"This installation failed to start because another update installation is in progress."

have you tried restarting the server first?

Any msiexec.exe's running in Task Manager?

Usually happens when automatic updates is processing updates AND the user tries to install updates manually

We had similar issue and we found that the Sophos automatic update got corrupted and its trying to repair itself, but was unable to.

So it could be some software which is trying to update itself, without prompting.

As mentioned by PaulNSW check if msiexec is running on the system. Then check in event logs which program is running it.

Sudeep

In response to the answers provided by:

1) PaulNSWPosted on 2013-06-14 at 04:51:31

have you tried restarting the server first? Yes this was the first thing tried before question was posted.

Any msiexec.exe's running in Task Manager?
I have checked this and didn't find any msiexec running.

2)by: ve3ofaPosted on 2013-06-14 at 14:36:16ID: 39248675
automatic updates are not set to download to the server not install via SCCM.

3)by: SSharmaPosted on 2013-06-17 at 13:42:10ID: 39253949
We had similar issue and we found that the Sophos automatic update got corrupted and its trying to repair itself, but was unable to.

So it could be some software which is trying to update itself, without prompting.

This server has McAfee Enterprise client running on access scan tried disabling and attempted to run the installation, same issue.

I looked at a few articles from general technet blogs and started to investigate to see if the SCCM folks are attempting to push any application updates to Adobe.

does anyone know of any free diagnostics or other tools other process explored to troubleshoot this type of problem?

Thanks PaulNSW

I am going to give the SCCM Client tool a try and will let you know if this helps.

Thanks to PaulNSW:

I used the SCCM tool from this article:
Have you tried the tool mentioned in this article:
http://www.neondemon.com/archives/update-failed-to-start-because-another-update-installation-is-in-progress-sccm

This resolved the issue.
You get full points!

cheers!