at the MS Update site took a very long time. Finally, a message appeared with among other things the Error number 0x80070420. I went through the steps again and again, but no go. I filed an updating problem message with MS, and this morning there was a reply that someone would e-mail me within 24 hours. So far, nothing.

By the way, I was able to successfully download the MS Office updates last night from their Web site.

Today I did a Google search for the error message, but didn't find an explanation or a solution. One BBS individual suggested to someone else having the same problem that NAV and other malware programs be turned off. I tried that, as much as I dislike leaving myself so vulnerable, but it didn't help. Every step still takes 2-3 minutes, freezing my system, and I wind up getting that same error message again.

Both of our computers use Win XP (HE) with SP2. Although we ordinarily use Netscape 7.1, I used IE 6.0 when trying to get the update for my desktop. Our NAV, Spybot and Ad-Aware programs are all right up to date, and except for this latest problem, everything seems to work fine. Our Internet connection is DSL, and download speeds are usually pretty good, so I don't suspect that as the reason for the MS Update site's slowness.

Anyone know what that error message indicates? Has anyone here also had trouble with the latest update? Solution?

 

Arie: Thanks for the reply. It worked. In fact, it worked so well it's almost laughable. I deleted Update 3.1 as you suggested, and that required a restart. As soon as that finished, the orange shield popped up and offered a new Update 3.1. I downloaded and installed it, and that also required a restart. After that, the orange shield popped up again, this time offering the 3 updates I'd originally been unable to get. I downloaded and installed them, and now everything seems to be the way it should be. It was so easy, I had to laugh. Perhaps I should also mention that this morning there was an e-mail from MS tech support suggesting what I might do. It was such a long, complicated operation, "daunting" only starts to describe it. At least it didn't recommend a complete reinstall of Win XP! So, thanks again for the fix. I'll now reply to MS tech support and tell them about the much simpler solution they can offer to the next customer who gets that error message.

 

"Don't you Love a simple fix? "

I sure do. It's the very best kind.

I just finished replying to the MS Update tech support person, and described your solution. It'll be interesting to see if she gets back to me, and if she does what she'll have to say. I'm not holding my breath, though.

 

LATER: I'll add this as a new post to bump it up for broader viewing.

I just received a reply from the Windows Update support tech who'd contacted me earlier today. She didn't comment about their making any use of the easy fix I passed along to her, but she did take the time to reply. I've seen complaints from some other customers who've been ignored by MS tech support. Her reply was almost entirely boilerplate, I'm sure, but it was a gesture that I wanted to mention here.