Vista - perpetual restart after windows update install

Hi
I get a perpetual restart after a windows update install (which always fails
incidentally). I cannot prevent the continious restarts, It won't start in
safe mode or any other mode. It just displays the message "configuring
windows updates" just before the identity log in screen but it never reached
log in just restarts again. This cycle continues over and over even if I pull
the plug and restart. Eventually (hours later) windows figured out that it
wasn't starting correctly and offed me a system restore option which I
naturally took. All this happened after I tried the windows fix for failed
windows updates with error code 80070003. I have stopped the window update
service to prevent any future occurance until this is resolved.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Gary ( gary@xxxxxx )