Boot Failure After Windows Update

Hello all, so last night when I got home I noticed that there were some Windows Updates ready. I was planning on watching a movie streamed from my PC to my XBOX 360, but the last time I did that, my movie was interrupted because my computer thought that right now was a perfect time to perform the updates. So this time, I figured I'd do the update right then, and watch the movie afterward.

So the windows update screen came on saying installing updates, stup 3 of 3 and so on and so forth. All was going as usual until the computer powered off. Normally, it would boot back up just as it would if you had done a restart. This time however, the computer stayed off. I let it sit for 5 minutes or so before powering it back on. Once I did, I got the normal BIOS screen for my motherboard and then it just hangs. From this screen I can normally hit <F12> to enter the Boot Menu, <DEL> to enter BIOS setup, <END> to enter something called Q-setup or the <TAB> key which says POST next to it. The only key that does anything is TAB. Once I hit that, I go to the Energy Star screen where it tests my memory. I still have the same options as above, however DEl and END when pushed with display a message that says either "Prepare to enter setup" and "Prepare to enter Q-thing (I forget exactly what it's called)" and then just hangs there.

Couple more bits of info; the mobo boot screen has hung on me before and used to do it every time I would reboot. I found that problem to be present whenever an iPod was connected to a USB port. Even then, it would eventually boot after about 20 minutes. I let it sit on that screen last night for over an hour to no avail. I also let it sit on the "Prepare to enter setup" after hitting DEL for about 3 hours with no results. In trying to troubleshoot where the problem is, I plugged my old C:\ drive from a completely different box with Windows XP still instaleld into my IDE cable and was able to boot into Wndows XP, oddly enough. I also tried removing all my harddrives and the boot menu came up and then after a normal period of about 5 seconds it tried to boot from the CD/DVD rom and errored out asking me to input a system drive and then push enter. I put my Vista DVD in and hit enter and I got the same message. Both my Vista harddrive and my CD/DVD rom are SATA, so I'm wondering if somehow the windows update killed the SATA ports on my mobo?

I dunno, I'm at a loss. Which is why I'm posting here I guess. Here are my specs:

-GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L MOBO
-Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
-CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
-Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
*EDIT*
-Windows Vista Ultimate 64


Any help would be appreciated. Also, this is my 2nd Gigabyte mobo and it's my last. I had a failure on my last one, but they were still a fairly new company and this one just got such good reviews I thought they had fixed their issues.

Have you tried doing Startup Repair? Also, try System Restore. If that doesn't work... try uninstalling the update you just recently installed.

For OEM version, Startup Repair (inc. System Restore) is on f8 menu before the Windows boot screen.
For Retail Version, use your Vista CD to boot from there and then click "repair your computer".

N.B: If you can't boot from the Vista CD you got, then make sure the first priority of booting is internal optical drive or something like that.

Go to Start>Control Panel>Programs and Features>View Installed Updates, then click the update you want to uninstall and then click Uninstall. Do this in Safe Mode.

Hopefully, Microsoft would fix this issue before people start getting this issue.

Thanks for the reply. I did some other testing and found that the issue is in fact my Seagate harddrive. I put the drive into another computer and it wouldn't budge past the BIOS setup screen either. On a 3rd computer, I plugged it in in addition to my friend's 2 other HDDs and although it booted fine with his C:\ my drive wasn't present. I also tested the drive using a SATA > USB adapter another friend has and it still wasn't recognized.

I ended up searching around and found a thread on Seagate's own forums about how this and other drives like it have a tendancy to have the firmware lock up and brick the drive. It turns out that there is a firmware update that I could have used that would have prevented this issue, but how would I have known there was an update? I didn't even know HDDs had firmware. o_O Anyway, after initially discovering that the drive was bad, I used Seagate's online chat who told me I was SOL and that luckily the drive was under warranty. Well after that chat, I did my searching and found that thread I mentioned earlier where the guy actually got his drive repaired and returned. All in all, it took him about 13 days from contact with Seagate to installing the drive back in. I followed his advice and contacted Seagate by phone and explained the issue to them and they determined my drive was one of the affected models. They created a case and transferred me to their date recovery service call i365. The tech at i365 provided me with a prepaid UPS label and I sent the drive off on Friday of last week. If all goes according to plan, they'll test the drive and flash the firmware and then validate the data. If everything checks out, they'll ship it back to me ready to plug back in and off I go.

The guy on the Seagate forums was in Eastern Canada and shipped his drive to Chicago. I'm in Salt Lake City and shipped mine to San Somewhere in California, so hopefully I'll get mine sooner than he did.

I'll keep you posted once I get it back in the tower.