Windows Updates causing my computer to die

Taya

It all began last Saturday night... I was downloading a torrent and it was almost finished. I left my laptop on when I went out that night. When I came back, the screen was all black and not responding so I forced it to shut down. After many failed attempts to start up my computer (even in safe mode), many failed attempts at a system repair, an attempt at a system restore, and a memory diagnostic for good measure, my computer simply would not work. I'm in Korea so I can't call over a friend or bring it to a computer store. I don't know what killed my computer... maybe it was the torrent, maybe something else. Whatever.

So, fuck it, I just formatted the whole thing. Once everything was up and running again, Windows starting automatically downloading a ton of updates. The first bunch downloaded and installed no problem. The second bunch was something like 41 new updates. It didn't ask me if I wanted to download them; I guess I'm supposed to change that setting.

Anyway, when I rebooted, it gets stuck on the screen "Configuring updates 1 of 3, 0% Do Not Turn Off Your Computer" and nothing happens. Once I forced a shut-down and started in safe mode. I tried to cancel the updates but it didn't seem to work. The exact same thing happened when I turned on my computer the next time. I left the configuring updates screen on for hours last night and nothing ever happened. Finally this morning I had no choice but to turn off the computer. Now I'm at work not knowing what do to. I did a google search and this seems kind of common but most people experience an endless loop of rebooting. People also suggest using their Windows disk to repair the problem but I don't have my disk with me. I did create a system restore point last night in safe mode.

Assuming my computer wasn't destroyed when I forced it to shut down this morning, what should I do to fix it? Can I cancel the updates if they already downloaded? Are some updates not safe?

Taya

Okay so I was able to run Windows in Safe Mode. I used chkdsk /f and then Windows loaded normally without trying to configure updates. I set Windows Update to check with me before downloading and installing new updates BUT there are 76 updates waiting for me. I know updates are important, but I don't want the same problem to happen again.

Raern

There are a few possibilities, and this won't necessarily be easy to diagnose.

One is that Windows is installing a bad driver of some kind, I had an issue with that a few years back and ever since I personally check the list of updates before letting Windows go ahead with installing to be sure I know what's being installed that might cause general issues.

Another possibility is just dust causing heat build up which could start locking up the computer anytime the CPU is under load.

It's also possible that some part of your hardware is on its way out and you're seeing instability caused by that, which is a lot harder to diagnose just from random freezes. Twice I've had this happen with different parts dying, and a whole lot of crashes I couldn't figure out were suddenly solved when the part in question gave out completely, and its replacement fixed the crashes as well.


I'd recommend manually loading up Windows update, instead of using the automatic updates, and installing everything that's high priority but not a driver. If the system survives that process, then start installing drivers one by one and see if anything crashes.

If it's a hardware or overheating issue then you'll most likely see random crashes.