Still updating after 6 Hours

[l02turner]

Hello,
My stock Lenova desktop w/ win7 home did not wake up at 6AM from sleep - only my monitor turns off - the HD never turns off (my choice). So I turned it off with the power button and it has been starting very slowly. First it said it was configuring my desktop then when I returned 4 hours later it said "Preparing to configure Windows - Do not turn machine off" That was approx 3 hours ago. Normlly when things stop like this - the little ring is still rotating - I would turn it off but with it saying"Do not turn off' I am not sure I can safely do that.

What should I do?

 

[Britton30]

It seems the OS thinks it's a new install showing those screens.

Disconnect any external USB devices except the mouse and keyboard. Give it some more time to see if it finishes.

 

[l02turner]

Thanks for the quick help! I disconnected everything except M and K at 130PM ET (~20+ min ago) and so far no change or different messages. Should I continue to wait?

Thanks!!

 

[Sir George]

Thanks for the quick help! I disconnected everything except M and K at 130PM ET (~20+ min ago) and so far no change or different messages. Should I continue to wait?

Thanks!!

You may, in this case, be waiting for Gadot, but I would give it about 2 hours total.

HTH

 

[Britton30]

You may have corrupted something with that 1st power off. If nothing happens after a couple of hours, try this:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html#post909722

 

[l02turner]

Still updating after 6 hours

Thanks for the quick help! I disconnected everything except M and K at 130PM ET (~20+ min ago) and so far no change or different messages. Should I continue to wait?

Thanks!!

You may, in this case, be waiting for Gadot, but I would give it about 2 hours total.

HTH

After about 2.5 hours I pressed the Power button then restarted in Normal Mode. Now, after another 2 hours it still says updating system but it also has 35% complete.shown - so at least something is happening. I'll see what happens when it reaches 100%. Hopefully it will start up normally.

 

[techtitan100]

it should I had this same problem when I was downgrading from IE10 to IE9 because I didn't like IE10 with it loading slow and it got stuck on preparing to configure windows for 10 minutes which is unusual especially if you are un-installing an update for Internet Explorer and I forced the shut off and when it came back on it went to configuring windows updates 35% and all was fine when my system turned back on

 

[l02turner]

It finally launched and W7 is trying to run. IE crashed immediately - I launched Task Manager and many services are stopped. It is running very slow. When I have a few minutes I'll try to turn the correct Services on. All this took over 12 hours to get to this point. Does w7 have a built in troubleshooter I should try? I have W7 on CD so I can run it from there. Any suggestions? BTW, I ran the built in memory test but everything tested good. Perhaps a bad MB or do you think it's all software related? I should mention, I bought this machine last Spring. It's been slugglish the whole time we've owned it. Then I became frustrated a month ago and reinstalled W7 - it came alive! Ran very fast and we were happy with it until waking it this morning.

 

[Layback Bear]

From post #8

When I have a few minutes I'll try to turn the correct Services on.

What services are you talking about?

 

[Britton30]

Aha, this now sounds more like you have some sort of malware. (Malware=any type of virus, Trojan, exploits, etc.) In my sig are links to some scanners, Malware bytes and Super Anti Spyware, download and run full scans after updating.
You may have unknowingly reinstalled the same crapware as the machine had before.

 

[l02turner]

The Services I saw as being "disabled" were minor- things like NetTV - I changed them to "auto (delayed)" - there were only 5 - the rest were either manual or Auto (D) . I have MalwareBytes and will run it. I restarted the machine this AM and as usual it is taking longer than usual to launch Win7 - but it is making progress.Unlike before. Once it s up and running I'll look at the Updates recently installed and report. Thanks for all the help!

 

[l02turner]

I tried starting in "Safe Mode w/Networking" but it never launched. It asks for my Password and then circles around and asks for thePW again -- it did that 3 times. Next I tried to start in "Safe Mode" but after it reached the PW page i got the BSOD -- I started to reinstall W7 but Lenova has something called the "One Key Recovery" that I thought I'd try.

Am I taking the wrong (or more difficult, time consuming) path?

 

[matts6887]

You might not be. You could try using that lenovo disk as long as it has the software for recovery, etc which is what you might need to try and rescue your system. Did a windows 7 disc also come with your system?

 

[l02turner]

No, no CD but I bought a Geek Squad Warranty (I know, dumb) which I will probably use and see if they can fix it once and for all. But I have a W7 CD I can use if need be. I may have a recovery disc I can try. I think I made one but am not positive. I also tried to start in Debugging mode but got another BSOD.

Thanks for the advice - I'll let you know what happens.

 

[Britton30]

You might try this since you have a w7 DVD.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html#post31238

 

[l02turner]

Thanks -- I tried that and it eventually got back to the same poor performance. I just left it with a Geek Squad office - he said the HDD was bad - he would get a new one from lenovo and reinstall the HDD and software. Expected to be ready late next week. We'll see how it runs when I get it back...

 

[l02turner]

Thanks to all who helped and offered great suggestions and tips! I'll leave this thread open until I have a chance to test it when I get it back.....

 

[Britton30]

Geek Squad:shock:
Hopefully you have better techs than we do in my area.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[l02turner]

I'm saying my prayers. The guy I talked to on the phone tried to tell me it was software but I told him it may be either HW or SW. He asked me to take it to Best Buy where I bought it and ask the Geek Squad to diagnose it. He hooked it up to his peripherals & we fired it up. It got to the PW which I entered then it showed the welcome Screen showing a progress ring running in circles. (terrible pun) I was thinking maybe a bad solder on the motherboard or elsewhere. sometimes it was perfect - very fast and loaded quickly, then 'bang" it would start throwing errors, etc. but we'll see - I will definitely let ya'll know.

 

[NoelDP]

Geek Squad:shock:
Hopefully you have better techs than we do in my area.

Lost cause, I suspect - they all have to work to the same standards.