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#1
Laptop freezing, and balking at Windows updates
A less-than-two-year old Lenovo laptop I have, had a motherboard problem, covered under warranty. The shop found that the HD and its data were intact, and because of supply chain issues, had me agree to swapping the HD into a new identical-model laptop (I preferred this approach, because then I'd have the apps/software intact and not have to reinstall/activate/configure them).
Laptop works, fine, but not perfectly. The two issues are:
- About half the time, if left unattended (no keyboard/touchpad activity) for 10 minutes or so it totally freezes. Display stays intact, no "event" is recorded, but the mouse pointer disappears from the display, the clock stops, and it won't recognizes keystrokes or touchpad input.
- Windows updates are dicey. Defender definition updates, and some other ones, have gotten through and installed. But another one - sorry, don't have the number - repeatedly fails to download. KB5009596 will download, install, then get stuck at 20% and fail, even when manually downloading it and forcing the install.
I've tried tips at How to reset Windows Update components on Windows 10 • Pureinfotech and gotten nowhere:
- Troubleshooter tool finds problems but can't fix them
- The Service Stack Update from the Microsoft Update Catalog is incompatible with the 64-bit machine (I'm downloading what should be the correct update)
- Running DISM fails too - even when I download and mount a Windows 10 ISO, and reference the install.esd file from the ISO
- sfc /scannow finds but doesn't fix problems
- I performed the instructions about resetting Windows Update from an Administrator command prompt, including restarting where directed, and each step performed satisfactorily, but this didn't help
I pretty much have nothing to lose now; the offer remains of a new replacement laptop, porting my data, and I'm stuck reinstalling everything. But hoping there's some magic rescue I've not thought of yet.