Sony Vaio Z Updates Endless Reboot

You know it figures. I had three separate lemons in the "TT" model so I gave up and upgraded to the "Z" model. The minute I open the thing, I get ready to create Recovery Discs. The Recovery Center tells me to fully update my computer before doing recovery disks. So I click "Vaio Update" and go to the update web site.

On the Sony VAIO update page I see the following four "Manual Updates"
1) InterVideo WinDVD Player Update
2) VAIO Event Srevice Update for Bluetooth Mouse
3) VAIO Power Management Update
4) BIOS Update

I select all of them and click to start. It asks me to "agree". I click "agree". The window disappears. And nothing happens. So I do it again. Agree window pops up again. I click "Agree" again. Nothing happens.

.........Great.

So I sit there. I notice in the bottom left corner the shut down icon has a little "!" on top of it with a shield. I hover. It says "Installs updates and then shuts down yoru computer".

Huh. I guess it installed them already? So I click that.

It says "Installing 1 of 28 updates".

Twenty eight? Uh .... okay. I only chose four ...

I wait 15 minutes for it to get up to 28. Then it reboots.

It loads into windows.

It says "Configuring Updates 3 of 3 - 0%. Do not shut down your computer". It counts up to 98% .... then says "Rebooting".

And it reboots.

And it loads into windows. And again says "Configuring Updates 3 of 3 - 0% ..... 98%". Then it reboots again. And again. And again.

And again. And again. And again. Nearly 10 times it reboots at "3 of 3 98%". ....

Unbelievable.

See this:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Get-...tes-Stage-3-of-3-0-with-Vista-SP1-78933.shtml

And this:
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-33782-after-windows-updates-can-t-start-computer

So the solution to this, for all of you victims of Vaio and Vista ... is to literally take the battery off and force the laptop to power down. God willing, when you start again, it will tell you that Windows failed to load properly. It will offer you the option to restore to last know good settings. Restore it. Lets hope you haven't installed 400 programs and have any personal data or else "bye bye" ?

Wait about 10 minutes and you should be able to get back into windows.

My intuition is telling me that this is a Vista Update problem. Especially given the comments in the links above. 28 updates. I only chose 4. Maybe Vista was downloading updates while I was pooping around doing other things?

Now that I am back in windows I still see that ominous "!" over the shut down icon still. Taunting me. "Go ahead, press this button, we've got 28 very important Windows updates for you!" Should I press it? Will my windows crash again? Press it. Press it!! You know you want to!

Was it the Vaio updates? Am I supposed to avoid VAIO update like the plague now? Never update my laptop with new drivers or BIOS ?

"Hi ... Im a Mac"...

 

I think the following suggestion may help you avoid the same problem I had. Ignore the "!" on the shut down icon. Dont click it. Instead, on first load of the new Z, go to "Windows Update" (type it in the search if you have to). You will likely be presented with 41 updates. Download and install those. It will take awhile. Your system will then reboot. It will successfully finish "step 3" (mentioned above). Then the "!" on the shut down icon will disappear and you wont end up in an endless loop.

Moral of the story - do not click the shut down button that has the "!" on it, before updating with Windows update!