Windows 7 Startup failure after Windows Update

[Kamaloha]

OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Count: 4
RAM: 6050 Mb
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family, -1262 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 699443 MB, Free - 332975 MB;
Motherboard: TOSHIBA, PEQAA
Antivirus: avast! Antivirus, Updated and Enabled

I am convinced that my computer has been dishonored and is trying to commit Hari-Kari.

This year-old Toshiba P755 came with Win 7 installed. This August after an automatic Windows Update it failed to startup properly. After logging in Explorer would freeze.

I was able to start up in Safe Mode. Windows Update log showed that a half dozen updates had just been installed, and several had failed.

I used Recovery and selected a restore point just before the update. All went OK and the computer now worked until the next time I shut down, whereupon it headed off to re-install the updates. This time I noticed it hung in the Installing Updates, do not turn off your computer" screen for many, many hours, eventually failing to install them.

I repeated this cycle three times over the next few days, growing more desperate each time. Finally I found a kb on the MSDN site that sounded applicable. It had me download and install a "Mr. Fixit" utility. I did so, got one more lockup, then upon entering Safe Mode saw a new option: Repair Startup or some such. I tried it and lo, it worked. No more endless "Installing Updates" messages.

I then changed the Windows Update mode to manual. It still sent me messages about updates being available, so I then turned off the Windows Update service.

All was quiet for three weeks. Then last Friday the same drill - hung after logging in. (The symptoms are: black screen; use Task Manager to close and then restart explorer.exe, whereupon you get the desktop and can run 3rd-party pgms, but anything MS-related like control panel crashes the system requiring a cold boot.)

Only this time it has invented a more ominous way to die. I did the Safe Mode->Control Panel->Recovery drill (I can do it in my sleep now) and, uh-oh, it says I have no restore points! I used to have dozens....

Looking at the update log, I only see three update that (I think) are when I installed Mr. Fixit. I went ahead and uninstalled them anyway. The computer wanted a reboot, and once again locked on the "configuring Updates" screen.

Now I can only start up in Safe Mode with Networking, which is how I am able to write this.

1) With no restore points to choose, what do i try next to catch the startup bug?
2) How do I keep this from happening again?

Charlie

 

[johhnymarshal]

OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Count: 4
RAM: 6050 Mb
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family, -1262 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 699443 MB, Free - 332975 MB;
Motherboard: TOSHIBA, PEQAA
Antivirus: avast! Antivirus, Updated and Enabled

I am convinced that my computer has been dishonored and is trying to commit Hari-Kari.

This year-old Toshiba P755 came with Win 7 installed. This August after an automatic Windows Update it failed to startup properly. After logging in Explorer would freeze.

I was able to start up in Safe Mode. Windows Update log showed that a half dozen updates had just been installed, and several had failed.

I used Recovery and selected a restore point just before the update. All went OK and the computer now worked until the next time I shut down, whereupon it headed off to re-install the updates. This time I noticed it hung in the Installing Updates, do not turn off your computer" screen for many, many hours, eventually failing to install them.

I repeated this cycle three times over the next few days, growing more desperate each time. Finally I found a kb on the MSDN site that sounded applicable. It had me download and install a "Mr. Fixit" utility. I did so, got one more lockup, then upon entering Safe Mode saw a new option: Repair Startup or some such. I tried it and lo, it worked. No more endless "Installing Updates" messages.

I then changed the Windows Update mode to manual. It still sent me messages about updates being available, so I then turned off the Windows Update service.

All was quiet for three weeks. Then last Friday the same drill - hung after logging in. (The symptoms are: black screen; use Task Manager to close and then restart explorer.exe, whereupon you get the desktop and can run 3rd-party pgms, but anything MS-related like control panel crashes the system requiring a cold boot.)

Only this time it has invented a more ominous way to die. I did the Safe Mode->Control Panel->Recovery drill (I can do it in my sleep now) and, uh-oh, it says I have no restore points! I used to have dozens....

Looking at the update log, I only see three update that (I think) are when I installed Mr. Fixit. I went ahead and uninstalled them anyway. The computer wanted a reboot, and once again locked on the "configuring Updates" screen.

Now I can only start up in Safe Mode with Networking, which is how I am able to write this.

1) With no restore points to choose, what do i try next to catch the startup bug?
2) How do I keep this from happening again?

Charlie

The update might have affected the start up files of your computer. You should not install any update without proper information about it. You need to repair the Windows using the same disk, used for installation.

 

[Kamaloha]

I may be on the road to recovery. I went through every administrative tool I could find while in Safe mode and turned off every startup folder program except my anti-virus, as well as disabling a bunch of services that I doubt I need. Now I can boot up without going into safe mode. It remains to be seen whether I wish to just continue this way or slowly start to bring them back in until I find the culprit.

Toshiba ships their machines with a bunch of bloatware and those are now all off. It's probably all for the best.

I do not have a Windows install disk. The machine shipped with Windows installed and no disk. I will try to figure out how to get one.

 

[Pauli]

Just briefly: you have the right for a Windows disk. The right is either realized through your retailer or through Microsoft, may be via a download, but you still have the right. Unless you bought it specifically expressing "only the copy installed", or something. And that would be the first time I hear it.