Upgrade Ooops!

[john engel]

Last Saturday morning my machine:

Dell 4300
512Mb RAM
30Gb HD
P4 1.7 GHz
XP Pro

after downloading four updates and installing them was
restarted. Couldn't completely finish the boot. Never
found the soundcard. Couldn't access the system tray or
the applications on the task bar. Opened some but not all
applications from desktop icons.

Did a restore to Friday. Didn't seem to work. Cursed
Bill, shut the damn thing off. Had a drink and ignored
the problem.

Sunday AM, turned it back on -- booted up just fine in
restored condition.

Should I try installing those four updates again? What
the hell happened?

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

On the Windows Update page click on 'View Installation History'. If all 4 updates have 'Successful' against them you shouldn't have any reason to re-install them. If, however, any have 'Failed' against them, have a look in the Windows Update.log file - which can be found in the windows folder - for any error numbers - towards the end of the file. If you find any error numbers, see if they are referenced here:

http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/troubleshoot/

 

[Lem]

Last Saturday morning my machine:

Dell 4300
512Mb RAM
30Gb HD
P4 1.7 GHz
XP Pro

after downloading four updates and installing them was
restarted. Couldn't completely finish the boot. Never
found the soundcard. Couldn't access the system tray or
the applications on the task bar. Opened some but not all
applications from desktop icons.

Did a restore to Friday. Didn't seem to work. Cursed
Bill, shut the damn thing off. Had a drink and ignored
the problem.

Sunday AM, turned it back on -- booted up just fine in
restored condition.

Should I try installing those four updates again? What
the hell happened?

1. Make a restore point just before you go to windows update.
2. Have a drink.
3. Download and install one of the updates.
4. Reboot.
5. Repeat from 1 until all updates are installed or you just don't care
anymore.

 

[cimex]

Only install them one at a time. You are not alone in having problems caused
by these updates. Note that one of the updates requires the miscreant to
have access to your machine. Is that even a realistic scenario in your case?
Can you skip that one?