Service Pack 1 Infinite Reboot, not the normal one

[arrow_runner]

This isn't the normal 'step 0 of 3' reboot loop.

Story: Laptop came in with a virus. It also had an Acronis Secure Zone partition. Vista had practically no updates.

I got the virus off and the laptop is running fine. I move into the updates. Start SP1, finishes, reboots. Now Vista 'normal mode' just flickers and reboots immediately. Turning on boot logging does nothing as the restart is practically immediate. At this point I took an image backup and noted that there were no system restore points, yay...

Safe mode gets to pshed.dll and then the screen flickers and reboots.

The vista recovery console on the HD just keeps looping if you select it, as in it takes you right back to the same dos type menu you were just at.

Things I've tried:
Last Known Good Config
Restoring the registry from the regback folder
Bootrec /fixboot and bootrec/fixmbr
Removing the acronis partition and resizing the C: drive (couldn't hurt, since I have an image now)
Google till my back hurts

Any ideas?

[ljtechservices]

I've had a 2 Vista issues similar to this the past week.

Usually a boot into safe mode and rebooting will fix or safe mode + restore to a previous point will work.
Then when another MS update goes through it quits booting.

I'm wondering if it's something with vista.

Computer 1 hadn't had an update in 2 years.
Computer 2 received frequent updates but failed on the last one this morning.

[AdamsAPlus]

Try to get a hold of MSDaRT 6.0 and do a Start Up Repair. I have seen this and that worked for me. Well once it did. Another time I had to Nuke and Pave.

You can get MSDaRT from Torrent sites if your not a member of Microsoft's TechNet.

[Ccomp5950]

Originally Posted by arrow_runner

This isn't the normal 'step 0 of 3' reboot loop.

Story: Laptop came in with a virus. It also had an Acronis Secure Zone partition. Vista had practically no updates.

I got the virus off and the laptop is running fine. I move into the updates. Start SP1, finishes, reboots. Now Vista 'normal mode' just flickers and reboots immediately. Turning on boot logging does nothing as the restart is practically immediate. At this point I took an image backup and noted that there were no system restore points, yay...

Safe mode gets to pshed.dll and then the screen flickers and reboots.

The vista recovery console on the HD just keeps looping if you select it, as in it takes you right back to the same dos type menu you were just at.

Things I've tried:
Last Known Good Config
Restoring the registry from the regback folder
Bootrec /fixboot and bootrec/fixmbr
Removing the acronis partition and resizing the C: drive (couldn't hurt, since I have an image now)
Google till my back hurts

Any ideas?

Boot to a boot CD and check C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\ for 0 size drivers, if so, rename them.

[Knightsman]

Remove the hard drive from the customers computer, attach it to a computer that has “unlocker tool” installed.

Go to C:\Windows\WinSxS\. Look for Pending.xml. Delete this file using the “unlocker tool”.
You may be able to delete it without using this tool, depending on the file permissions.

[Knightsman]

oh wait. hmm, bad hd? bad hardware?

[arrow_runner]

Originally Posted by Knightsman

oh wait. hmm, bad hd? bad hardware?

No. It worked fine before SP1 and it is working as I used a factory restore, although I will try the ERD with the image on a spare hard drive just to see what it will do.

Also, that unlocker is to get out of the 'installing update 0 of 3' loop, right?

[loaner]

yep....deleting "pending.xml" will get rid of downloaded updates that finish installing on reboot. I just didn't mention it because the original op said that it wasn't due to the 0 of 3 problem. BUT, the problem didn't start until after the update. I'd get rid of pending.xml and retry the update.

[Knightsman]

Originally Posted by arrow_runner

No. It worked fine before SP1 and it is working as I used a factory restore, although I will try the ERD with the image on a spare hard drive just to see what it will do.

Also, that unlocker is to get out of the 'installing update 0 of 3' loop, right?

sorry, the its called the "unlocker tool" YOu can download it, but download 1.8. It will unlock it even without permissions and allow you to delete the file. If its there, but your problem sounds different than this.

[Knightsman]

Have you tried a repair install?