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BSOD after Windows Update on Vista

13 years ago

Make that a 'black' screen of death, but it was screen of death nonetheless. My Vista laptop installed Windows updates on Feb 9/11 on shut-down; and upon start up yesterday, all I got was a black screen. I shut it down/started up again and pressed F8, and decided to do the recommended attempt at repair since I got the msg that my computer will not start. The repair attempt didn't work, so I tried the 'reconfigure to last good date' (or a similar msg) and that didn't work. I think my computer had attempted to 'restore' (and I couldn't 'cancel' this action) prior to this when the first attempt at repair didn't work.

So then I went into safe mode, and decided to restore the computer to the last date before the updates. It says the restore was successful, but I notice my computer is quite a bit slower now. I did a disk cleanup this morning - is there anything else I should do?

Plus, I see my computer wants to reinstall the Windows updates on shut down again. I'm a little afraid of that - should I install the updates or wait? I've always kept my computer updated. This has happened before with updates a couple of times, by the way, but I've never had to do anything as drastic as restoring my computer. Was that overkill on my part maybe?

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Comments (10)

Cricketm
13 years ago
The same thing happen on my Laptop yesterday morning after the new Windows Update.but, ..I walk away from my laptop and about 20 minutes later I returned and my computer was open and working like a charm. You should have been a little more patient....I do know how you feel ...because I nearly did what you did...but I went took another road.
dee_can1
Original Author
13 years ago
Darn. You're right, I should be more patient. I'm running a defrag right now, and it's been going for 3 hours already. Before, anytime I tried to defragment my computer I would get a message that would tell me that it isn't necessary since everything is just fine and dandy. That was before. Grrr. Thanks for your reply.
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DA_Mccoy
13 years ago
Dee,

Downloading CCleaner and running it at defualt settings could be helpful as it cleans deeper than the MS Cleanup utility.

You may wish to consider a disk error-checking too.

DA
dee_can1
Original Author
13 years ago
I'll try your suggestions. Thanks DA
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
13 years ago
Please go to the link I provide on the forum and post about your issues with the updates it is essential for MS to get the info when people are having problems with updates so they can determine which ones and why.
Microsoft Security Bulletin(s) for February 8, 2011

I have been searching the other forums for similar problems and not seeing many being reported on them.
dee_can1
Original Author
13 years ago
I checked my update history and all the updates that failed on the 9th have downloaded today, at some point without me knowing - lol, and they were all successful. Not sure if I should report that since maybe it wasn't a problem with the updates afterall. Don't know. My computer is working fine now, knock on wood.
zep516
13 years ago
No one really knows what causes the elusive Vista Black screen.

Google it----> elusive Vista Black screen.
urlee
13 years ago
Repeat from another thread--

Did I get a scare when I went on my computer.
I got all set and turned on my computer as usual.
I can't remember if the welcome screen came but I ended up with a black screen with a dialog box saying:

C\windows\system 32\config\systemprofile\Desktop refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on the computer or on a network. Check to make sure the disk is properly inserted or that you are connected to the Internet or your network and then try again. If it still cannot be located, the information may have been moved to a different location

Then the message disappeared when I clicked OK and a black desktop with white blank pages in place of the icons were there and the start button with a few of the system tray items. I didn't have the option to shut down (that I remember) so pressed the power button and it blinked so I hit it again or I did the Ctrl, Alt, Delete and the computer booted up with the welcome screen and came up normal. WHEW! That is all I need?

What do you think that was all about? Could it have been caused by the updates I did yesterday before I shut down?

Windows 7 64bit
shboom
13 years ago
I had a slight issue with update KB2483185. As my policy I only do one or two updates at a time and as all of these recent updates were rather large updates I decided to do them one at a time and over a couple of days. Upon restart of the above update I received a message about not finding the Windows Platform and items on the desktop looked weird. I perfomed another restart and everything came back looking and working normally.
dee_can1
Original Author
13 years ago
Yeah, I do all mine at once on shutdown, so that could be the problem. Thanks. And thank you zep and urlee.

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