Hello all!

This is my first post - and a long one too! Please bear with me. I am getting so frustrated with this problem, please advise if you know the solution. Am going crazy and I am not so good with computers.

A month ago, I had the following situation but in the end managed to sort it out by doing a system restore. (after trying many times before with no success!) Yesterday, the same problem started all over again.

So a month ago, upon noticing the exclamation mark (updates from windows) on the shut down button on the start menu, I pressed on it. The pc took some minutes to download updates then it shut down by itself.
The next morning, I turned on the pc, there was a pop up message saying it needs to download updates then it will re-start. It didnt re-start, there was a blue screen (like the log-in screen) saying: configuring updates. Then the pc never shuts down. So I had to press the forced restart button.
Later after turning the pc back on, it was not normal, the mouse and key board functions have slowed down.
I tried to restart the pc but it would not shut down.
Had the same issue of the updates message ... and it goes on like this for 2 days. The pc does not want to shut down. So I am not sure how many times I had to press the forced restart button.
Next time, I managed to log in (other times, there is not even the log-in screen, it only says : configuring updates) I went into the system restore and the pc refused to do the restore, it took even 30 mins to let me know about it. So - forced restart button again.
Next time I turned the pc on, it looks normal and I managed to do the restore! Then the pop-up message asking me to update came up. I clicked on it as I thought the pc seems ok now after the restore. But the problem started all over again.
So-forced restart button again and again...
Later, I managed to do the restore and the pc worked normally until yesterday! It all started again!

That would be roughly the time update KB943899 was released. It is causing issues with some people.
Try the suggestion here to see.

Hello

Thanks for the suggestion, which I tried last night. Hid the updates and installed the others. Seemed to be quite normal but when the pc restarted after installation, the mouse function was not working properly, I also noticed there was 1 more update which appeared, tried to view it but the page was 'processing' the info for such a long time. So I decided to disable the updating option and turn off the pc. It was shutting down for over an hour. So I did a forced restart.
This morning, I turned the pc back on and after having this black screen saying the pc did not shut down properly, it was configuring updates again! But few minutes later, I got the log in page and all seems to be normal.
However I am scared of turning the automatic updates back on again but till when can I wait? - till the problem is sorted and the solution published by Microsoft?
Also how will I know which updates are 'safe' to install? Getting very confused and angry with Vista and want to get rid of it completely and go back to XP.

Oh, and should I do a system restore, just in case? Even if it is working now, may be it won't next time I turn it on. So I am leaving the pc on for the day today.

If you do the updates, there's a risk that something may happen. If you don't do the updates, it's sure that someone will try to exploit that - with the result being an infected system.

Another option is to wait a few days to see if others are having problems with the updates - but this is a chancy thing, and may not provide you with enough info to decide.

Keep your Vista installation DVD/restore DVD's handy and backup your data.

Well this was my first visit to the forum. I have had to reformat my computer 3x since I bought it last June because of all the strange things that happen with vista. I am constantly fighting with it. And it always misbehaves after downloading updates I notice. So after reading that i am not the only one. I have turned off autoupdates and I will wait to update until I know there are no known issues with that update. Thanks for this great forum. I will be here more often.

Hi

I will wait, just hope not to wait too long. I do not think update KB943899 is the only one creating problems. (even after 'hiding' it, the pc is acting weird) Anybody knows of any other 'bad' updates? (On another forum - KB941644, KB943411, KB943302, KB905866) I have visited different forums prior to this one and yes, there are many other people who face this same problem! sometimes even dealing with worse cases! There are a few other solutions offered but they did not work on my system. What a shame.
If anyone has good news, please do share...