Answers: troubleshooting - Windows XP restarting repeatedly after a fresh restore

DWilliams

I don't normally deal with Windows but someone wanted me to fix their computer with Windows XP on it. It was just restarting every time it tried to boot. It would not go into safe mode, the result was the same regardless of the selected mode.

The computer is like 4 years old and has been running the same installation for that entire time, so I figured the easiest solution was just to back up their files and re-install. I loaded the computer up with a live CD and copied their files off to a USB drive, then proceeded to run HP's "factory restore" feature (which I'm not particularly fond of, I'd rather have a disk to install from than reload all the crapware HP gets paid to install for you). It restored, and I put all their files back, installed their programs, and started the full windows update process. Everything seemed great so I left and told them what to do once it finished.

A few hours pass, and my phone rings. Apparently it started doing the exact same thing as before once the updates finished.

I don't have the computer sitting in front of me now so I can't really provide any more information than that.

What could be causing this and, more importantly, how do I fix it? The fact that the same problem resurfaced after the restore makes me think it's either a hardware problem or an update breaking the computer.

Seasoned Advice (cooking)

it's either a hardware problem

If that's the case, i'd first re-seat all components, clean the fan and heatsink (overheating can be an issue) and then run Memtest86+ and a hard disk check with HD Tune.

or an update breaking the computer.

There is that possibility, since the "factory restore" may include some outdated drivers. The event log is always a good place to start your investigation in this direction.

Disable prompts to Restart after Windows Update on XP Home

windows-update restart

A Student at a University

All of the users on a single Windows XP Home machine want the 10-minute "you need to restart" dialogs to go away, as this machine is running LONG running jobs that cannot withstand a reboot for another 60 days.

I've already added the keys to the registry that are supposed to make the dialog appear less frequently or go away, but the users see no change. I have restarted the Windows Update service as administrator. No dice.

Related Answers

gbjbaanb

Run gpedit.msc to bring up the policy editor.

Edit:

Local Computer Policy
  Computer Configuration
    Administrative Templates
      Windows Components
        Windows Update

You can set the "Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installation" option to enabled, then set the value to something large (I use 600 = 10 hours so I only get nagged once per day).

Alternatively set the 'No auto-restart for schedule Automatic Updates installations" to enabled.

kolypto

There's currently no way to disable it at all, but you can stop this annoying window from popping out. Also, you probably have noticed that the process is "wuactl.exe", and you can't just kill it: it comes again.

Install Process explorer from SysInternals: it's capable of 'suspending' a process for debug purposes.

Find 'wuactl.exe' there, right-click, and choose 'suspend'. The process will not display anything after this trick :)

I;m not sure whether each user has this process running, but being an Administrator you can suspend all of them. Make sure the popup window is not visible, or the user won't be able even to dismiss it temporarily!

A few words about automating this: 'suspend' action is WinAPI-dirven, so you can create a small daemon (or maybe even a bat script?) that determines whether 'wuactl.exe' is running, and suspends it if found.

Cheers!

Jimmy Shelter

Stop the Automatic Updates service.

Eduardo Romero

try

sc stop wuauserv

or

net stop wuauserv

That should stop the popup. And You can reboot whenever you feel like.