Latest Vista Update stuck in Stage 3/restart loop

Anonymous

I have Vista Business system on a Toshiba notebook, latest Service Pack and with all updates. It was fully functional when i last shut it down. I just booted it up to find the Stage 3 page of a Windows update. 0% progress shown, then it restarts, and opens at the same page again. Stuck in this loop. Have tried using F8 to get last good installation, and to stop auto restart, without success, it just keeps returning to the Stage 3 page and reboots. Tried Systems Repair which offered a System Restore, but that wouldn't start. System Repair now just keeps showing progress (for 3/4 hour) without any HD activity. I shut it down and it still restarts at same Stage 3 page.

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Anonymous

Configuring updates stage 3 of 3. 0% complete

Road Map:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949358

Use the System Recovery options to rename the Pending.xml file and edit

the registry:

On the System Recovery Options page, click Command Prompt.

Type cd C:\windows\winsxs, and then press ENTER.

Type ren pending.xml pending.old, and then press ENTER.

Type regedit, and then press ENTER.

Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

On the File menu, click Load Hive.

Locate the following folder:

C:\windows\system32\config\components

When you are prompted for a name, type Offline_Components.

In Registry Editor, locate and then delete the following registry

subkey:

HLKM\Offline Components\AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving

HKLM\Offline Components\PendingXmlIdentifier

Exit Registry Editor:

At the command prompt, type exit to exit Registry Editor.

Press ENTER.

Click Restart.

Kindly reply to me if the steps worked.

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166 additional answers

Anonymous

2011-04-18T20:35:59+00:00

Hi TonyCacciola,

See my reply on Page 7 of this thread for the methods to solve this

issue. The methods have evolved since this thread was started in

July , 2009.

This same thread - page 7

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-windows_update/latest-vista-update-stuck-in-stage-3restart-loop/2f70b13c-9db4-4bf9-90ee-7ca63a809973?page=7

Hope this helps.
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Anonymous

2011-04-18T17:00:19+00:00

I have had this problem today too and I support the final couple of comments of davidmac11 - please get this fixed as it has undermined my confidence in auto-update which I have also switched off.

For interest's sake - the process I used to stop the continuous re-booting was to hit the F8 key on one of the automatic re-boots and select "Repair your PC" from the menue that came up (selecting a "safe mode" option did not stop the re-booting). I was then able to select the "System Restore" option from a menu that came up and restored back to July 26th.

That seems to have stopped the re-booting for the time being. However, I see that my shutdown option has updates pending so I think I will try to rename the "pending.xml" file procedure described in MickyO's post.

Thanks to everyone for this assistance.

SRK50.

SRK50, did the re-naming of the pending file solve your problem of re-booting?
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Anonymous

2011-04-18T16:04:21+00:00

Just want to know if after you managed to recover your system, were you able to shut down and turn it back on without any problems. Like no more stage 3 of 3 - 0% complete looping forever ?
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Anonymous

2011-04-15T15:50:22+00:00

Renaming pending.xml did the trick for me. Thanks for posting this!
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