In the past month I have received two computers that needed to be updated from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 and both of them failed with the error 0x80004002. I tried reinstalling Windows 8, tried restoring Windows 8, uninstalled my antivirus, uninstalled everything, verified the drivers and every other thing that was on the internet that people suggested trying. But there was one thing I found on a single post that very few people tried that I decided to give a whirl.
This post (and I cannot find it now) said to install a VPN and start the download via the VPN connection, and then to pause the download, terminate the VPN and then restart the download. And sure enough, I downloaded and then installed it and started the download. Then I paused it and restarted it after terminating the VPN and making sure my connection was set back to my normal connection and restarted the download. Once I did that, the download continued as normal and finished and then install went thru as advertised.
I have since found out that there are some ISP’s that for whatever reason don’t want you to download large downloads thru their connection. I even tried this after midnight because some ISP’s say that the large downloads should be run in the wee hours of the morning, because there are fewer people using the limited bandwidth.
I am sure this will work with other large downloads that seem to be getting blocked.