I've got a Windows 7 x64 installation that I've had for around three months. Everything has been fine and working up until a few weeks ago. When I run Windows Update it finds updates and allows me to select them, but when I run the install it fails with error 8000FFFF. Update used to work, but then suddenly quit.
I've dug through tons of forum and web sites regarding this specific error, but they all of their solutions do nothing to fix my problem. In frustration I decided to put in a spare hard drive and install Windows 7 from scratch. I did that and the first thing I tried to do after logging in was updates and it failed for the same reason (8000FFF).
I have the same situation with a Windows Storage Server 2008 x64 that I have as well. It has been runing for about six months or more and updates were working fine. Then update started failing for the same or some other reason about the same time. On this machine I can start the update and see it report a percentage downloading the update. It gets to about 5 or 6 percent and then fails.
Is there some possible networking issue at play in my situation? I have earlier Windows versions (XP, XP64, Svr 2003 and Svr 2003 R2) and updates work fine on those. I know those are using a different mechanism, but I do not notice any other kind of networking issues from my house to the Internet. I have not changed anything or any settings in my firewall at all. Is there some specific protocol, port or something that has to work prefectly in order for the new Windows update to work?
All of my machines are pretty much Intel based. Win7 box is a Core2Duo on an EVGA 680i motherboard. The servers are Intel Xeons with Intel motherboards, chipsets and nics.
Thanks for any advice and help