I then went to the Windows Update in the control panel and clicked on 'Check for Updates'. After the computer rebooted I turned the wireless antenna back on, making sure that the connection was manually set to 2.4GHz (not sure this made a difference). Eventually the computer asked me to reboot and I did so. I then clicked on and installed the update in the download folder. Then I turned off wireless so the computer was not connected to the internet. After downloading I saved the file instead of immediately installing. Specifically I googled the update number and downloaded the appropriate version for 圆4 Windows 8.1 from the microsoft website.

Because it is a newer update than the one you mentioned in your original post, perhaps it was a easier fix to the problem of Windows update being stuck on checking for updates I was able to resolve everything in about an hour. Hi Neil, I solved this problem for windows 8.1 by installing KB3172614 which is a stand-alone update to the Windows Update application which was released in July 2016.

Update kb2538242