Windows Server 2008 R2 Update Issues and Role Errors

For sometime now we have been finding that some of our Windows Server 2008 R2 servers were not installing Windows Updates.

Some servers would not even find any updates, and others would simply get to the "Downloading..." screen and never progress any further. In addition we would also get an annoying problem in Server Manager; where the Roles and features are usually displayed, the window would be blank with a message that simply said "Error."

Error Updating Dell Laptop BIOS

Most of our Laptops are Dell Latitude's. As they come in for repair, we like to keep them up to date with the latest BIOS version. Most of the time this is a nice, smooth process.

• Download from Dell
• Login as Administrator on the Laptop
• Run the BIOS Update
• The Laptop reboots and updates
• Job Done

However this morning on a couple of laptops that we had installed Windows 7 on: (I later found that although this is an OS issue, it is NOT specific to Windows 7) we got the following error.