Desperate help needed!!!

I just installed the latest updates from Windows update for Vista 32-bit Home Premium. There were like 5 or 6 of them, I don't remember what they were. Anyways, I left my computer for it to restart, and come back to it and it is continuously restarting!! It would get to the little green bar going across the screen where it says "Microsoft Windows", and then blue screen and restart itself, and do that over and over.

I tried to restart in Safe Mode, and that would not even work. It got through loading a bunch of drivers and then hit one called crcsomething.dll and blue screened and restarted. I even ran a memory test to see if my memory is bad, but it came back clean.

What the heck is going on? Does Microsoft release bad updates that can crash your computer or something? Luckily I have XP in a dual boot, so I can still get my data (and that is what I'm on right now), but does anyone have any ideas on how to fix my Vista install?

My specs are in sig

Thanks

EDIT: The blue screens went away too fast for me to get any error code or anything. They just flashed blue, and then my computer restarted.
EDIT 2: Figured out how to get the BSOD stop error code. It's later on in the thread.

 

its possible that installation of the updates was interrupted, maybe someone touched your laptop while you were gone?

 

I saw the updates install correctly and I hit the button that said "Restart Now" and saw the computer completely shut down before I left.

 

This is why I hate updating Windows. I've had that problem before. Since windows does a system restore before it installs updates, you can put in your windows disk and boot from it. Click the repair your computer option.

 

And that way won't erase any of my data, right? It should just repair the system files? Thanks

 

Yes it will just repair windows files, don't worry

 

HELP - I've got the exact same problem, what's going on?????? At least I'm not the only one, feels a tad better

I booted and restored from my Vista install disk and then tried installing the updates again via the MS download site but the same thing happened. I restored again and now all of my User accounts don't work properly Vista keeps saying the profiles can't be loaded and hence creates loads of TEMP directories in my Users folder even though all of my User account folders are visible.

Anyone with any ideas ?

 

Ok this is not good. I tried to do the boot from my OS DVD, and do a System Restore, but guess what, it could not find any restore points. I know System Restore is on, because I have never turned it off. Also, the Startup Repair tool on the DVD tried to repair my installation, but it couldn't. It gave me that the problem was as follows:

Problem event name: Startup Repair V2
Problem Signature 01: External Media
Problem Signature 02: 6.0.6000.16386.6.0.6000.16386
Problem Signature 03: 0
Problem Signature 04: 65537
Problem Signature 05: unknown
Problem Signature 06: BadDriver
Problem Signature 07: 0
Problem Signature 08: 3
Problem Signature 09: WrpRepair
Problem Signature 10: 10
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
LocaleID: 1033

I don't know what any of that means, but that is word for word what the "more details" button told me after running the Startup Repair option off my OS DVD.

Also, in response to FooTBall100, my friend who has Vista also, installed these same updates and he has been complaining that after he restarted his computer has been very slow and feels like it is about to crash. IMO I think there are something wrong with these updates. BTW, he has a Dell Inspiron E1505.

 

It would be useful if BSODs had a delay of a few seconds so that you could read them - wouldn't be too difficult for MS to add !!

I used my Vista DVD to do a repair that did take me back to a bootable machine again but my User accounts are not loading properly, probably a simple task to correct if I knew how to fix them. I haven't lost any user data but Vista just keeps creating new temporary profiles each time I log in.

I don't really want to do a clean install but I will if I can't find some answers to what's going on.

There doesn't seem to be many people with the same problem unless they're all frantically trying to get their PCs working again to tell the world!

 

That's exactly what I'm thinking lol. In fact, I just saw a post by someone with an ASUS lappie who had the same Vista crash issue after installing these updates. He had to completely reinstall Vista, which is something I am trying to avoid.

 

I haven't tried it in Vista but doing a restore in XP makes your computer so slow that you save your file and then re-install it.

If you can save everything you want, reinstalling isn't a big deal

 

I installed some updates on jan 8th. Nothing happened to me.

Beware of the registry cleaners. They might have messed up the entries somewhere.

 

The fix (after installing these updates) seems to be to turn the computer off, wait at least 10 secs and then power-up again - this worked for me after re-installing them all again!! I had tried several Restarts with no success but a proper cold start seems to work.

Bit late for me though, I still have my User profiles misbehaving, I think the registry must be messed up somewhere, I can feel a clean install coming on

 

I thought I shut my computer down completely earlier, but I'll try again.

 

And it worked. That is still really screwy that all this happened just because of some stupid updates. Thanks for the help everyone

 

That may be because these particularly updates are discarding the optimisation info which Vista slowly builds as you use it. In other words, normal service will be gradually resumed over the next day or so of use.

FWIW, I've been unable to successfully install the "reliability" update on my Vista64 laptop. Hangs on shutdown. Must try the count-to-10 thing after I (eventually) give up and force it off though...

 

It seems to BSOD everytime I do a soft restart though, only cold starts by cycling the power are successful so still problems with these updates!

Any way of freezing the BSOD so I can read it, or a clever idea from someone to make it readable, maybe I could try a video camera to see if it picks it up??

 

Press F8 when your computer starts and select the option "Disable automatic restart on system failure".

 

I have the same set-up as you and regarding System Restore it's a well known issue that with a dual-boot each time to restart to XP it will delete the Vista restore points.

 

O wow I never knew that. That is really weird because I never would have thought that doing something with the other OS would affect the other one. Does anyone know why that is?

 

hmm i updated my vista 32bit home premium, 6 updates. i chose shut down and install updates then it did and shut off. i turned on the laptop and it went to the welcomescreen saying configuring updates then it restarted and everything is normal.

 

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! This sucks. I just tried to soft restart my comp and boom it BSOD'd just like before. I had to turn it off and do a cold start also. What the heck is going on? I'm going to try to get the BSOD error code to see what it is and I'll report back

 

I did the same thing but when I logged back into vista and checked the update history 4 of the 6 updates had failed (no BSOD for me). I tried to update again and the same 4 failed again . I then tried the stand-alone installers which installed successfully but windows update is still showing me the same 4 updates that were successfully installed from the stand-alone installers .

I will definitely be re-installing vista before I install SP1...

 

Maybe doing a soft restart after installing these updates is the common factor that causes problems for each soft restart thereafter - a desktop PC here at work was updated with the same 6 updates last night followed by a shutdown, when powered on this morning it was OK but when it does a soft restart the Vista progress bar freezes for about 2 seconds at the same point I get a BSOD but then it carries on successfully.

Kozzney, I'll be interested to see what your BSOD reports if you manage it, I won't be able to try it for a few hours when I get home!

My User account profiles are my main concern at the moment, if I can't fix them I'll have to do a clean install or create new accounts (these behave OK) and copy everything across from the old to new accounts, the first option will at least clean out all of the registry stuff that's been affected by this! I've tried correcting the User Profiles in the Registry - when it can't load a profile correctly it renames the original entries to .bak and modifies a couple of keys and then it creates new entries in their place that point to Users\TEMPxxxx folders, unfortunately cleaning these entries by hand didn't fix the problem so I guess there must be a higher level registry key that is affecting all the old profiles.

 

Ok so I got the error code off the BSOD here it is verbatim:

Technical Information:
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0x8280DBA0,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)

I also ran a CHKDSK /F because it said to in the BSOD, but that did not fix anything. Does anybody know what that STOP error code means???

 

If we can't figure this out soon, I am definitely going to give Microsoft a call when I have some time and ask them if they know what is going on, because this problem is apparently quite widespread.

 

Not sure what applies here because a cold start boots OK ...

Stop: 0x0000007B
A "Stop: 0x0000007B" error message indicates that Windows Vista or Windows Vista Setup cannot access the hard disk that contains the Windows Vista startup files. Typically, this Stop error occurs when Windows Vista cannot locate a compatible driver for the disk controller device. For example, this Stop error can occur if Windows Vista cannot locate a compatible driver for a RAID controller.

You may also receive this error message if one or more of the following conditions are true:• The hard disk is faulty.
• The hard disk cabling is faulty, or the hard disk cabling is not connected correctly.
• The computer is infected with a boot sector virus.
• The computer BIOS or the disk controller firmware are incompatible with Windows Vista.
• Another program is using the master boot record.
If you receive this Stop error message during a clean install of Windows Vista, it typically means that Windows Vista does not include a compatible driver for the disk controller device. To resolve this issue, you must provide a compatible driver during the installation of Windows Vista. To do this, follow these steps:1. On another computer or in a dual-boot configuration, download a compatible driver for the disk controller device.
2. Save the driver that you downloaded to an optical disk or to a removable USB drive.

Note If you are running a dual-boot configuration, you can also save the driver to a local hard disk.
3. Start the Windows Vista Setup from the Windows Vista DVD.
4. When you are prompted to select the disk on which to install Window Vista, select the Load Driver option.
5. Follow the prompts on the screen to complete the installation.
If you receive this Stop error message when you try to upgrade to Windows Vista, it also typically means that Windows Vista does not include a compatible driver for the disk controller device. However, it also means that the driver that was used in the previous operating system is incompatible with Windows Vista. Therefore, the driver cannot be reassembled and migrated for use in Windows Vista.

If you receive this Stop error message when Windows Vista tries to restart during Windows Vista Setup, follow these steps:1. Restart the computer.
2. Roll back the installation to the previous operating system.
3. Check with the disk controller manufacturer for information about the issue. If no additional information is available, download and install the most recent driver that is available.
4. Try to upgrade to Windows Vista again.

Note If the issue persists, perform a clean installation of Windows Vista, and use the Load Driver option that is described earlier in this section.

 

You guys here should have done some cleanup of the registry/file clean up which is the cause for all these issues. I used to run ccleaner which messed up some file type associations before.

Only solution is to do a system restore to an earlier working point.

 

I only got my system on Christmas Day and the first thing I did was a clean install of Vista, in 2 weeks I haven't really installed much so I'd hope my registry isn't too messed up, these updates seem to have messed it up for me.

 

Bullocks! There is no way that one OS running on a partition will do anything to the OS files running on another partition. The ONLY way that what you are suggesting to be true could happen is if you tried to install BOTH operating systems on the same partition.

Gary

 

Yea same here I did a clean install of Vista when I got my system back in August, and I've never had any problems like this before.

 

It's true mister 'Bullocks'....Google 'Vista dual-boot restore'....Microsoft even has a bullitin on it and I know first hand from experiencing the problem.So please do your homework before spouting off!

 

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! My appologies, you are correct. Here is the link for those observing: Restore points disappear

I always use bootIT NG for dual booting and make sure the partitons for one OS are hidden from the other. I keep a thirrd partiton that is common to both OS for files and documents. So this sort of thing could never occur.

Clearly, I jumped the gun.

Gary

 

This is bad!!

I've just completed a clean install of Vista, created just 1 user as requested and then allowed it to automatically install all (48 of) updates, I noticed that these updates included those 6 released on 8th January. I then did a shutdown and powered up and everything seemed OK apart from 1 update that said it couldn't complete its installation. Anyway, I next did a soft restart and yes you guessed it, a BSOD at the same point with the same 0x7B error code. I must admit I expected it to be OK!

I haven't even installed any of my own stuff on here yet, this shows that it was nothing to do with what I had done to my M1330 over the past 2 weeks since Christmas.

Not good is it!

 

Gary,

I didn't mean to jump on you as you are clearly a more experienced person than myself.
I'd like to do a setup like yours with hidden partitions,any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

 

so the problem is really the soft reset. but cold booting is alright?

 

Don't worry about it. It was MY fault... No blood, no foul!

The boot manager I use is "bootIT NG". Here is a link. BootIT NG

It is not the most intuitive piece of software I have ever used, but it does a damn good job. I had a laptop we used for demos. It had two hard drives, 6 partitions and three OS. I was able to use BootIT NG to manage all the partitions and build a boot menu that allowed various combinations of which OS could see which partitions. Even having different combinations of the same OS seeing different groups of partitions. Great application.

Gary

 

Yes apparently so. I don't know what else to do besides wait for *hopefully* Microsoft to release an update to fix this one. (or SP1 maybe?)

FooTBall100, can you try to install the SP1 Release Candidate 1 and see if that resolves the issue? Here's a thread with links to downloads:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=197027

 

Just to clarify ...

- Cold Starts by shutting down and powering up again are OK.

- Warm Starts by just doing a software restart are NOT OK, they BSOD every time with error code 0x7B meaning that the hard disk cannot be accessed for whatever reason, possibly a driver problem to do with Cold/Warm starts that is only now apparent with these MS updates.

The fact my system was clean installed and it still did it makes me think that most M1330s must have the same behaviour with these updates unless it's to do with part of my setup that differs slightly from most eg 250GB Samsung 5400 HD, FP reader.

Kozzney, what make is your 120GB HD?

I noticed one Acer Aspire user who had different problems with these updates, ie they failed to install properly, so behaviour on different systems may just have different side effects some that just aren't as noticeable as a BSOD!!

Kozzney, I hadn't planned to try the SP1 RC, however I may give it a go to see if it resolves this issue.

 

It is a Hitachi 5400RPM SATA HDD.

Can any other M1330 owners comment on whether or not these updates messed up their computers?

 

1 Vista-U, 2 XPs, 3 linux + 4-5 live CD's, with 6 (4=f32 and 2=ext3 in LVM2) partitions for user file and one blank partition ~5GB blank awaiting

KDE4 releasing on 17-19th Jan @ Google HQ.

This all without cleanup over 2.5 years, just adding.
Yes First XP (defunct but still bootable) washout due any day.

btw those are not serial, but counts spread over two hdd's

... no restore issues ... no updates issues ...
... what gives / what takes
... all playfully bootable all reconfigurable at will ...

this all on friend's desky.

Would love to have half of it on dv9704tx - planned...

 

Hey have you had a chance to try out SP1 yet?

 

So wait... how did you fix the problem again?? (the problem this thread is about)

PS: My system was shut down for a few hours, that 10-sec thing desn't help. I'm lucky too I have XP dual boot plus acronis full backup from December, I'm about to restore it now (unless someone can clearly tell me how to fix this is)

 

We haven't fixed it yet unfortunately, FooTBall100 might try to install SP1 to see if that fixes it, but other than that, I have no idea ATM of what to do. I would suggest that since you can restore your PC, do that. I unfortunately cannot because my System Restore is stupid. Bah.

 

Ok. I wish you good luck then, I'm going back to december! Well at least you got XP so things are not that bad

 

Kozzney et al

Good news - SP1 RC fixes the restart problems

During the install there are several restarts while it configures itself, the first few all failed with a BSOD but then they started to work!!

Hence I'm happy to say no more BSODs on my M1330 with SP1 RC - I hadn't planned to download it but I'm glad I did now

If you're happy to download >500MB and use RC software then go ahead and do it

 

Good job FooTBall100!!!! This is excellent news and I appreciate you trying that out!!! I'm going to go install it also right now...

 

OK Good luck, you'll have to do 3 or 4 forced shutdowns during the config process as it does several restarts but then the last few restarts will magically start to work again

Not sure if this was an MS problem with their updates or whether or not one of those updates highlighted a Dell driver problem, I'm just glad it's behaving itself again.

It's a bit ironic that on the MS Vista pages they show an XPS M1330 - they obviously didn't test these updates on one!!

 

I did the SP1 RC Refresh install and it actually did not BSOD on me during the reboots during the installations. The Refresh was released only a few days ago, like on 11 January, so that might have something to do with it. But now my computer reboots flawlessly; however, it did seem to take a little longer to boot up again. I can live with that since the reboot problem is gone. Thanks FooTBall100, I appreciate the help and I'm glad we finally got through this

 

Good to hear it ran smoother than my installation (I downloaded it on 12th Jan), I feared the worst after the first few restarts failed during the 'Configuring Updates ...' sequence but it's a nice feeling when it suddenly starts working again!

I think SP1 RC resets any optimization history that was built up on your machine, you'll probably notice it speeding up over the next day or 2. I'm sure my machine boots quicker now than before SP1 RC and in general feels a bit more responsive.

It looks quite easy to uninstall SP1 RC for when SP1 RTM is released any day (month) now! At least we can put this issue to bed for now, hopefully it won't reappear in the future!