URGENT TECH HELP NEEDED for my lappy

[LIG]

Details of the problem: stuck on "shutting down" screen after completing stages 1 and 2 of windows update carried out through the MS windows update site. Computer does not actually restart as expected to complete the final stage 3 of the update.
OS: Vista SP2

Further details: I have Norton Internet security which requested a restart to complete its own update. I clicked restart and left the PC. Much later on returning to the PC i saw a message that said "window has recoverd from a major error" and error details said something about "blue screen". I clicked find a solution online but nothing happened!

I then used windows update and here we are....!!

Can anyone 'in the know' advise what to do? Bear in mind I'm a novice as far as 'recovery' is concerned so simple steps would be helpful.

 

[GreiginFife]

If it's just haning on that screen, force a shutdown by pressing and holding the power button, then press it again to restart the machine.

First thing I would then be looking to do is roll the system back to before this happened.
Click on the start button and in the search bar (at the bottom of the start menu) and type System Restore. This should give you the system restore icon, double click on that).
Select a date prior to the issue happening and then follow the on screen instructions. If the problem is purely software related then this should sort it out. If it's deeper rooted then it may only work until the problem occurs again.

 

[sawtooth]

You could try booting into safe mode, then if that works shut down properly and try booting up again as normal.

To access safe mode it varies from PC to PC, sometimes it tells you what you need to press on the splash screen when you first turn on . If not just turn on and repeatedly press f8 until a menu appears. if that doesnt work, turn off and repeat this time using f12, or f1 or f2, etc

When you eventually get the menu up you should have the option to boot into safe mode. Try that first.

If that doesnt help, go back into the same menu and look choose an option that says something like boot from last known good configuration.

 

[LIG]

Thanks guys. Will try that now and let you know how I get on.

Fingers crossed as the last time this happened to another laptop I had it was never usuable again as It wouldn't boot.

 

[LIG]

Looks to have sorted itself out after much high disk and processor use.

Good thing was it seemed to complete 100% of stage 3 of the update.

Thanks for the help guys! :thup::thup::thup::thup::thup: