I currently run Vista Home Premium 32 bit on my Dell Inspiron 530s and in the past 2-3 weeks Windows auto updater keeps telling me I have important updates needing to be installed. I run the install and when my computer starts up it goes right to configuring updates and tries to boot. I get a window that pops up and says that my computer failed to boot and it will now try to repair the problem. It repairs for a few minutes and then gives me the option to boot up. I checked the diagnostic report from the repair and it gives me "error 0xa" and "Boot Critical C:\ntoskrnl.exe is corrupt" message as the only failed test result. Around this time I had updated my iTunes program as well and now whenever the computer boots up after the failed updates, my iTunes won't work and gives me an error as well but is fine if I reinstall it. My McAfee does the same thing. It starts giving me a "not protected" message as well and works fine after updating it as well. I am not sure what is causing the updates to fail and I have tried to use a link to manually download the update and run it but it did the same thing. It's just getting irritating because if I choose to ignore the update available message, sometimes it updates it anyway by itself and cuts me off in the middle of projects I am working on if I don't notice the message right away. Please help I just want my computer to stop updating me with an update that won't work or I just want the update to work. Thanks in advance

Hi Asryal,

Have you used a boot-theme editing program and have you also tried using the builtin system-resore feature to resote back before the error started?

Steven

I honestly have no idea what would be a boot-theme editing program. I can't recall adding any program in that time or doing anything out of the ordinary computer usage before then. It was fine up until the computer decided to install and configure the updates on its own one day and then I was in a panic and tried to manually force the computer off. As soon as I turned it on, it was still went right to configure the update and it hasn't stopped trying since. I wasn't sure how to go about using the system restore option because I was frankly worried about losing some data I might have saved since the problem began.

Hi, thanks for all the help. So far I've turned off the automatic updates and I checked the updates that are listed and it's Security update (KB950582), update for Windows Vista (KB955020), and Windows Malicious Software Removal tool July 2008(KB890830). I tried to do each one separately but everytime the computer restarts, it's the same. It fails to boot up and goes to startup repair with the same corrupt message for ntoskrnl.exe. Same with any updates from other software programs like Apple iTunes. Anytime the system tries to reboot after updates, it fails to boot up and goes to repair mode. I tried to use the system's restore function and the earliest restore isn't far back enough so I don't know how to restore it to any point before my updates started failing other than a full reformatting.

Hey, smarty-pants, I'm having the same problem & I DID let the computer run through the updates properly without interrupting. I've been working with Vista for a couple years now & I've never seen the ntoskrnl error before now. Never had a problem letting updates install as needed. Now every time this particular system tries to go through the install process, I see it go through "Installing 1 of 3 updates" or the very cute "Installing 40 of 49 updates", then when it goes to restart, I see the startup error, it runs through repair process, and as far as I can tell, does a system rollback because the desktop has certain icons showing (network, control panel) that I keep changing to NOT show. I have turned off automatic updates entirely and we're getting normal boot-ups now, but I don't feel good ignoring updates FOREVER - it would be nice to know what update is screwing the pooch. Thank you.

hi. i am having the same problem. i have a sony vaio. intel pentium dual cpu. i was prompted to update the computer so i did. during the update the cpu restarted like it said it would but now when i try to turn on the computer i get errors messafe " windows cannot load" and "ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupted. i can't find a vista repair cd or and installation cd. so i tried to download it on my usb but couldnt find a program that would install the booter into my usb so i can boot from my flash drive. i've already changed the boot order to usb flash first. but to no avial. plz help. =(((((

i can't acces the computer at all it wont lload.. not even in safe mode.