Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Vista won't boot up after update

Oct 30, 2010 11:46PM PDT

Toshiba laptop running Vista Home Premium. A friend asked for help removing the Antivirus 2010 malware. So I ran both Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware on his system and cleaned it up, rebooted and all seemed fine. We noticed that the Windows Update icon was alerting us to updates being available so we let that run. It loaded updates for the .Net Framework and RealTek network controller. Now the system will not boot up.

We tried normal boot, last good boot and Safe Mode with the same results. It gets to the screen with the green activity bar and just stays there forever. When trying Safe Mode, it just lists all the drivers like normal but just stays there. We have tried each of these several times.

Normally I might try to remove the latest updates but can't do that if I can't boot up in some manner. I would appreciate any assistance with this.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Strange story.
Oct 31, 2010 12:04AM PDT
- Collapse -
Starting Safe Mode with Command prompt...
Oct 31, 2010 3:17AM PDT

...won't work since we can't boot up in any mode. We don't have a Vista DVD since the repair options for this system are in a recovery partition. Unfortunately the owner never made the recovery discs.

- Collapse -
Odd. You don't own this machine?
Oct 31, 2010 4:15AM PDT

Strange. But let's say you are a service shop. The usual next step is to inform the owner that they have choices to make.

1. Pay you to save their files.
2. Pay you to order recovery media.
3. Pay NOW for a new OS CD/DVD and pay to have it installed.

Bob

- Collapse -
Not so strange, that I don't own the machine...
Oct 31, 2010 6:25AM PDT

...I am trying to help a neighbor. Thanks for the advice.

- Collapse -
Then re-write my advice.
Oct 31, 2010 8:28AM PDT

If we rewrite this it comes out softer but still we need restore media or a new OS to install.

Making restore media (and a copy for a spare) when you get a machine is the cheap fix for when this happens.
Bob

- Collapse -
Re: recovery partition
Oct 31, 2010 7:00PM PDT

It that's present, see if you can boot from it and do the recovery back to factory conditions. No need for disks then. But it might be you need a working Windows to make the disk from the partition. That would be a pity.

Kees