Windows Updates Fails Server 2008 0x80070490

Solution 1:

I happened to be researching this same error code this morning, and came across this MSDN blog post that might help: How to overcome error 0x80070490 when installing updates in Windows Vista/Server 2008

I was not able to get it working again by following his step-by-step, but the following did:

1. Open %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log. You'll likely need to run Notepad as Administrator in order to view it.
2. Go to the bottom of the log and do a find for "Error", making sure you choose up for the direction

3. This should bring you to one or more errors like the following:

   2008-09-27 15:53:29, Error
   CBS Failed to resolve Package: Package_for_KB905866~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.0.22.0. hr: 0x80070490

4. Do a web search for the KB number of the update that failed (KB905866 in this case), which should bring you to a Microsoft page where you can download the stand-alone installer for this issue's patch

5. Download and install the appropriate version (32-bit, 64-bit, etc.)
6. The next time you run Windows Update, it will recognize that the update was installed.