Windows 7 Brand New Laptop - Stuck on Blue "Bird" Screen After Windows 7 Automatic Update Install

[Bakesalee]

Hi. This is my first post.

I just received a brand new laptop less than 24 hours ago. It's an HP, 4 gig RAM, Windows 7 pre-installed, etc.

I was using it all night on the internet, putting my music collection on iTunes, etc. I had a lot of fun and was very impressed with this laptop.

The second time I turned on the computer (the first being the initial install), Windows Updates was configuring and installing all of these automatic updates that it downloaded the first time I turned off the computer. I couldn't believe my eyes, it actually said it was configuring over 22,000 updates after I booted it up. Yes, THOUSAND. This went on for less than half an hour.

Then it went to "installing" the updates, which had a progress bar that reached 100% in maybe 5 minutes.

Then it was "starting Windows".

Then it got hung up on a blue "bird" desktop background that said Windows 7 Premium at the bottom. The mouse was completely moveable but there was absolutely no action I could take. I left it like this for 30 minutes thinking, "well, it's just installing, but it really should give me a progress bar so I know what the hell is happening."

At the 45 minute mark, I couldn't take it anymore. I called HP (the manufacturer of the laptop) for support. The guy asks me for the serial number, and I regretfully wasn't pleasant. I think I said "serial number? I haven't even owned this computer for 12 hours yet!"

Anyway, he had me force a shutdown. And then upon booting the computer, I got the "this computer wasn't shut down properly". This is complete BS for a computer that even as I write this, hasn't been in my possession 24 hours yet. I am returning this piece of crap, but I want to know how can I prevent this from happening to the next computer I purchase. Is it necessary to not use Windows Updates, because whoever made these has their head up their ***? I mean "configuring 22,687 updates" on a brand new, 64-bit Windows 7 machine? I am outraged.

 

[Rule34]

Wow hell of a lot of updates Link RemovedLink Removed

I kinda did this when i set up my laptop ( my laptops brand new as well ) I updated a few times and just installed the service pack via the stand alone installer. I may be wrong but I'm under the impression a service pack is just all the updates rolled into one and packaged.Took me just under an hour to be fully updated. Did exactly the same thing with Vista , although that was x86 its the same principle.

I find the stand alone installers are much quicker and if you do have to reinstall you don't have to mess about downloading over a gig of updates and reboot till your blue in the face . I keep all the related SP's on an external drive (Win7 and office.)

Im annoyed about mine being pre installed on a partition as well and having no actual disc or else id just download an integrated SP via digital river ( Microsoft's online distribution partner for downloadable products.) Not sure if i can post a link to it , even though its a totally legal download site for Microsoft....So i best not.

Hope that helps speed up your next installations ?

EDIT : If a mod reads this , will you please let me know if i may post links to Digital River or not please ? Thanks.

 

[kemical]

If the link is within the context of the thread and is legal then you may post it (ie: it's to help someone out). I hope this answers your question.

 

[Saltgrass]

The number of updates you should have gotten was probably in the 90-100 range. Windows does an accelerated update when it first starts the update process but should take several sessions to get them all done.

I have done several and they will normally work fine, but every now and then, a bad update might be passed along. Usually these are device updates and can cause driver problems.

If you have the Ultimate version, the language updates can take a long time to install.

You could, if you want, set the Windows Update to not automatically do the installs, but let you decide when and what to install. Doing it this way, will allow you to check for device updates and not allow them until you can at least install them without other updates being involved.

The other thing about the updates is it will normally give you the messages on shutdown and reboot about the percentage of updates completed. Did you ever see one of those?

Have you checked to see if you can boot into Safe Mode or a recovery scenario?