[smdave]

I have been working on this computer since friday, I am computer savey but not a professional. I have an office with multiple computers we needed one more so I pulled one out of storage to update.

Athlon 1800 cpu
1gig DDR 266 ram
100GB HDD Maxtor
XP Home oem w sp2

Put in new HDD and installed XP all goes well untill I run Microsoft updates. After installing the 75 critical updates the computer goes into a constant reboot, it boots to the black screen that says there was an error and the choices start window normally or previous boot that was successfull ( I know the wording is wrong sorry),

I can reboot from the windows cd and repair the install and window will boot up fine but then again when I run the Windows update I go back to the previous problem. I am really at a loss I have been working on this since friday

I started with an older XP home oem disk that only had SP1 and a 60 Gb HDD and 256ram so today I thought I would try an all new HDD that I had and the XP home oem wsp2 that had never been installed on any computer.

Windows runs fine untill I run the updates, I can go online brouse through the computer open up anything that is there. With no errors

Thank you for your time
David Carey

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The updates are not corrupt, otherwise more people would have this issue.
The usual cause of a computer not liking a wave of Windows Updates usually occur because there is a hardware issue. Alternatively one of the 75 available breaks the installation - which one is anybody's guess.

[Neil Jones]

The updates are not corrupt, otherwise more people would have this issue.
The usual cause of a computer not liking a wave of Windows Updates usually occur because there is a hardware issue. Alternatively one of the 75 available breaks the installation - which one is anybody's guess.

[smdave]

Neil
So should I do custom install and pick like 10 at a time and not use Express install?

If I do what ten do I pick from the top or the bottom does it matter?

THank you
Dave

Edited by smdave, 16 April 2007 - 03:34 PM.

[smdave]

Okay so I picked the first seven.
KB931261 failed
the rest all installed including IE7

Now the computer is in a reboot loop but it goes to the Windows start screen before it shuts down and reboots.
Is there anyway to start over without using the XP repair which takes about 23mins and then I have to start the updates all over agian??

THis is going to be a long night if there is one that fails in all ten groups and then haveing to start all over everytime.

Dave

[Retired Tech]

Items in blue which are underlined are clickable to give more information about the process

Start the System Restore Utility at a command prompt

1. Restart your computer, and keep tapping F8 during the initial start-up until you get options, select Safe Mode with a Command Prompt then press enter.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.

3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state.

Look for the most recent system checkpoint created before the errors to restore from

For additional information about the Safe mode with a command prompt, click 315222 to see a description of the Safe Mode Boot Options in Windows XP

[smdave]

Keith

Just tried again but only picked the top 5 updates and skipped the one that failed last time now another one failed and when I try to boot into safe mode the computer just reboots and brings me back to the screen that I can pick safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc.

Dave

[Retired Tech]

Can you get back in with system restore from a command prompt?

[smdave]

Cannot get to the command prompt. after installing updates the computer only wants to continue to reboot by itself or with the click of the mouse on something.

The only way I have been able to get it going is with the repair function using the xp install disk. It has been very frustrating.

This computer was a XP Home computer I just was trying to start with a clean install with a new hard drive.

Dave

[Retired Tech]

When you wiped the drive, did you use the quick format

Presumably you haven't got far enough in to have data you need on the drive?

[smdave]

I used the quick format on this drive, it is a brand new out of the box HDD, the other seagate drive was used 60gb HDD I tried both on it, with the same results.
I am at this moment doing a full format
There is no data that I could lose at this point.

Dave

Edited by smdave, 16 April 2007 - 05:40 PM.

[Retired Tech]

I would check the RAM Memory, so, if you can use another PC to get memtest, test the memory then if the test results are good, use either boot and nuke to wipe the drive, or seagate tools to write zeros to the drive (full option)

If you cannot get memtest so you can run it now, then use seagate or boot and nuke, but run memtest before you start any install of Windows


Click this for a guide to using Memtest


Click this to download Memtest


Run it overnight if possible


To completely erase all data on the drive(s)

Click this to download Boot and Nuke

Click this for a guide to using Boot and Nuke

Use the autonuke option, which could take 8 hours or so to format a 200 GB Hard Drive, then when you run Windows set up, check it is creating a RAW1 partition on C, if the drive letter is different, restart the PC and it should default to C

[smdave]

Keith,

Good call on the memory it would be the last thing I would think of. I have not had time to check it but I pulled out the two original 256mb's and left in the new 512 and it is updating fine. 20 down 50 to go.

Thank you
Dave

[Retired Tech]

Either the sticks or the slots but at least you can get somewhere now

Did the 512 go in slot 1

Thank You for letting me know

[smdave]

yes the 512 went in slot 1 from the beginning I moved over the other two. Someone once told me it did not matter but I always put the biggest into slot 1. It makes sence to me.

Thank you again.
Dave