Windows 10 install on Windows 7 Ultimate fails after 'Checking requirements' with error code 80070005

There are many people with this problem on a MS website. In my case and in many other cases it is not solvable by the normal techniques for resolving windows update and setup issues. I'll post the link to the MS website discussion in my next post.

If possible I need help with tracing this error by systematic analysis rather than resetting everything :), although is someone actually knows of the solution to this exact problem please do say.

I am installing using an admin account from the standard Windows 10 upgrade notification blue dialog box which pops up on the system tray. The notification box appears to get stuck in the downloading updates stage, but if you click on 'view download progress' and will show 'downloading' on the standard windows update dialog box for just 5 secs or so before moving very briefly to 'Checking Requirements', and then 'Failed - 1 Update' with error 80070005. You can repeat the sequence by pressing the 'try again' button. Windows update certainly thinks it is downloaded as it is listed as ready to install when you 'Check for updates'. Checking requirements here means checking some files are present, not checking system suitability which was confirmed earlier in the Windows 10 installation process.

If you search online for solutions you find about 20 or so, all of which fail for me and many other users too. These include:

1. Resetting windows update settings to defaults (various methods)
2. Resetting registry and file permissions to ensure full control for admin and system accounts (process does not fully succeed using methods given on the web, as they do not take ownership).
3. Using a bootable update CD (this one I did not try but others have)
4. disabling all antivirus software and checking the logs
5. disabling the RAC service which apparently can interfere.
6. using SFC and DISM including certificate corruption fixes to ensure a clean OS image
7. clearing out the software distribution folders, and trying to ensure that they are not hidden or read only (Windows actually just sets them back again when you do this)
8. Doing a clean Boot using msconfig to disable startups and disabling (but not yet uninstalling) Security software (Comodo Endpoint Security).

And many others listed in the MS post in which the error was originally reported and here: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-update-not-working

So far I have traced the process from pressing the 'try again' button through as follows:

1. A powershell script cleans up any previous attempts
2. Wuauclt.exe runs WindowsBox.exe
3. Windows box.exe runs SetupHost.exe which runs another instance of the same process
4. Setup host .exe seems to go through a series of checks that files are present in the System32 and C:\$Windows.~BT directories, sets up prefetches, and possibly creates ones that are not.
5. The error code 80070005 is returned by Setuphost.exe to to WindowsBox.exe

The Windows update client (wuauclt) log is pretty useless, it just give the error code. So I give the the Event log entry below

By observing the process in Procmon, I was able to identify the log created by WindowsBox.exe, which is BlueBox.log, which shows a bit more, including the return of the error message from SetupHost.

Unfortunately SetupHost.exe does not seem to generate a log - if anyone knows how to make it do so I would be grateful. So instead I give the procmon log. Possibly relevant are the 'Name Not Found', 'Buffer Overflow' and 'File locked for Read access' result codes. But why would there be 'Name not found' errors on 'create file' operations? (Buffer Overflow result is on accessing HKU.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\MuiCache\MachinePreferredUILanguages).

Update I have checked on the buffer overflow error and it seems like the process sucessfully retries with a bigger result buffer. Also the 'File Locked with only readers' seems expected as this is actually a success code for an operation to create a direct file mapping to the swap file image of a file. So that leaves the Name_not_found errors. But there are lots of those......

Also the exit code is: -2147024891. Which seems to me to be likely an invalid one? So should I be looking for a process exception? If so why is there no windows event log for it?

Event log entry:

Version=1
EventType=WindowsUpdateFailure3
EventTime=130852247770872553
Consent=1
UploadTime=130852247771282605
ReportIdentifier=501bd0e0-4d60-11e5-a861-005056c00008
Response.BucketId=195354731
Response.BucketTable=29
Response.type=4
Sig[0].Name=ClientVersion
Sig[0].Value=7.6.7601.18937
Sig[1].Name=Win32HResult
Sig[1].Value=80070005
Sig[2].Name=UpdateId
Sig[2].Value=D246F4DF-353A-40C3-8F1A-4BF96CA78DBE
Sig[3].Name=Scenario
Sig[3].Value=Install
Sig[4].Name=RevisionID
Sig[4].Value=200
Sig[5].Name=IsManaged
Sig[5].Value=0
Sig[6].Name=LastError
Sig[6].Value=0
Sig[7].Name=CallerAppID
Sig[7].Value=AutomaticUpdates
Sig[8].Name=ServiceUsed
Sig[8].Value={7971F918-A847-4430-9279-4A52D1EFE18D}
Sig[9].Name=MiscField2
Sig[9].Value=0
DynamicSig[1].Name=OS Version
DynamicSig[1].Value=6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
DynamicSig[2].Name=Locale ID
DynamicSig[2].Value=2057
State[0].Key=Transport.DoneStage1
State[0].Value=1
State[1].Key=DataRequest
State[1].Value=Bucket=195354731/nBucketTable=29/nResponse=1/n
FriendlyEventName=Windows Update installation problem
ConsentKey=WindowsUpdateFailure3
AppName=Host Process for Windows Services
AppPath=C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
ReportDescription=A Windows update did not install properly. Sending the following information to Microsoft can help improve the software.

Windowsbox.exe log

2015-08-28 09:50:48: CommandLine: ["C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\bc9f855f0d1ed8adb26c77e77d473907\WindowsUpdateBox.exe" /ClassId ad20b347-38d2-4d24-a687-02a5be7ff3bf  /PreDownload /Update /ClientId 11149530-b21d-4d53-9ad1-f4c755be62fe /ReportId {79199283-9EB3-441C-895C-193956626E64}.200]
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Deleting box result...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Attempt to remove staged Appx packages...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: RemoveStagedAppxPackages: Launching [C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell.exe] [-command "& {get-appxpackage | remove-appxpackage}"] from [C:\Windows\System32] in session [0]!
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Checking cleanup registry value...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Skipping cleanup.
2015-08-28 09:50:48: CUpdateScenarioCtrl::ShouldPreserveWorkingDir: Found previously stored file hash.
2015-08-28 09:50:48: CUpdateScenarioCtrl::GenerateBoxHash: Calculating file hash...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: CUpdateScenarioCtrl::ShouldPreserveWorkingDir: Box file hash matches.
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Opening Box: [C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\bc9f855f0d1ed8adb26c77e77d473907\WindowsUpdateBox.exe]
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Reading Box header...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Execute file [C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\SetupHost.Exe] exists: [TRUE]
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Preserve working path: [Yes]
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Opening Box: [C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\bc9f855f0d1ed8adb26c77e77d473907\WindowsUpdateBox.exe]
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Reading Box header...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: CUpdateScenarioCtrl::PopulateWorkingDir: Working directory was preserved so it is already populated.
2015-08-28 09:50:48: CUpdateScenarioCtrl::GenerateBoxHash: Calculating file hash...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: CUpdateScenarioCtrl::PopulateWorkingDir: Storing file hash...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: CUpdateScenarioCtrl::PopulateWorkingDir: File hash stored!
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Searching for ESD files...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Launching process: [C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\SetupHost.Exe] with command-line [/PreDownload /Update /Quiet /ProcessId 10284 /progressCLSID ad20b347-38d2-4d24-a687-02a5be7ff3bf /ReportId {79199283-9EB3-441C-895C-193956626E64}.200 "/ClientId" "11149530-b21d-4d53-9ad1-f4c755be62fe"  /SuccessId a875ea48-d92d-40bf-a6e7-f008c536d754] in Session: [-1]
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Launching: [C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\SetupHost.Exe] [/PreDownload /Update /Quiet /ProcessId 10284 /progressCLSID ad20b347-38d2-4d24-a687-02a5be7ff3bf /ReportId {79199283-9EB3-441C-895C-193956626E64}.200 "/ClientId" "11149530-b21d-4d53-9ad1-f4c755be62fe"  /SuccessId a875ea48-d92d-40bf-a6e7-f008c536d754] from [C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources]!
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Waiting for process events...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Process exit code: [0x80070005]
2015-08-28 09:50:48: LaunchProcessInSession: Error = 0x80070005
2015-08-28 09:50:48: LaunchProcessInSession returned: [0x80070005]
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Checking cleanup registry value...
2015-08-28 09:50:48: Skipping cleanup.
2015-08-28 09:50:48: MainHr: Error = 0x80070005
2015-08-28 09:50:48: wWinMain: Error = 0x80070005

Procmon log of SetupHost.exe https://copy.com/oPea6OO2X18G/2015-08-28_110358.jpg