August Updates - help!

Like many on this forum, I have problems all associated with the August updates. I was happily working away Aug. 12, when the little pop-up said it needed to restart after installing updates. All this has worked fine for me for months after doing the clean install method on this forum. Not this time. After waiting an hour for the reboot, reconfigure, whatever windows to finish, I shut it down.

Now, I get the desktop to open, and all the icons waiting, but nothing works. Restore points are gone. Safe mode doesn't let me go to the internet. I have a nice-looking, non-functional desktop. Repairs from disk do nothing. Chkdsk does nothing. I'm dead in the water.

I have the carbonite backup, but it won't open. It shows the backup directory, but it won't open. I'm ready to do another install from scratch if I absolutely have to, but am needing this computer!
Thanks

Hello wally. Just for clarification, I realize you said safe mode doesn't let you get to the internet. But can you access just plain ol' safe mode? If yes, try uninstalling any August updates that might have gotten installed. Then try running System File Checker scan to see if you might not have some damaged or corrupt system files. If SFC finds any problems run it at least 3 more times as per the note in Option Two, Step 4, in this tutorial:

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Please let us know if this helps or not.

will do. I am on another home computer now, downloading MS update process fixes and the .bat update registry fixes, just in case. Yes, I can go into safe mode, and will do the scandisk as you instructed. Thanks!

mars, the standard updates will uninstall, but not the ones for NET framework....I will try that again before SFC...

OK, that's good you can get into safe mode. As far as .NET Framework updates are concerned, hopefully they aren't the issue. If I remember correctly Windows 7 installs .NET Framework as part of the OS (it's considered a Windows feature) and you can't uninstall it, per se. Best you can do is turn it on or off.

Windows Features - Turn On or Off

This time when it booted, it wanted to run chkdsk, so I let it. Found nothing. That chkdsk screen is still up..do I power down and up again?
Wally

If that's the only way to get rid of the chkdsk screen, go ahead and manually power down with the power button. Wait at least 30 seconds before powering back up to make sure your hard drive has completely stopped spinning. Then go to safe mode and see if you can run the SFC.

I couldn't get safe mode to come up now, so used my Win 7 disk and went to command prompt. When running C:\ sfc /scannow it told me there was a repair pending and I needed to reboot (into my Windows, vs. the disk). So I rebooted normally into Windows. When I thought it was done, I clicked on the "start" button, and that menu came up. When I clicked on "shut down" it would not. There is an additonal square icon on top of the Start Menu box - when I move the cursor there I get the endless spinning blue circle...
Wally

Sounds like things aren't going too well.

With all the difficulties you're experiencing it might be better to jump right to the "last resort" option before a full reformat/reinstall. What kind of Windows 7 disk do you have? Is it a full install, an OEM, recovery disks, or an upgrade disk? You might be able to use it to do a Repair Install while preserving your user accounts, data, programs, system drivers, etc. See the Warning box to determine if you can use your particular disk.

Repair Install

Mars,
It's an HP Upgrade disk, which I used to do the whole clean install thing. I'll check on what you said..
Thanks for your patience and advice!
Wally