Windows update error 800B0100

Question

Windows Update on one of our Windows Server 2008 machine stopped working. Whenever I click on Install Updates, it fails with the 800B0100 error. I did some investigation and noticed that it’s not an uncommon error. I found a number of discussions threads reporting the same error on Windows Vista. However, I could not find any leading to a useful conclusion. I also found a Microsoft KB article (KB 956702), but it’s not very revealing. It recommends to run System Update Readiness Tool. When I ran it, it looked like a long update, and when it finished, it did not say anything. So I assumed it did whatever it wanted to do. I found some logs which the tool supposedly produced, but there were full of gibberish to me. Also, the tool did not guarantee to fix all problems.

Answer 1

Had this same problem and a tech support fixed it, hope this works for you.

This is what he wrote:

This seems that there is a system issue which blocked the self update for Windows Update Agent. To resolve this issue, we can perform an in-place upgrade to replace the corrupted files. The in-place upgrade will only replace the system files and do not remove any installed applications. So, it is safe for us. However, it requires you have the installation CD and product key for Vista. If you do not have the CD and key, please let me know.

If you would like to perform the in-place upgrade, let’s refer to the following steps.

1. Start the computer by using the current Operating System.

2. Insert the Windows Vista DVD in the computer's DVD drive.

3. Use one of the following procedures, as appropriate:

• If Windows automatically detects the DVD, the Install now screen appears. Click Install now.

• If Windows does not automatically detect the DVD, follow these steps:

a. Click Start, click Run, type Drive:\setup.exe, and then click OK.

Note Drive is the drive letter of the computer's DVD drive.

b. Click Install now.

1. When you reach the "Which type of installation do you want?" screen, click Upgrade to upgrade the current operating system to Windows Vista.

Please let me know if this can help us fix the problem.

Answer 2

We just fixed the problem by manually downloading and installing the problematic update. Yes, there was some guessing involved. You need to know which update is causing the problem. I guess that when the update was previously downloaded it was corrupted along the way.