DescentBB

A friend updated his XP2 from his MS update utility and when it had to restart to complete install, it got to the \"Shutting down\" screen and then he would have to do a hard shutdown. (Think the Windows update not being able to complete messed every thing up.

Also he has a \"Windows Installer\" window that pops up and says \"Preparing to install\" and then that window disappears and what ever he clicked on opens.

Tried Sys Restore but couldn't complete because it hangs up at shutdown.

Ck'd the \"Add & Remove\" and didn't see any updates even though I had the box ck'd.

A little afraid to try the \"Last known good configuration\". At least his computer works using a hard shutdown.

The \"shutdown\" problem will have to be fixed, I think, before we can proceed with the other problem.

Also, he is unable to get to the MS \"update\" site although he can get on the web.

What say you?

i had the same problem. so i googled Windows XP SP2 downloads, manually downloaded and installed SP2 and it fixed everything. try that

Use command prompt \"shutdown -t 0 -f\" to try and force a shutdown/restart. Then make sure SP2 installed properly, uninstall and reinstall it (from the full install pack) if needed.

Otherwise you can use the SP2 pack to slipstream the XP install CD and then do a repair install. That option should fix it if nothing else works. Don't worry if you use a REPAIR INSTALL all your installed programs and settings are preserved.

Another thing to do is nuke the 'SoftwareDistribution' (no space in the name) directory out of the Windows directory. You have to first shutdown the Automatic Update service. When you restart your machine Automatic Update will restart and then recreate that directory to begin downloading fresh copies of the updates from the Windows Update servers.

You might also have a 'Software Distribution' directory that has a space in the name. That’s from the older version of Automatic Update / Windows Update from the Microsoft site. Don't worry about this folder.

Might not fix your problem but I've had to do this several times due to failed updates with SUS and WSUS.


RC

I used XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option http://www.informationweek.com/windows/ ... =189400897

And it worked great and repaired all his problems.

Thanks for the posts.