14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve already reported that Windows 8.1 Update fails to install in some cases, but we’ve recently found another consequence of this issue that seems to be experienced by quite a lot of users.
It appears that a number of the computers that cannot install Windows 8.1 Update are required to reactivate Windows 8.1 once the operating system boots again. Activation however is impossible, so users are stuck with an OS that’s scheduled to expire in 30 days, even though they obviously own a valid product key.
Basically, users who came across this problem were trying to download Windows 8.1 Update from Windows Update but were provided with error codes 80073712 or 80070020 who were only informing that there was a problem when installing the new release.
The installer then rolls back all changes and returns the computer to the previous state. Once you get back in Windows, the operating system is asking for online activation once again.
While there’s no information on how to deal with this issue, it appears that plenty of users are actually affected by one of the two aforementioned errors and, at this point, none of the provided workarounds seems to be helping consumers to deploy Windows 8.1 Update successfully.
Here’s how one of the affected users is describing the errors:
“I'm having the same problems. I have three notebook computers running 8.1, and the update worked fine on two and not on the third. The two that worked (one Lenovo and one other) were both originally installed as upgrades from Win 7.
The one that isn't working (another Lenovo) was a new license install. I've tried many of the attempted remedies noted here, most recently using a restore point from 3/29 (successfully) and then, after installing a few interim updates, the Windows 8.1 Update downloaded and failed on install again (for perhaps the 15th time). At this point, I'm inclined to wait for Microsoft to fix this up.”
The fact that Windows 8.1 Update worked flawlessly on two computers but failed to install on the third could be a sign that there might be some hardware compatibility issues in the operating system, so the only way to deploy the new OS version is to wait for Microsoft to come up with a fix.
The company has, however, remained completely tightlipped until now, so let’s just hope that more information is provided soon to help these users install Windows 8.1 Update successfully.