Odd issue after SP1 install

I installed SP1 yesterday on the machine in my signature, which was quite the struggle in and of itself. I downloaded the standalone, attempted to install, but on the first reboot it bluescreened and wouldn't boot back up into Vista. I popped in my DVD and did a repair install, which brought it back to functioning condition, and by that time SP1 had shown up in WU. Oddly enough, it took multiple attempts to install it through WU, but I didn't do any 1337 hackery, just a lot of trying-the-same-thing-but-expecting-a-different-result. It finally installed, and everything was going just peachy.

Until last night.

My machine takes 25 minutes to boot up. I'm dual booting with XP, and it even takes forever to get to the boot menu. It doesn't take 25 minutes to boot XP, but it will occasionally hang with just a black screen before the login for multiple minutes, and this has definitely not happened before. Successfully logging in, Vista is generally fast, but somethings like WEI won't even run.

Assuming that SP1 was the culprit, I attempted to uninstall it, but that wouldn't work either. So currently, I'm stuck with a computer I effectively can't shut down / reboot, and I can't uninstall what I would suspect messed it up. The only two other things that might have messed it up are the fact that I updated my BIOS a few days ago, and a strange driver installation that got installed through WU after SP1. It required a reboot, and it was after that that I started experiencing these issues. I may be tricking myself, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with "storage." Copying files to/from my HDD is faster than ever though. I'm quite perplexed; I've never seen anything quite like this.

Spring break starts after my last final tomorrow, so I'll likely be reformatting and using the standalone SP1 installer in a few days, but if anybody has any suggestions in the meantime, I'm all ears

Oh yeah, could it possibly be an issue with the X3100? I heard some rumors that the drivers weren't compatible with SP1, but I've got those as up to date as possible, and I didn't have to force SP1 to install. Thanks guys!

 

Try to boot into F8 safe mode and restore to a previous date, I did this with an issue a bit back and solved all problems. If you cannot get in, try via the Boot menu to restore to a config, if not, try the following. I do believe there is an error with the intel driver, an admin has a thread here I believe.

I cannot make one for some reason, prob not right version of vista, but try it anyways:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20070929/vista-sp1-recovery-disc/

Here is a standalone:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...ndows-vista-repair-disk-if-you-dont-have-one/


If you are really desperate you can try to clone the hdd and re-install or boot a portable linux distro and copy over important files.

Good luck bud.

 

Using Linux, how would you copy the files and then use them with Windows? Actually, I've seen this advice in the past, but have no clue as to how it would be done. Fortunately, I've never had to try such a plan. lol

BTW, good post.

 

Thanks for the tips gengerald, I'll look into those more tomorrow after my final (that I should be studying more for... meh). I did have the thought to boot up in safe mode and attempt to uninstall SP1 from there, which I'll try tomorrow.

Those recover discs look vaguely useful, I may have to make one even if just for kicks. Looks like a nice compliment to a Linux live CD if you don't have Bart'sPE or something already. Actually, a nice compliment to Bart'sPE too.

I'm not worried about my personal files, they're on a separate partition and I backed them up to my external before installing SP1. I'm just more eager to have a functioning OS

Bmwrob, you should try out an Ubuntu live CD, since it's free and easy. You may like it more than you expect Definitely a useful tool, and a good way to briefly see what Linux can be like to use. If you want to back up some files on a non-bootable-yet-functioning hard drive, just pop in a recent live CD (old ones can't always mount NTFS drives, and certainly couldn't write to them), go to the file browser, and copy from the hard drive to whatever storage medium you choose to use. A thumb drive / external hard drive would be the easiest, I haven't tried to burn a CD while using a live CD, but that seems sort of tricky I can answer more specific questions, but it's really easiest to just try it yourself.

Thanks guys I'll let you know how the situation unfolds.

 

wax, I actually am on a dual-boot, Ubuntu 7.10/Suse 10.3 (erased the drive before installing these distros - no Windows) machine now. I'm embarrassed to say, I didn't know the Linux CD could be used in such a way - partly, (in hopes of not seeming quite so dumb, I mention this LOL), because I've never had to transfer files as you've described.

Thanks for the info.

 

Haha, nice, guess I don't need to spread the Good Word then You definitely wouldn't have an issue using a live CD.

 

Ok. Here's why I hate computers: They change on you. However, procrastination pays off.

I have done nothing that would actually do anything to fix my computer, yet it's running at normal speed. I'm not going to question it, however, I will remain perplexed, especially because the problem is no longer there. This bugs me. Oh well, I'll post here again if something else goes wonky, but until then, I bid you adieu. At least in this thread :-D