Laptop issues

[kelseyann4589]

My laptop is a Dell with Windows 7. I've had it for about 5 1/2 years and I've never had many problems with it. But within the last year it has been slow, and I realized it needed a Windows update. For months I have been trying to update it and it never works. Here's what happens: I get the notification to install updates. After I do this (there's usually about 12 or so), it turns off. But then when I go to turn it back on, the screen says it's configuring updates. After a while it then tells me "failure to configure windows updates, reconfiguring". It does this for close to 25 - 30 minutes, and within that time frame it restarts itself and tries to configure the updates again. After a while I can finally log on, but it keeps telling me that I have updates to install. I've used Malware Bytes on here to scan it, and I also have Norton 360 on it that I've scanned and I can't seem to find anything wrong with it but I wonder if it has some sort of virus that can't be detected. I'm mostly worried about having to wipe this thing so I'm trying every other possibility before I come to that. I've also had my friend look at it and he downloaded a program called CCleaner, which I guess helps clean up old files and stuff. After he did it my laptop seemed to run much faster and I thought it was fixed, but after about a week it told me to install updates again and the same thing happened.
Can anyone help me with this? If I can avoid taking it somewhere or having to have it completely wiped that would be great but I'm worried this may be something that can't be fixed otherwise.
Thanks.

 

[carnageX]

Firstly, I'd get rid of Norton. It's a bloated program that doesn't perform all that well.

You can go with a free solution that's just as good, such as: Avira, Avast!, or Bitdefender Free. If you prefer to pay for one, then go with ESET, Kaspersky, or BitDefender Pro.

As for your Windows Updates issues... open Windows Updates from Control Panel. Uncheck all of the updates except for 1 - download/install that one and reboot (if necessary). Do this one at a time until you find the offending update that causes the issues. It's time consuming...but it a good way to do it in finding which update is causing the issue. It's possible that it's installing them out of order and then fails on the reboot and reverts the changes.

 

[kelseyann4589]

Thanks, I will definitely try the time-consuming way of installing the updates, hopefully within the next day or so. And I will have to do some research on another antiviral program.
Thanks for the advice.

 

[leakatstarr]

It could also be problems with the hard drive (physical or logical failures). If you haven't been doing regular cleanups on it, I imagine you have some work ahead of you. Uninstall any programs you don't use. Check to see if you need to defrag (I recommend Auslogics). Ensure that your drive isn't full and has enough room for the updates. Get rid of Norton like CarnageX suggested (I recommend Comodo!). And do the updates either one at a time, or only the critical updates.