Windows has become stuck at "Update could not be completed, undoing changes" error message

[DarrylG]

I turned on my laptop and saw the above error message. After about 90 minutes, I came back to it, and nothing had changed. I looked online for solutions, and tried tapping the F8 key and shift+F8 when the laptop starting booting up, and doing the same with the F11 key, None of them got me into Windows safe mode, where they said I could either delete the recent updates or do a Windows refresh. I put Windows on a bootable usb drive with the intention of using it to get into safe mode, but I'm not quite sure how to set up the computer to boot from usb.

[banhien]

@DarrylG 

Do you upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 ? You should get an error after returning on old OS.  Probably the following message

            https://www.repairwin.com/fix-windows-10-update-error-0xc1900101-0x30017-installation-failed-in-firs...

If yes, please use the above fixes otherwise post error message back or ask Microsoft.

Regards.

[DarrylG]

Thank you for responding. 

No, I haven't upgraded to Windows 10. although I guess I should. The computer is running Windows 8.1, and apparently, an automatic update went wrong and wasn't able to install completely. I'm pretty sure it's booting into Windows, because the LED that indicates whether the wifi is on on off shows that it's on. It just gets stuck at the  "Update could not be completed, undoing changes" error message.

[banhien]

@DarrylG 

Normally it should have an error code, without error code we can't work out the error. Please try Microsoft Forum

           https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/unable-to-complete-updates-undoi...

      or https://windowsreport.com/we-couldnt-complete-the-updatesundoing-changes/

Regards.

[DarrylG]

Thanks, I'll do that.