SP2 hangs at 92% on Installing 3 of 3

A friends relatively new Dell laptop running Vista Ultimate SP1 32bit.

Downloaded SP2, but has hung for 3 hours at the "installing Service Pack 2 stage 3 of 3 - 92% complete. Do not turn off or unplug your Computer" stage.

I had disabled all anti-virus and firewalling software.

I am told by friend that this is what happened when he first tried to install SP2, though he DID get through to 100% complete, before message popped up that installation failed and that his lappie would be rolled back to last good SP1 configuration.

I have tried the wuauserv net stop bits net start bits repair.bat file that I read about elsewhere.

His wife's exact same laptop (bought at same time, same configuration, same updates installed) installed SP2 no problems.

Thoughts would be appreciated.

Rgds
Rod

1.Reset WU components in aggressive mode How do I reset Windows Update components?
2.Download SP2 from Microsoft Download Center (not from Windows Update!) and install it in safe mode http://www.vistax64.com/windows-updates/229199-download-available-standalone-vista-sp2.html

Hi...thanks for response...sorry to have been tardy in getting back to you...I had a long weekend off work and only just got back to this and my friends laptop (he's at work with me).

I have NOT tried this yet.

The update ended up going through to 100%, told him it was successfully installed and for him to reboot - so he rebooted, logged back in and all was fine. I typed in Winver and saw it was updated to SP2.

He did some other work on it, as in in MS Word, saved files etc and then went to close down.

So all looked good. He turned off his machine, only to once again - remember he had already rebooted and logged back in - get the "Installing Updates" message, at which time after 2 hours it said 'reverting to last known good SP1 configuration' and after 5 hours it HAD.

Huh?

I am sot sure I am wanting to Aggressively do ANYTHING with this lappie....let alone do these things with Registry....

He is thinking of simply buying a WIN7 disc, reformatting and installing the OS and all his apps again.

Rgds
Rod

Time for an FFR. ( Full Factory Recovery ) Backup your data...

Roddy said:

So all looked good. He turned off his machine, only to once again - remember he had already rebooted and logged back in - get the "Installing Updates" message, at which time after 2 hours it said 'reverting to last known good SP1 configuration' and after 5 hours it HAD.

Huh?

I am sot sure I am wanting to Aggressively do ANYTHING with this lappie....let alone do these things with Registry....

Click to expand...

Two reasons cause this:

-corrupted any files in C:\Windows\inf folder + any drivers
-trouble with hardware compatible -update all drivers,especially for chipset,video card,network adapter
-trouble with licence -terrible MS bug :sa: (trouble with BIOS compatbiltity)
only MS Support Microsoft Support in this case

Please note even option 1 and 2 is hard to diagnose and I'm not guarantee I can fix it or anybody.

He is thinking of simply buying a WIN7 disc, reformatting and installing the OS and all his apps again.

Click to expand...

If he is planning to buy Win7 than I suggest upgrade system to Win7 (without reinstalling OS),it should easy & quick fix your issue too whatever it is

Read below:
Upgrade Install with Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

Your decision?