A ssalutory lesson... If it aint broke....
Last week I experienced a couple of problems that appeared more or less simultaneously... one was my optical mouse that suddenly developed a mind of its own dashing around the screen undemanded opening and closing widows all over the place and generally misbehaving itself. The other was a problem with Photobucket telling me that I had deleted or moved 95% of my 400 or so pics held on their servers. Both of these snags appeared after downloading and installing three security patches from MS. Thinking initially that my PB account had been hijacked and or I had picked up some sort of malware I got in touch with a computer help forum that I have used in the past.
I sent them a couple of scans and was severely chastised bythem for not having SP1 and SP2 applied to my basic Vista Home Premium OS. ive always been supporter of the 'If it aint broke don't fix it' brigade and indeed this basic Vista had served me well for 5 years.
It later transpired that the runaway mouse needed its software updating and the photobucket problem was a known server problem at their end.
Following thegeeks dire warnings about running vista in it basic form, reluctantly I downloaded and installed the two long outstanding service packs. It took all afternoon to do this but they both installed and configured correctly and the computer worked properly afterwards.
So... bang up to date, I thought as I switched off last night... but not so it seemed because as I went to switch off I found no less than 18 'security' patches waiting to be downloaded. I selected the 'download then switch off 'option and left it to its own devices and went to bed.
When I switched the PC on this morning it booted up OK and set about configuring the changes. Then it found three more and downloaded them and started the config process for them... four hours later and the damn thing still hadn't finished, it stalled at 62% of the second patch... with the message 'do not switch off during the config process'... eventually after 6 hours the PC threw some kind of a wobbly and turned itself off. I switched it back on and now it will not boot up... have tried Safe Mode, last known good config, nothing will make it change its mind.
To my way of thinking this problem has to be due to one or more of the 21 patches and its subsequent config given that it was working fine prior to their download but I cant find a way back because I cant get past the DOS type error screen.
Wish to hell I'd stuck with my original gut feeling and not messed with it because I don't have a recovery repair disc or installation disc to use to go to the next step. I'm using wifeys 10 years 'olde worlde' XP machine, again no SP's applied, to draft this post. Ive been in touch with Acer Europe support to see if they can provide a recovery repair or an installation disc but with Christmas at hand I doubt I'll hear anything soon.
Don't know just what to do about the Vista machine... if the hard drive is kaput or the OS corrupt whats next? Apart from buying a new computer?
Your thoughts gentlemen?