[thetao]

Hello. First post.

I am currently trying to install a fresh copy of Windows 2000 Server and having issues with Windows Update. I've been using the instructions from http://www.msfn.org/...0-professional/, but wonder if any of it (particularly step 7) is specific to 2000 Professional? (I am also unclear what step 7 accomplishes that a straight install of Windows Update Agent doesn't.) Everything went fine until section C. Windows Update ran and suggested the BITS/WinHTTP and Installer updates as noted. They downloaded but then repeatedly failed to install. For each update, Event Viewer said

"Installation Failure
Error Code: 0x80242000
Try to install the update again, or request help from one of the following resources."

which translates to "the caller requested a remote object, but no remote process is available".


So I downloaded the two updates manually, and they installed normally. Upon re-running Windows Update, I now get the error

"Files required to use Windows Update are no longer registered or installed on your computer. To continue:

_ Register or reinstall the files for me now (Recommended)
_ Let me read about more steps that might be required to solve the problem"

and WindowsUpdate.log says

1424 58c COMAPI -------------
1424 58c COMAPI -- START -- COMAPI: Search [ClientId = WindowsUpdate]
1424 58c COMAPI ---------
1424 58c COMAPI FATAL: Unable to connect to the service (hr=80080005)
1424 58c COMAPI WARNING: Unable to establish connection to the service. (hr=80080005)
1424 58c COMAPI - WARNING: Exit code = 0x80080005
1424 58c COMAPI ---------
1424 58c COMAPI -- END -- COMAPI: Search [ClientId = <NULL>]
1424 58c COMAPI -------------
1424 58c COMAPI FATAL: Unable to initiate asynchronous search, hr=80080005


IMHO it would be more helpful if the log indicated exactly which "Service" was unavailable. Since then I've tried the "Register or reinstall the files for me now" option. Early attempts seemed to make the HTTPS connection pause indefinitely, but lately it has been doing something...that still doesn't fix the problem. I tried installing Microsoft Update, but that generates similar COMAPI errors as above. I have since been re-registering DLL's used by Windows Update and the Cryptography API, and renaming/deleting/flushing various things in WINNT\SoftwareDistribution, but so far nothing has helped.

Any suggestions? Should I stop overthinking this and just reinstall from scratch, perhaps skipping the custom Windows Update Agent installer? I don't usually troubleshoot Windows on such a low level and it's such a Rube Goldberg machine...

This post has been edited by thetao: 14 May 2013 - 08:52 PM

[thetao]

Funnily enough, I just fixed it myself. I went through the custom WUA.EXE installer, comparing the file sizes to what was actually installed, and was surprised that roughly half the files were the wrong versions. So I copied these .dll's, .exe's, and .mui's to their proper locations. Winhttp.dll was a little tricky. At that point, Windows Update skipped past the error, but cited that BITS/Winhttp wasn't installed. I tried installing it through Windows Update, and again it failed. So I reinstalled it manually. After a reboot, Windows Update is now working normally, and I was able to download and install a small Security Update.

So problem solved. Thanks everybody, and thanks ppgrainbow!