Resolved Windows Update renders laptop unbootable

I have a Windows XP Pro SP3 Dell Inspiron laptop. Starting about 18 months ago, about every 4 months or so when a Windows Update runs, it leaves the laptop unbootable. When I power up I see theinitial Dell screen, then it goes to a black screen with the cursor blinking in the upper left corner. Pressing F8 will not give me an option to boot into Safe Mode or to boot to last known good configuration. In the past all I could do is to reinstall a fresh copy of XP which is obviously a time consuming task. So, I have two questions. First, what is causing this, and second, is there anyway to get the machine back to it's formner state without reinstall XP?

I would appreciate any and all help as I am quite desperate!

Pops

 

Hi Pops, can you start with your XP CD and try a repair? Neil.

 

Recovery did not resolve the issue

Thanks for your reply. I have tried the recovery but it did not resolve the issue. I'm pulling hair out here and trust me, there wasn't much to begin with!

 

Therein lies the frustration. Because historically all I knew to do was to do a fresh install of Windows, I could never do the research to find out. That just continues to leave me vulnerable. My suspicion is that it is a series of updates and one of them is not finishing properly.

I did run the checkdsk /r earlier but I will try the other commands and then report back.

Thanks

 

Well I have run both the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT and it still won't boot. Is there anyway to access system restore without booting into windows? Or perhaps get safe mode back?

 

I ran through the commands but it wouldn't do the restore. I received an error message indicating that a dll was missing.

I am getting desperate and about to do a reformat and reinstall. It's so dang frustrating as this is the 4th time this has happenned with Windows Update. At this point in time, the biggest question is how do I prevent this from happenning again? Do I simply ignore any Windows updates?

I would appreciate some views here. This has me lost and quite confused as to what direction to go in as each time this happens it costs me a great deal of time.

 

I appreciate the thought Arie, but this is a catch-22 situation.

First of all, I can assure you, there are no viruses on this machine. I am very thourough about that but I have gone thourhg the machine using a KRD Recovery Disk to run anti virus iunder Linux mode. It came out abasolutely clean.

As to hardware issues, I suppose it can not be ruled out. However, I have taken this machine into a shop to have them run diagnostics on the hardware and they give ti a clean bill of health. I have run chkdsk as well, looking of rissues and none were found. I even replaced the hard drive about 4 months ago just to eliminate teh possibility of this happenning.

As to finding out what is causing the problem, I agree, but how do I do that? I can't boot the machine into normal mode, safe mode, or last know configuration that worked.

But, if I leave Windows Updates turned on, it takes the machine out. That is not aceptable either. I think this is known as the rock and the hard place.

 

It was SRRSTR.dll

 

Lengthy yes, but the other way os no fun that's for usre. I will follow your instructions and see what happens. Several questions:

In doing the 'fresh' install, would you sugest wiping the hard drive as well?

Any recommendation on imaging software?

The cd I have is for SP 1a. Is there a way to jump straight to SP3 or do I need to follow the 1a, 2, 3 route?

 

A quick thought. Any possibility that Zone Alarm Extreme is a culprit here?

 

Is it possible to do a system restore from a restore point that is backedup on an external drive?