I tried KB solutions to disable 3rd party AV, enable Windows Firewall, add exceptions for WU websites, to stop services for WUAUS, BITS, CRYPT, etc. No change. Tried SAFE MODE restart but WU will not run. Tried CLEAN RESTART but WU will not run. Before this I was getting errors of 8E5E01FE 8E5E0442 so I tried those solutions too. I have been working on this since January and nothing has fixed it. If you want more information, you will need to tell me how to get to the screens, logs, etc. so I can provide it to you. This is a nonprofit charity with about 30 client computers. We run Symantec AV Enterprise on a standalone server. We run behind a sonicwall firewall. This is the first problem we have had in the past year.

your description is not clearly. did you get issue with the WSUS server or the client computer(the one get updates from WSUS server)? please elaborate it.

Each client obtains its own updates direct from the web (not from a LAN/WSUS server). In this case the problem is with the server. It is failing to install updates for itself. It does not have a role to distribute updates throughout the network. Its server role is limited to DNS, authentication (Active Directory), minimal file server, and Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 It has no other additional software installed (except the Symantec AV previously mentioned and which was not loaded during the clean restart already attempted).

Hi, According to the description, it seems that this is a general Windows issue instead of a WSUS issue, so I will move this thread to the corresponding forum. By the way, Windows Server 2008 R2 is only available with 64 bit, please check the exact version of your Windows system. In addition, please provide details about the error instead of the error code such as 8000FFFF only. Best Regards, Vincent Hu

Thank you for the clarification. If you tell me how to export the error log from Windows Update Service the history shows all the updates failing. I don't know any other details I can provide. If you tell me where to get the details you need, I will gladly post them here. When I click on the individual item for each update where it failed it says error 8E5E01FE or 8E5E04412 or error 8000FFFF (several of this) or Error Details: Error Code 80071A90. All together there are almost a dozen different updates that won't install. My exact version says Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Microsoft (R) Windows Server(R) Version 6.0 (Build 6002: Service Pack 2).

The security permission were incorrect for the local and network services groups. Improved the permissions and the updates are installing again.

I gave LOCAL SERVICE and NETWORK SERIVCE Full Control Security permissions on the C:\ drive and replaced all child permissions and updates are now installing correctly.