Daily Win 10 auto update attempts, 100% fail rate

Okay - I guess the stuff I posted wasn't of use after all. I'll try the above in a couple of days, when I'm off work. I don't know if I'll be successful, as my PC is only usable for a short time before another automatic update attempt forces it to shut down. With luck, I may get an hour or so before this happens. As for something that can take overnight, I don't think that's possible - it won't run more than an hour or so without crashing to black screen (it just did this a short time ago, while I was writing an email). Update got to 54%, then at the second boot phase it went to black screen & the hard drive shut down completely.

So far the tests on the operating system and drive file system have passed.
The drive file system was a superficial test.
If necessary a more thorough test may be performed a later time.

1) Place the computer into clean boot:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...oot-in-windows
How to perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10 - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki


If crashes occur when using clean boot then try either of these additional options:
(When performing windows upgrades the clean boot settings will be used to improve the likelihood of a successful upgrade)

2) When performing tests please disconnect from the internet:
a) if hardware wireless off is available please use it over software
b) disconnect Ethernet or cat5e cable
c) if necessary disconnect modem and or router.

3) An alternative option instead of disconnecting the internet is to place the computer in safe mode with networking:
Boot into Safe Mode on Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

4) Download and install Macrium:
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

5) Make a backup image of the drive and place the backup image onto another drive or into the cloud

6) Create a brand new restore point

Okay, thanks - that sounds do-able in the time frame I should have available. I tried "system restore", but it said it was unavailable due to my computer having been upgraded to Win10 more than a month ago. I understand that it's possible to set a system restore point, now, but is it possible to set one several months prior to the current date? Investigating has shown that I'm still on version 1607, the update to version 1709 having failed several months ago. Is it possible that update was corrupted, causing all these problems? The problems seem to have started back in September 2017.

I read a couple of web articles on this, which seemed to indicate that corrupted update files aren't uncommon, and an incomplete, corrupted update/update fail can cause future updates to fail as well. I suppose that makes sense - if updates intended for version 1709 are attempted, but only a corrupted version of it exists, maybe they can't be applied either? Don't know - trying to understand what might have happened.

BTW, I REALLY appreciate your help!!! I'm kind of at my wit's end!

It is not possible to go back in time to set a system restore point.
It is possible to create backup images/clones using Macrium or Acronis or similar software and then to go back in time with that image or clone.
There are underlying problems on the computer that can be determined by using the windows error failure message and code and then troubleshooting the logs that were generated whenever there was a failure to upgrade. These logs are the Panther logs. By default they are hidden. Using file explorer you would click on view and check hidden items. Each search takes time and is inefficient. Using Everything the search will be efficient with instantaneous results. It creates an index of all files on all drives. As you type in a character it will display results and the more characters you type the narrower the results.

The Panther logs are in code and have many ambiguous error messages. It takes time to decode them.
Post only the logs within the last 30 days so that the logs reflect the latest computer environment.

By the way, you asked earlier what anti virus I have. I'm currently using Windows Defender and Malware Bytes Premium version. 3.1.1. Interestingly, I've just been looking at the Malwarbytes forum, and some people are reporting exactly the same problem I'm having, with the Win10 1709 update specifically. Some seem to think there's an issue there, and are uninstalling MB temporarily to permit updates. I don't know if that's worth trying or not.

For the next upgrade attempt uninstalling all AV/firewall software products (always on and manual) should be done and the only AV during the upgrade should be Windows defender.
If you had used other AV software products on the computer they can be incompletely uninstalled.
In these cases the software uninstaller is run to remove the residual software in the registry that may have interfered with the upgrade.

Uninstalled Malwarbytes completely this morning, and let the update happen (not that I have a choice). Same cycle, same crash to black screen. As soon as I booted up the machine, within 10 seconds it started the next auto-update cycle. Looks like I only have 10-15 minutes available computer time between crashes now. I did note that the first update to fail was on June 29th 2017 - the exact same date I went live with Malwarebytes Premium. They may even have been downloading simultaneously.

I've downloaded Everything, and located my Panther logs. There seem to be dozens of file types, and hundreds of screens of stuff, all within the past couple of weeks. Is there a particular file type I should look for & try to post?

There are 5 file folders titled "Panther" and one file folder called "Panther.lnk"

If it helps, here's a screen shot of the search results -

I've re-read your previous responses, and see you've already said which of the Panther files you need to see. Until I'd started looking at the Panther files themselves, I hadn't grasped the meaning of them.

This may sound like a stupid question (okay, I'm certain it is), but...how do I add these to One Drive & post a link here? I've never used or even opened "one drive". I asked my wife, as she's more competent in this stuff than I am, but she didn't know either. Sorry!

I did take a look at the "setuperr" file, and it's chock full of error codes and messages. I suspect that they'll make sense to you!

For one drive, drop box, google, etc. they provide some free space where you can move files that are text or images and it will then create a share link. This is the cloud method. Then someone can open up the share link and get access to the text or images as they are already in the cloud. It can take time to upload a file into multiple emails or multiple links. The alternative is to upload once into the the cloud and this then allows you to give the share links instead of moving the files.
Share OneDrive files and folders - Office Support

Please update your progress with each step in posts #10 and #12
drive testing
clean boot
safe mode
etc.

Was the computer stable in clean boot? safe mode? disconnected from the internet?
When available please post the images of the test results into the thread.

Okay, I'll do that. Here's a .zip of the setuperr and setupact logs, if these are of any help -