Saturday, 15 March 2014

How I Spent My Friday Night - 0x80070490

Whilst most people are gearing up for a night on the town; ladies putting on thick make-up in an attempt to impress men who have went overboard with cologne, ordering taxis, laughing and joking - I wasn't partaking in any of those events, instead, I was sat indoors hunched over my new laptop like the geek I am.

I'd just purchased a HP Pavilion 15-n098ea laptop with Windows 8 pre-installed. Of course, having used Windows 8, I was eager to move to Windows 8.1 for the (few) benefits it brings. I was getting an error when I was trying to update apps: 0x80070490. After a bit of searching, I landed on the following Microsoft support/knowledge-base page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958044

According to Microsoft, this error is shown when "the Component-Based Servicing (CBS) manifest is corrupted." After scratching my head and wondering what exactly the CBS manifest is, I looked around for some more info. I had websites telling me that they had experienced that particular error message when "the hard drive is on the way out". But it's a new laptop!!! Well, there's something I didn't admit earlier. It's not a 'new' laptop - it's a refurb. Underneath the laptop there is a sticker which says: 'This laptop is a refurb, it may contain used parts'. Great...

Click here for more info about manifest files. Essentially, manifest files are XML files which contain instructions and tell Windows what to do. The CBS or Component-Based Servicing manifest is a set of files that is required for Windows to be serviced, or as it's better known - updated. You can read more about the CBS at Microsoft's TechNet website by clicking here. So ultimately, I found out that Windows Vista and Server 2008 and newer OS's use CBS Manifests to update files.

For those who may not know, automatic updates are recorded in the following location: "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download" - This meant that in theory, I could go to that location, delete all references and begin the automatic updates again. (Please research before deleting the contents of this folder, some people suggest you leave it alone.) No luck.

By pure coincidence, I found that the action centre in Windows 8.1 (and maybe 8, I don't know) has a Troubleshooting section which specifically says: "Fix problems with Windows Update". It's almost as if they know you will have problems, isn't it? :-) Well I ran the troubleshooter and it did confirm that the CBS Manifest was corrupt. By now, I'd spent 1-2 hours reading and working on it - I was getting pretty bored. The troubleshooter said it had fixed the issue, but the problem remained: I couldn't download updates.

There is an option in Windows 8.1 under the Restore settings called "Refresh your PC without affecting your files". It was a last resort, but from what I could gather, I had exhausted most options I had. I opted for the refresh and after about 30 mins, I was faced with a brand new installation of Windows 8. Automatic updates finally worked and at the time of writing, I am using Windows 8.1 with all the latest updates.

TLDR: Windows update was broken due to an error involving the CBS Manifest file. After many attempts to fix it, the only thing that ended up working was a 'refresh' (re-install) of Windows 8. Updates now download fine.

So, that was Friday night for me. I hope yours went better than mine did.







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