Vista Tutorial - Cannot Startup after windows update

Trying to recover a stable clean installation of Vista Ultimate x64. It's been working for at least 2 months with no internet connection. Finally today hooked it up to the internet and did a windows update, out of the over 100 updates I only chose the driver updates (bad move!) after 1% stopped it to restart the PC, it asked me to do the installation and shutdown and i said yes. Once I started the PC, vista wont start up. I keep getting a blue screen once vista starts to load.

I tried the repair tools, nothing is working so far. Based on my analysis of the situation, all i got to figure out is how to undo the windows update installation and things should get back to normal (wishful thinking).

-startup repair - didnt work
-system restore - didnt work

Am sure it's an OS issue rather then a hardware issue.

Any hints?

Hi Atgm,

What BSOD code are you getting I can lookup the cause/solution, also have you tried Safe-Mode to uninstall the updates from the Programs and Features menu?

The BSOD shows up for less than a second, tried to capture it with a pause, but it didnt work.

Unfortunately, when attempting to start up with safe mode, it starts loading then my BSOD friend shows up.

Thats probably a hardware issue because safe-mode loads a complete different set of drivers and configuration than the normal bootup sequence,

Try removing all but the bare hardware essentials...One DVD player, one memory stick, all graphics cards if you have onboard graphics and all Harddrives except the Vista hard-drive then reset the bios and try booting up again..

If all that fails your going to have to re-install Vista over-the-top of the current installation, Just dont format the HDD during the drive selection screen and It creates a filesystem mess when it renames the current foldes but at least you wont lose your files.

Steven

you should also grab whatever diagnostic programs you can for your hardware - Memtest+86, HD diagnostics from your HD manufacturer, and anything else that you can find - to give it a test.

Also, if you are overclocking, reset your BIOS to default values and see if it loads....

Thanks guys for the info. I managed to solve the issue. I initially tried system restore couple of times and it didnt want to work/start. Though I tried it last night and it worked! I restored it to point before the windows update and it booted up like a charm...

So my conclusion here is at least one of the windows update in a way or another changed something that made it not boot.

Now, will i ever do a windows update again. I guess it will depend if I can find a way to do a virtual update before hand... just to be sure it wont mess things up again.

you can. before you do a WU, manually make a system restore point. That way, you *know* which point to go back to if it gets FUBARed again.

For help with creating a SRP, see System Restore Point - create

Definitely that would work, though like what happened to me now, it prevented me getting into safe mode or do system restore for the many times I tried it at first. So the only thought I can think is the one I mentioned of doing it virtually before actually applying it.

Ahh, but see, with the Vista DVD you can perform a repair on your system, and then go to See more options and perform a system restore from there as well :P

See Method 2: System Restore - How to

Also, you might be interested in these:

System Restore Point - Shortcut

System Restore Shortcut

As John mentioned just make a restore point before updating and dont download Driver Updates, the other updates will work fine...The longer you dont have these patches installed the greater risk of something even worse than starting your computer (Spyware, trojens, rootkits, password stealers) will happen and most likely the cause of the problems to begin with

Steven