Computer Crashes after Microsoft Vista Updates

My wife and I purchased a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop with Microsoft Windows
Vista Home Premium edition installed as the operating system back in March.
Everything was working fine until July 15. On the previous day, Windows
Update automatically installed some "critical updates". When we restarted
the computer on 7/15, we received an error code # 0xC004F050. Basically it
says that the Vista product key is invalid, and we could not start the
computer. After 2 days of talking to Dell and Microsoft, it was decided that
the only solution to the problem is to restore the computer to its original
factory settings, basically act as though the computer just came out of the
box. All of our pictures, music, files, and many other irreplacible items
were lost as a result of this problem.

After a few days of being extremely upset, we eventually got over it. Then
it happened again. On November 16th, Windows automatically updated again.
When the computer was restarted on the 17th, we got the exact same message.
So, once again, I called Dell and Microsoft and they said that the only fix
was to restore the computer to its original factory settings again. As
before, we lost even more pictures, music, etc.

I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem, and if they did, how they
fixed it. I'm extremely concerned that this is happening. We're not doing
anything wrong, just installing the "critical updates" as recommended by
Microsoft. As of now, we have had to disable Windows Update so it doesn't
happen again, but we're concerned that this may leave us vulnerable.

There's no price that can be put on the items that we lost, including
wedding pictures, numerous work files, etc. I just want this problem to be
addressed by someone to ensure that it won't continue to happen.

Eric

Usually, this sort of problem can be caused by several things.
Dell resident background software that is not compatable with the update.
A hardware compatability issue or a BIOS problem
Malware
An active anitvirus or similar programs during the update.

Generally, with this behavior, you should set the updater to download
updates, and manually install them, one, or a very limited number at a
time. This allows you to find out what the update was intended to do, and
what areas of the P/C are involved.

"epl16" <> wrote in message
news:1195781C-0CB3-42B9-BB7D-...
> My wife and I purchased a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop with Microsoft
Windows
> Vista Home Premium edition installed as the operating system back in
March.
> Everything was working fine until July 15. On the previous day, Windows
> Update automatically installed some "critical updates". When we restarted
> the computer on 7/15, we received an error code # 0xC004F050. Basically
it
> says that the Vista product key is invalid, and we could not start the
> computer. After 2 days of talking to Dell and Microsoft, it was decided
that
> the only solution to the problem is to restore the computer to its
original
> factory settings, basically act as though the computer just came out of
the
> box. All of our pictures, music, files, and many other irreplacible items
> were lost as a result of this problem.
>
> After a few days of being extremely upset, we eventually got over it.
Then
> it happened again. On November 16th, Windows automatically updated again.
> When the computer was restarted on the 17th, we got the exact same
message.
> So, once again, I called Dell and Microsoft and they said that the only
fix
> was to restore the computer to its original factory settings again. As
> before, we lost even more pictures, music, etc.
>
> I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem, and if they did, how they
> fixed it. I'm extremely concerned that this is happening. We're not
doing
> anything wrong, just installing the "critical updates" as recommended by
> Microsoft. As of now, we have had to disable Windows Update so it doesn't
> happen again, but we're concerned that this may leave us vulnerable.
>
> There's no price that can be put on the items that we lost, including
> wedding pictures, numerous work files, etc. I just want this problem to
be
> addressed by someone to ensure that it won't continue to happen.
>
> Eric

epl16 wrote:
>
> I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem, and if they did, how
> they fixed it. I'm extremely concerned that this is happening.

No, not really. Most folks backup their important stuff.

epl16 wrote:
> My wife and I purchased a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop with Microsoft Windows
> Vista Home Premium edition installed as the operating system back in March.
> Everything was working fine until July 15. On the previous day, Windows
> Update automatically installed some "critical updates". When we restarted
> the computer on 7/15, we received an error code # 0xC004F050. Basically it
> says that the Vista product key is invalid, and we could not start the
> computer. After 2 days of talking to Dell and Microsoft, it was decided that
> the only solution to the problem is to restore the computer to its original
> factory settings, basically act as though the computer just came out of the
> box. All of our pictures, music, files, and many other irreplacible items
> were lost as a result of this problem.
>
> After a few days of being extremely upset, we eventually got over it. Then
> it happened again. On November 16th, Windows automatically updated again.
> When the computer was restarted on the 17th, we got the exact same message.
> So, once again, I called Dell and Microsoft and they said that the only fix
> was to restore the computer to its original factory settings again. As
> before, we lost even more pictures, music, etc.
>
> I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem, and if they did, how they
> fixed it. I'm extremely concerned that this is happening. We're not doing
> anything wrong, just installing the "critical updates" as recommended by
> Microsoft. As of now, we have had to disable Windows Update so it doesn't
> happen again, but we're concerned that this may leave us vulnerable.
>
> There's no price that can be put on the items that we lost, including
> wedding pictures, numerous work files, etc. I just want this problem to be
> addressed by someone to ensure that it won't continue to happen.
>
> Eric


Eric, at the very least you should get into the habit of burning your
pictures to CD / DVD, similarly with MP3 music files etc. You can also
get something like Acronis to back up the whole thing, but of course
that only works if you have a second drive in the machine because the
factory restore will kill your system drive if that's your only way out
of the problem.


One of the updates is changing the hardware signature enough to trigger
Windows Product Activation - Microsoft's flagship implementation of self
inflicted foot shooting - it thinks you stole Vista and put it on
another computer, so it is probably just a hardware driver that's
changing the ID of a bit of hardware. You should be permitted to
reactivate upon explaining things on the phone and offering them some
kind of sacrifice (Wife, daughter, Shoeless Joe Jackson signed baseball
etc) and I am not understanding why, if you spoke with MS they did not
think of this. True it is really Dell's responsibility but hey, this is
really dumb and dumber we're discussing so try calling again to Dell,
tell them you want a full refund as they have sold you an inoperable
system and all expenses paid by them. Offer them the option to send a
tech round at their expense.

That way you'll maybe get a tech on the phone who can actually recognize
a computer.

You cannot go on like this, it is not right and MS need to get this
garbage fixed pronto before they lose thousands of irritated customers.

I've been a Microsoft user for as many years as Microsoft have existed,
but have switched all my personal machines and some at work to Linux
simply because of this.

OK..heres the truth. The problem isn't Vista, its Dell. Or just about
any comercial computer manufacture. Dell's idead of a windows install is
moronic. Your pictures and music were lost because of dells monkeying
with Vista when they set you computer up. A clean un-polluted install of
Vista virtually never has problems such as you have. The problem was
because the update doesent work with something dell thinks was smart to
do to your Vista install when they set it up. I make a living taking new
PC and flushing everything including that worthless restore partition
and installing the OS the right way.

No buy-me-ware!

No we think this is the way it "should be" nonsense.

Somethings have to be changed so that Vista works smoothly. Suck as
setting the user to true administrator levels so they are not locked out
of certin functions they are use to using normaly.

The UAC is always turned off. THis comment alone will start all kinds
of flaming on its own, but the simple reality is it has to go.

Good firewall. Good AV. Good anti spyware and simple commonsense keeps
your system 100% virus and spyware free.

I have used Vista since Nov. 2006 and have it running on 10 personel
systems at home and have set it up on so many others I would have reveiw
the sales records in the mainframe to get an exact number.

Blame the right source for your loss. Dell!


--
joel406

joel406 wrote:

> I have used Vista since Nov. 2006 and have it running on 10 personel
> systems at home and have set it up on so many others I would have reveiw
> the sales records in the mainframe to get an exact number.

We should all say a prayer for the users of your "Many others".

That's dumb on their part. What's the service request number here? Who
exactly did you work with at Microsoft?

0xc004f050 is indeed "Error: The Software Licensing Service reported that
the product key is invalid".
Doesn't it allow you to reenter a new key at that point in time?

Did they have you format the drive? If you simply did a reinstall/upgrade,
it should have kept your data. Does the Dell "factory reset" wipe the
drive?

If the product key you have is invalid, that would seem to be a problem that
the company that issued you that key - Dell- should be able to sort out for
you. Probably you don't want to continue using that key. If you
reinstalled using that same key again, you probably are just in a bad state
waiting to happen right now and thus probably would want a better solution.

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--

"epl16" <> wrote in message
news:1195781C-0CB3-42B9-BB7D-...
> My wife and I purchased a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop with Microsoft
> Windows
> Vista Home Premium edition installed as the operating system back in
> March.
> Everything was working fine until July 15. On the previous day, Windows
> Update automatically installed some "critical updates". When we restarted
> the computer on 7/15, we received an error code # 0xC004F050. Basically
> it
> says that the Vista product key is invalid, and we could not start the
> computer. After 2 days of talking to Dell and Microsoft, it was decided
> that
> the only solution to the problem is to restore the computer to its
> original
> factory settings, basically act as though the computer just came out of
> the
> box. All of our pictures, music, files, and many other irreplacible items
> were lost as a result of this problem.
>
> After a few days of being extremely upset, we eventually got over it.
> Then
> it happened again. On November 16th, Windows automatically updated again.
> When the computer was restarted on the 17th, we got the exact same
> message.
> So, once again, I called Dell and Microsoft and they said that the only
> fix
> was to restore the computer to its original factory settings again. As
> before, we lost even more pictures, music, etc.
>
> I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem, and if they did, how they
> fixed it. I'm extremely concerned that this is happening. We're not
> doing
> anything wrong, just installing the "critical updates" as recommended by
> Microsoft. As of now, we have had to disable Windows Update so it doesn't
> happen again, but we're concerned that this may leave us vulnerable.
>
> There's no price that can be put on the items that we lost, including
> wedding pictures, numerous work files, etc. I just want this problem to
> be
> addressed by someone to ensure that it won't continue to happen.
>
> Eric

epl16 wrote:

> My wife and I purchased a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop with Microsoft
> Windows Vista Home Premium edition installed as the operating system back
> in March.
> Everything was working fine until July 15. On the previous day, Windows
> Update automatically installed some "critical updates". When we restarted
> the computer on 7/15, we received an error code # 0xC004F050. Basically
> it says that the Vista product key is invalid, and we could not start the
> computer. After 2 days of talking to Dell and Microsoft, it was decided
> that the only solution to the problem is to restore the computer to its
> original factory settings, basically act as though the computer just came
> out of the
> box. All of our pictures, music, files, and many other irreplacible items
> were lost as a result of this problem.
>
> After a few days of being extremely upset, we eventually got over it.
> Then
> it happened again. On November 16th, Windows automatically updated again.
> When the computer was restarted on the 17th, we got the exact same
> message. So, once again, I called Dell and Microsoft and they said that
> the only fix
> was to restore the computer to its original factory settings again. As
> before, we lost even more pictures, music, etc.
>
> I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem, and if they did, how they
> fixed it. I'm extremely concerned that this is happening. We're not
> doing anything wrong, just installing the "critical updates" as
> recommended by
> Microsoft. As of now, we have had to disable Windows Update so it doesn't
> happen again, but we're concerned that this may leave us vulnerable.
>
> There's no price that can be put on the items that we lost, including
> wedding pictures, numerous work files, etc. I just want this problem to
> be addressed by someone to ensure that it won't continue to happen.
>
> Eric

Go and get a copy of Ubuntu ... the livecd version. This will allow you to
bootup your computer from the CD/DVDROM drive and run Linux Ubuntu from
that drive. This will give you access to all your Windoze files, even if
Windoze itself won't boot. This way you can at least figure out a way to
get the needed data files off your drive before you lose them again.

You can download the livecd from here ...

http://releases.ubuntu.com/gutsy/

Once you download the ISO file, you'll need to burn that image on to a CD-R
disk.

When you finally get totally fed up with Vista and what it's been doing to
your life, you might even consider installing Ubuntu on that computer. That
can also be done from this livecd.

Cheers.

--
Remove Vista Activation Completely ...
http://tinyurl.com/2w8qqo

Frank - seek help immediately! Visit ...
http://www.binsa.org/

NoStop wrote:
> epl16 wrote:
>
>
>>My wife and I purchased a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop with Microsoft
>>Windows Vista Home Premium edition installed as the operating system back
>>in March.
>>Everything was working fine until July 15. On the previous day, Windows
>>Update automatically installed some "critical updates". When we restarted
>>the computer on 7/15, we received an error code # 0xC004F050. Basically
>>it says that the Vista product key is invalid, and we could not start the
>>computer. After 2 days of talking to Dell and Microsoft, it was decided
>>that the only solution to the problem is to restore the computer to its
>>original factory settings, basically act as though the computer just came
>>out of the
>>box. All of our pictures, music, files, and many other irreplacible items
>>were lost as a result of this problem.
>>
>>After a few days of being extremely upset, we eventually got over it.
>>Then
>>it happened again. On November 16th, Windows automatically updated again.
>>When the computer was restarted on the 17th, we got the exact same
>>message. So, once again, I called Dell and Microsoft and they said that
>>the only fix
>>was to restore the computer to its original factory settings again. As
>>before, we lost even more pictures, music, etc.
>>
>>I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem, and if they did, how they
>>fixed it. I'm extremely concerned that this is happening. We're not
>>doing anything wrong, just installing the "critical updates" as
>>recommended by
>>Microsoft. As of now, we have had to disable Windows Update so it doesn't
>>happen again, but we're concerned that this may leave us vulnerable.
>>
>>There's no price that can be put on the items that we lost, including
>>wedding pictures, numerous work files, etc. I just want this problem to
>>be addressed by someone to ensure that it won't continue to happen.
>>
>>Eric
>
>
> Go and get a copy of Ubuntu ... the livecd version. This will allow you to
> bootup your computer from the CD/DVDROM drive and run Linux Ubuntu from
> that drive. This will give you access to all your Windoze files, even if
> Windoze itself won't boot. This way you can at least figure out a way to
> get the needed data files off your drive before you lose them again.
>
> You can download the livecd from here ...
>
> http://releases.ubuntu.com/gutsy/
>
> Once you download the ISO file, you'll need to burn that image on to a CD-R
> disk.
>
> When you finally get totally fed up with Vista and what it's been doing to
> your life, you might even consider installing Ubuntu on that computer. That
> can also be done from this livecd.
>
> Cheers.
>
Really dumb idea!
Frank

On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:50:11 -0800, epl16
<> wrote:

>There's no price that can be put on the items that we lost, including
>wedding pictures, numerous work files, etc. I just want this problem to be
>addressed by someone to ensure that it won't continue to happen.

Computers fail for whatever reason. Back up files you want to keep.