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Vista SP1 Update Locks Out Some Users

Echostorm writes with word that Windows Vista SP1, which began rolling out via Automatic Update, has left some users' machines unbootable. The update loops forever on "Configuring updates: Stage 3 of 3 — 0% complete. Do not turn off your computer." "Shutting down"... restart and loop. Echostorm notes having found traces of what sounds like the same bug in early beta releases of SP1. It's unclear how many users are affected. So far there is no word on a fix from Microsoft.

25 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. ROFLMAO by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Informative

    About 10 minutes before this popped up, I got my first client call with this symptom.

    Ahhh, Microsoft. Thank you for all the work you throw my way!

    The only thing I can confirm so far is yep, Safe Mode don't work.

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  2. Re:Just desserts? by KublaiKhan · · Score: 2, Informative

    Incorrect. If you paid attention, it was rolled out via the automatic update.

    This is clearly a botch by Microsoft, not something "illegally downloaded".

    --
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    A stately pleasure dome decree
  3. It's not on windows update by Megor1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can't download SP1 yet from Microsoft, in fact its not due out for weeks...

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    Everyone that disagrees with me is a paid shill
  4. A RC Refresh through Windows Update by soilheart · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well. If you read the first forum post that person states that he used the Refresh RC... And my windows update doesn't tell me anything about any updates. If it's one of those preSP updates I can understand, but why doesn't you say so then...

    1. Re:A RC Refresh through Windows Update by soilheart · · Score: 3, Informative

      Reading a little more of the forum confirms my theory about it mostly being the Refresh RC 2 ("Which should be the same as the RTM").
      I havn't found a single thread about someone saying anything about windows update.

  5. Re:Just desserts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It hasn't begun rolling out via Automatic Update and the linked article is a forum post that refers to SP1 RC Refresh. RC Refresh is technically the same patch as SP1 but Microsoft has since releases pre-patches for SP1 which are rolling out via Automatic Updates - presumably to fix many of these issues.

    So yeah - this story seems like bullshit and those parroting its claims need to remember that this is Slashdot - where facts are less important than a story tagged "haha".

  6. That's some keen fucking reporting by sharkey · · Score: 5, Informative

    Echostorm writes with word that Windows Vista SP1, which began rolling out via Automatic Update, has left some users' machines unbootable.

    A forum post from last month about issues with the Vista SP1 Release Candidate (prerelease code, just to let Echostorm know). SP1 does not go out via auto updates until next month, and is only officially available to select system builders and beta testers now.

    It's unclear how many users are affected.

    I counted 5, including the guy who yanked his power cable and trashed his filesystem.

    So far there is no word on a fix from Microsoft.

    It might possibly be fixed in the RTM version of SP1. Who knows? Certainly not Echostorm, who is having a poopie because he hosed his own PC and is trying to drum up a whine-fest about it. Definitely not kdawson either, who posted this because, well, it's kdawson.

    This is taking slashvertisments to the preschool tantrum level.

    --

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  7. Re:Win a T-Shirt! by tsa · · Score: 2, Informative

    From OSX's `dictionary application:

    sarcasm |särkazm|

    noun

    the use of irony to mock or convey contempt : his voice, hardened by sarcasm, could not hide his resentment. See note at wit .

    ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from French sarcasme, or via late Latin from late Greek sarkasmos, from Greek sarkazein 'tear flesh,' in late Greek 'gnash the teeth, speak bitterly' (from sarx, sark- 'flesh' ).

    --

    -- Cheers!

  8. Vista SP1 isn't public yet, unless you pirate it. by Coopjust · · Score: 5, Informative

    Vista SP1 isn't available publicly yet, unless you hop on The Pirate Bay.

    Microsoft placed 6 weeks between code finalization and public release for 6 weeks of driver testing; some drivers were not properly written, and MS wanted to work with hardware manufacturers/OEMs to find hardware with problems. Everyone bitched about how technical users should get it early.

    Then these same people download SP1 from an unauthorized source, and bitch when it breaks their system. They downloaded an update without letting Microsoft work the kinks out, and they didn't get the update from MS. No automatic download was involved in this.

  9. Re:Ye who lack faith by MBGMorden · · Score: 2, Informative

    The impatience of users annoys me too sometimes. In particular, I'm convinced that they believe that any prompt that appears will somehow physically injure them if left open for more than 3 seconds.

    ANYTHING that pops up with the words "Yes", "OK", "Next", or "Finish" gets clicked with lightning speed as if they were playing a game of whack-a-mole. I even had one instance where I was doing training, and the software program would give a confirmation number that the user was supposed to write down for their records. Even after TELLING them to NOT just click the next dialog box, out of a group of 10 people, a few seconds later when the prompt appears 3 people responded almost immediately with "Oh sorry I clicked it . . .".

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  10. Re:You can't make this stuff up. by CrazedWalrus · · Score: 3, Informative

    You sound like you'd be happier with Technocrat.net. Decidedly fewer trolls and 12 year old fanboiz there. I lurk, but don't really post much.Give it a shot.

  11. Re:Just desserts? by Dude+McDude · · Score: 1, Informative

    Never trust a Slashdot summary (especially if it's posted by kdawson!). SP1 won't be available via Windows Update/Automatic Update until March.

  12. automatic updates? by leuk_he · · Score: 4, Informative

    I believe MS said they would not roll it to fully automated updates till they fixes some driver installation problem that was displayed in the RC.

    They however failed to tell what drivers were affected, and how you can manually fix it. Yanking the power cord certainly is not the method MS would recommend. It htink you need the install disk and run some kind of recovery mode. (that is how it worked under XP.

    The linked forum post is referring to a RC, not to the RTM.

    http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/02/11/windows-vista-sp1-availability-for-technical-customers.aspx

    "For broad availability, we are still planning to release in mid-March, since we want to be sure that everyone has the smoothest experience possible.". You can have it earlier if you are want to touch buttons....

    windows update is only pushing

    the final two of three prerequisite updates needed to install Windows Vista SP1

    basically it says you still need 2 more reboots before you can have sp1 automatically.

  13. Thank you for confirming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Thanks for confirming how rabidly anti-Microsoft this site is.

    Not only was the original article allowed to make it even though it was clearly incorrect. Since SP1 will not be available on Windows Update for at least a month. Most of the responders automatically piled on the typical anti-MS/Vista nonsens and even disagreed with posters trying to correct the article pointing to the article as proof.

  14. Re:That should show that you never by Kamokazi · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apparently in their native tongue, "Windows Update" and "uTorrent" come out the same. This is NOT available from Microsoft to the general public, or even their TechNet & MSDN subscribers (just double-checked mine to be sure). There are currently two methods I am aware of: Installing a fresh copy from the ISO that has been leaked, or doing some registry magic on RC2 update package to make it not expire, which has been rumored to be the RTM but I haven't seen any confirmation anywhere.

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  15. Re:Regression testing, people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Is it my imagination or does MS seem more and more like a software organization that is out of control?


    It's not your imagination, it's your ignorance. If you RTFA, it's just a fourms post with some guy complaining about SP1 RC that he beta tested. People further down assumed it was windows update, including the incompotent kdawson who allowed this trash to get posted.

  16. Re:You can't make this stuff up. by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1, Informative

    I'm sorry to say I too feel as though slashdot has deteriorated into a Microsoft bashing frenzy.

    "Deteriorated into"? To the contrary, I'm amazed at the number of Microsoft apologists who are getting modded up these days.

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    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  17. 3 GPU makers? by Khyber · · Score: 3, Informative

    What are you smoking? S3 is still around. Matrox as well. Then there's Intel, ATi, nVidia, then there's 3DLabs. I think Trident might be around, but only in a pure 2D platform. Cirrus Logic is also still in business, though whether or not they still manufacture GPUs is unknown to myself.

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  18. Re:Chatted With Dell About MSDN Vista SP1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Not true. I downloaded SP1 yesterday, it is available NOW for MSDN and Technet subscribers.

    There are three downloads, a DVD image, an x86 .exe and an x64 .exe.

    Read here if you don't believe me:

    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/bb898842.aspx

    H

  19. Re:Vista SP1 isn't public yet, unless you pirate i by Coopjust · · Score: 2, Informative

    Those registry edits force the release candidates, which are more stable than betas but are still not intended for widespread public consumption. That's meant to let hobbyists run on non production machines.

  20. What's rolling out via Windows Update by Tauvix · · Score: 2, Informative
    The patch that is rolling out via Windows Update is part of the Vista SP1 pre-patches.

    This installed on my production machine Wednesday:

    KB937287

    Description from Microsoft's Support Site:

    This article describes the prerequisite software updates that apply to versions of Windows Vista that are mentioned in the "Applies to" section. These software updates are a prerequisite for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). Additionally, these updates help improve reliability when you install or remove Windows Vista SP1.

    Two or three additional software updates are required before you install Windows Vista SP1. The software updates that are required depend on the version of Windows Vista that you want to upgrade. Prerequisite update 935509 that is listed in this article only applies to Windows Vista Enterprise and to Windows Vista Ultimate. The other prerequisite updates that are listed in this article apply to all versions of Windows Vista.
  21. ASUS P5N-E by nick_davison · · Score: 5, Informative

    It may well not be SP1.

    A very large number of owners of ASUS P5N-E motherboards are reporting the same issue simply with recent updates. It's quite likely the SP1 update is simply triggering the same issue.

    Here's a google search on the issue. You'll notice a common thread is that P5N-E owners have the issue, users of other motherboards don't see it.

    It's been happening since mid January, from what I can gather, and I'm not finding any solutions to it yet.

  22. Re:Regression testing, people by KillerBob · · Score: 2, Informative

    * How many CPU makers are out there today? 2. (Transmeta is dead).

    3 that try for the mainstream (Intel, AMD, VIA), but MS also makes pared down versions of XP that run on embedded platforms, usually with CPUs by IBM, Motorola, or Conexant, though the 3 major players all have offerings in this family, too.

    * How many companies make chipsets (north/southbridges) today? 4(?)


    In mainstream computing, it's pretty much NVidia or ATI these days. But there's also offerings out there from all of the CPU manufacturers listed above, and probably several that I haven't thought of.

    * GPU makers? 3.

    NVidia, ATI, Intel, S3, Matrox, VIA, Cirrus, IBM.... There's others, too....

    * BIOS vendors? 3(?)

    Here, you've got me. I can really only think of American Megatrends/AMI Bios. Literally every computer I've had for the last 10 years has had an AMI Bios, and I can't think of anybody else who still makes them. I'd be extremely surprised if the list of those who make BIOSes wouldn't include Motorola and IBM, though...

    * Sound cards? 2 (Intel & Creative)

    Realtek, SoundMax, just to name a few others. There are other manufacturers out there. Competition still exists.

    * Expansion interfaces? 2 (PCI, PCI-Express)

    Express Card/34, Express Card/54, PCMCIA/Cardbus, and AGP are all still available, and supported in Vista. To say nothing of expansion devices that can be connected via USB, IEEE1394, Serial, and Parallel ports. Just because it's external doesn't mean that it's not an expansion interface. Yes, PCMCIA is just a PCI bridge, and yes, Express Card is just a PCIe and USB 2.0 bridge, but they still have different controllers, and different sets of drivers to support.
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  23. Oh dear by Toreo+asesino · · Score: 2, Informative

    Echostorm writes with word that Windows Vista SP1, which began rolling out via Automatic Update, has left some users' machines unbootable.


    Oh slashdot, how you have become the Fox News of the IT world. Fact: SP1 has not been on automatic update yet, and won't be for a couple of weeks yet.

    To echo what others have said, let's not let simple things like facts get in the way of good journalism.

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  24. Re:You can't make this stuff up. by aldousd666 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have personal horror stories with vista. I installed a new set of drivers from Dell, and it deactivated my copy of windows. Also, it randomly decides that it won't come back on after the screen blanks at idle. I did disable hibernation, and I have turned off all power management, but it still 'goes black' and still requires intermittent hard shutdown, power back ons. It's like a game, when I come in after the weekend, will I have to power it down, or won't I? I've yet to see if SP1 will fix it, I haven't installed it yet. But... I assure you the horror stories are real. We have mobile dell latitude 820's with the Nvidia video cards. As a result you have to get the drivers from dell, and can't go to nvidia for video stuff because dell has a custom mobile chipset. I have a theory that it's driver issues most of the time I've been seeing, but I can't go get new ones. Anyway, I'm not sure what the huge holdup is, but I suppose you could say that it's my hardware... except for the fact that it's brand new 4 months ago, and has all the screaming new crap it in that was available at the time, and somehow it doesn't work. Being required to forklift an entire company's inventory just to run things (and yes I have Aero turned OFF) is a ridiculous proposition, ESPECIALLY when you have the industry leading vendor putting their flagship product out in this situation. Go figure.

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