Last night I tried to update my node and npm, it seemed to have been successful, however ever since then I have been getting this same error any time I try and run any npm c
I had the same error (npm update check failed) on a Centos 7 but not when installing node, just when loggin into the server and it was because there was no more space left. Deleted some files, updated the system and everything worked fine again.
Just in case somebody else comes to the same problem.