Won't boot up.

[grandad]

New member so be gentle with me.
Windows Vista Home Premium installed on laptop with auto updates.
When boot up is started the screen shows-
Configuring updates Stage 3 of 3   0% completed.
Do not turn off your computer.
After about 20 seconds this changes to-
Configuring updates Stage 3 of 3  83% completed.
do not turn off your computer.
It then changes to -
Shutting down--Which it does and then repeats the Configuring stages again and shuts down.
I have tried boot up in safety mode but this doesn't resolve the problem.
Can anyone out there help me. Please.
grandad

[SgtDarkness]

Hey grandad, I'm one too so it's just us oldtimers right?  You do have a tricky problem.  I have never saw updates start as soon as the operating system is turned on.............the only thing I have seen that would do that is the chkdsk operation, which is the check disk program that will only run if you tell it to and then the next time you reboot it will run, just like you have explained.  Is it possible that you may have activated the check disk operation (being old makes me do things I too don't remember)?  If not, then the next time you reboot, press the F2 key when it shows up in the top right corner of the screen.  The other one will be F8.  When you get to the F2 screen you will see a bunch of setting options.  Most of the time you can't use the mouse so you will have to use the up and down arrows on the keyboard to access the different settings but be careful if you haven't done this before.  If you have the option to turn off auto updates on that screen, then do that and if the screen you are seeing is some type of update then the change should keep the update from downloading.  You will have to reboot after any changes you make.  Try the F8 option also if the F2 won't help.  Other than that I can't think of anything else to do.  Let us know.

[Bromide]

The same sort of thing happened to me 2 months ago. Vista is often updated by Microsoft and if an update requires a reboot the update will finish during boot-up, as you have seen.  I guess sometimes the update goes bad and prevents the computer from ever starting.

I emailed my computer vendor [HP] support people.
They recommended starting in Safe Mode and doing a system restore:

“Go to Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore.
OR
Press the WinKey + R to open the Run dialog box and type or paste rstrui.exe then press enter.”
 
If that didn’t work they said to go into System Recovery mode and initiate a Startup Repair. This procedure may vary according to your manufacturer.

Neither of these worked for me so I emailed Microsoft, who replied that because Vista was preloaded by HP, HP was responsible for fixing it. To make a long story short, Microsoft was nice enough to mail me a Vista Recovery Disk, which helped me restart the computer. [I can’t remember the exact steps.] It turned out Vista had never made any restore points after all, and would only boot by using the Recovery Disk after that, but at least I could recover my data and settings.
So, email your computer manufacturer for support. If you have a recovery disk, it might get you running again. But don’t use it without instructions; it could wipe out your data.

[patio]

MS sent you a Vista CD for an HP machine ? ?

That's got to be a first...

[markk]

Hi Grandad,

I know that Vista does finish some of its updates during startup, I would also use the cd that came with your laptop, and see if that has any useful tools on it that can help you.  You could also have a look on the manufacturers website to see if you can find a troubleshooting section.

[grandad]

Thanks for the replies guys.I have tried all of the methods of recovery suggested without success so as Bromide has suggested,and it looks as though we both had the same problem,I shall contact HP and then ,if necessary, Microsoft.
Thanks again everyone.