Vista Startup problem

recently whenever i get windows updates and it updates itself, the next time i restart the computer it always says to start windows recovery repair since the startup did not work properly. however depending on the options i select, it does not always correct it, i have to do it a few times in order for windows to start up correctly (yes even using the windows recovery disc as well). it happens every time i restart the computer. it has to go thru system restore to a previous date and then it works again. (i havent tried restarting my computer otherwise because i don't want to go thru the pain of getting it to just start up). is there any fix for this?

it just goes to a blank screen, no green bar loading screen at all. however, when i go to the repair mode, the green bar loading screen comes and then goes straight to the repair screen.

thx


p.s. the repair recovery thing fixes the problem but never finds any errors, i checked the errors. it said the cause is a change in system configuration. and im running windows vista 64 bit home premium.

 

Have you tried doing a clean reinstallation of the OS? It sounds like something got borked somewhere down the line and now updates aren't getting put into the file system correctly (it sounds like something in the process of installing an update is "breaking" part of the file system, which then has to be repaired at the next boot up).

If that's too drastic (for now), check in your event logs to see what, if anything, is getting logged in there - I'll bet there are scads of error log items. Those should help to narrow down the cause of the problem.

 

the only error i see near the time where it would not reboot is this:

The provider failed while storing notifications from the driver. The Virtual Disk Service should be restarted. hr=80042505

and this is what i found from the windows update errors:

The previous system shutdown at 3:43:45 AM on 6/3/2009 was unexpected.

Audit events have been dropped by the transport. The real time backup file was corrupt due to improper shutdown.

Unable to initialize the security package Kerberos for server side authentication. The data field contains the error number.

Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.


EDIT: this is the closest thing i found to my problem: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934540. but still does not explain why i need to always run windows repair.

and would this help me in any way? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392/

 

Have you tried to ignore the automatic restart and tried ignoring it, instead shutting down "manually" via the start menu?

 

I would take a shot at seeing if your MBR and/or boot files need repairing, as per the info in KB927392. I just ran across something regarding certain failures of SP2 to install that discussed the fact that a bad boot file could cause such a failure because the SP needs to make certain changes to the boot files, and if it cannot find what it "expects" to find it will fail the installation and issue an error code.

In your case, you also have updates that are failing to install; since a number of updates require that the system be restarted in order to finish the installation (a process that would necessarily require that the update installer write a new startup task to the relevant boot file), it's possible that you've got some corruption in one of your boot files.

Also, do you dual-boot, or not? That can also cause problems with some installs because the native _Vista bootloader gets replaced with another bootloader (e.g., grub if one dual-boots with a linux variant). If that's the case, you may need to restore the original _Vista bootloader.

 

alright thanks. so the info on KB927392 i should just follow and see what? i dont know what exactly i'm supposed to find.

nope i don't dual boot so it cant be that.

do u think updating to SP2 manually would solve the problem?

 

Here's an easy way to also fix the MBR. Vista Recovery disk. Download and burn the ISO, tell repair. Has worked for me on several machines.
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,71039-order,4/description.html

 

yea i had that disk. that was what the microsoft article said to do

alright so i fixed the MBR and all that boot stuff and found out the problem is with attaching my external hard drive in when the computer starts up. if the hard drive is plugged in before the windows logo loading bar screen, it will get to the black screen and not continue farther. however, if i plug the external hard drive in afterwards, it works fine (no more repairing windows startup anymore)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934540 is the closeset thing to my problem still. but i dont know how to fix it otherwise. also i should mention that i use a wireless laser mouse (VX Nano) and it has the receiver in a usb port ALWAYS in. it has not been a problem and still is not a problem with starting up (only the external hard drive that messes the starrtup). any fixes to this?

thanks again!


EDIT: I updated to SP2 and the problem was gone! wooot thanks again for all your help!

 

Good to hear the problem got fixed. Just to add a belt to those suspenders, you might check in the BIOS settings to see if there's an option to boot from USB, and if so, whether you can disable that option. Disabling that option should prevent the bootloader from getting confused about whether it should be trying to find the OS on the external drive or the internal drive.

 

alright thanks!

but i guess i don't need to do that anymore cuz it boots from the computer now instead of the external hard drive