Vista - Blinking underscore after Vista SP1 install

I am so pissed right now, I plead upon the masses to help.

My mother has been having fits with Vista since I installed it for her on
her new computer. I bought her Windows Vista Ultimate back then. Well SP1
comes out and I think I'm doing her a huge favor when I call her and have her
run windows update to install service pack 1.

WRONG.

So I have her send me a remote support request and I use windows update
through the start menu to install sp1. I let it download and tell her "reboot
when it tells you, everything will be great"

WRONG.

I get a call 30 min later from my mother saying that her computer "was just
sitting at a screen with a linking underscore in the upper left after step 2
completed"

UGH. I am 300 miles away and I can't just swing over and work on this, so
now I am stuck having my pc-ignorant mother be my eyes and ears trying to
solve her problem.

So far I have had her boot from the DVD and issue repair commands:
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr

no luck.

"Startup Repair" failed just now.

I am going to try a restore next but i am not hopeful. The computer was
working fine before I tried to install Vista SP1, please I beg you, community
at large, step up where Microsoft has failed, how do I fix this problem?

There is no KB article for "blinking underscore" for vista.

problem went away. not sure what fixed it. it wasn't a restore, it just
"worked" after the 20th reboot.

lame.