windows updates has corrupted vista, please help

Hi,

Wondering if you guys can offer up some good advice.
I have had my pcfor about 8 months, all was working fine until a couple of months ago when after some automatic updates and a reboot, windows failed to load.
I got a black screen with the following message

file name : NTOSKRNL.exe
status : 0XC0000098

Windows failed to load because a required file is missing or corrupt

Then it advised me to reboot from the cd and repair the program.
Which i did, and then instantly turned off automatic updates, as i didnt want to risk the same thing happening again.

And it seemed to be working fine, for about 2 months i guess.
A couple of days ago, it happened again, despite me not allowing any updates.

So i repaired windows via cd (which takes about 15-20 mins!) and went into my updates section and checked that they were set to "check for updates but ask for permission to install", which is how it was still set.
So i tried rebooting a couple of times just to see if it started back up ok and it worked.
Until yesterday.
Each time i repair windows it works until i turn it off, when i shut down my pc i get a message saying "configuring updates stage 1 of 3"
Stage one takes forever, stage 2 takes about 2 seconds and stage 3 never seems to happen.
And then when it reboots it tells me

file name : NTOSKRNL.exe
status : 0XC0000098

Windows failed to load because a required file is missing or corrupt

And i have to repair from the disc yet again.
It's hugely frustrating and i am at my wits end, i have no idea how to stop updates which i have not allowed.
so far microsoft have been next to useless.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Itl ooks like a trojan or virus, see this url ntoskrn1.exe - Dangerous

Cheers for the reply.
I had a check and followed that link.

I had the file name incorrect, it ends with an L and not a 1.
Having been searching all over the place, it looks like its an integral "kernel" (whateverthehell that is!!)

I am going to run the antivirus again, just to check in a sec though.....once i have repaired windows yet again.

So depressing

Hi,

This is a longshot, but I guess you ready to try anything.

Seems like the culprit has already downloaded and keeps trying to install.

Have a look here

C:\Windows\Software Distribution\Downloads

You could delete the contents of that folder (not the Downloads folder itself ).
I have done it without any problem.

Or, you can open each one , search for the blue cab file, make a note of the kb and compare with your list of already installed updates. Anything that doesn't match is waiting to be installed and could be the culprit . Delete it.

Hope that helps

SIW2

hey thanks for the reply.
Could you elaborate on the "blue cab" file??
I looked in
c:\windows\software distribution\download

But i couldnt see anything in the caleld blue cab.
All the files have loooooong gibberish titles

Sorry for being such a n00b!

In the Download folder are other yellow folders - double click one to open it- there's a lot of stuff - scroll down and you'll see it



Each yellow folder will probably have one of those little blue fellas lurking inside.

It's safe to delete the entire contents of the Downloads folder - I do it all the time -but if you check them individually you might find the kb number of the culprit - not all downloads have this , so if you can't find it , try deleting everything inside the Downloads folder.


If you do find what you think might be the culprit, delete it's yellow folder, not just the cab file.

Hope this helps


SIW2