pclan.us

After many on/off again hours with Dell and then Microsoft engineers unable to find a resolution to  Microsoft Update giving message Code 80072EFE, I eventually found the resolution and am posting it here so that others can benefit  as well.

It appeared that files having words relating to Microsoft Updates in the filename would not download. This led me to believe there was a rootkit involved.

I ran the copy of the Kaspersky's Rootkit utility at http://pclan.us//f/tdsskiller.exe and it detected the infection and reported it will clean on a reboot. I proceeded and it ended up being the solution to this issue.

It reported the infection as the Rootkit.Win32.TDSS.tdl3 in the infected file C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\atapi.sys

Kaspersky's Description of the Culprit

http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684