installed update and lost windows

[Johannah]

I just had a crazy, scary experience. I have WindowXP. I
was worried about the new worm going around (I already
installed the blaster worm patch from Microsoft and that
seemed ok - but there was talk of a new worm) so I went to
Microsoft.com and installed another recommended update --
service Pack 1 -- and then it said that I had to restart, I
clicked ok -- it shut down, but when it restarted, i just
had a gray screen -- no desktop, no windows. Re-booted a
few times -- still gray screen. I called my tech support
that I got with my new computer 8 months ago, and they
tried various things like safe mode, etc, but nothing was
helping and they concluded I had to re-install Windows XP.
by using my CD Rom for Windows XP. Well, I never had a CD
rom because my computer came with XP already on it when I
bought it -- 2 daignostic and software CD's came with it,
and they did not seem to be able to do anything to help.
the only thing I could get was by hitting Ctrl, Alt, Delete
I got the task manager, went to options, home, help and
support center, clicking on some link and my windows
desktop suddenly appeared -- I don't know which link I
clicked on, but it had something to do with "desktop." So
XP was there, no problem-- re-booted it came back. Now it
seems ok, but should I continue to install updates from
Microsoft? And what happened? How come I could fix it?
Thanks for any insight into this bizarre episode.

[Matt Coy]

Hi Johannah,

It's hard to say what happened exactly, but sometimes during an update if
there are applications that are still open they can conflict with the update
and do odd things such as become unresponsive or perhaps even have a gray
screen.

I would definitely continue to download updates from Microsoft. In fact I
would urge you to head to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and check for
any outstanding critical updates that are available for your system and
download them.

Good luck and I'm glad your computer is still operating.

--
Matt Coy, MCSE
Microsoft MVP (Windows XP)

"Johannah" > wrote in message
...
> I just had a crazy, scary experience. I have WindowXP. I
> was worried about the new worm going around (I already
> installed the blaster worm patch from Microsoft and that
> seemed ok - but there was talk of a new worm) so I went to
> Microsoft.com and installed another recommended update --
> service Pack 1 -- and then it said that I had to restart, I
> clicked ok -- it shut down, but when it restarted, i just
> had a gray screen -- no desktop, no windows. Re-booted a
> few times -- still gray screen. I called my tech support
> that I got with my new computer 8 months ago, and they
> tried various things like safe mode, etc, but nothing was
> helping and they concluded I had to re-install Windows XP.
> by using my CD Rom for Windows XP. Well, I never had a CD
> rom because my computer came with XP already on it when I
> bought it -- 2 daignostic and software CD's came with it,
> and they did not seem to be able to do anything to help.
> the only thing I could get was by hitting Ctrl, Alt, Delete
> I got the task manager, went to options, home, help and
> support center, clicking on some link and my windows
> desktop suddenly appeared -- I don't know which link I
> clicked on, but it had something to do with "desktop." So
> XP was there, no problem-- re-booted it came back. Now it
> seems ok, but should I continue to install updates from
> Microsoft? And what happened? How come I could fix it?
> Thanks for any insight into this bizarre episode.