# Automatic updates - keeps wanting to restart PC



## Verrona (Mar 25, 2009)

Hi guys. I have a problem, there is a PC that when logged in as an admin account, the PC reports that it needs to restart to finish the automatic updates. When you press restart now or manually restart it, the message appears once you have logged back in.

I have tried numerous solutions, i.e. 

Renaming the automatic update folder within 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\SoftwareDistribution'

I have turned off automatic updates and gone into group policy on the machine and turned on the policy to stop being notified, this has not worked. 

I have entered the registry and deleted the reboot required folder under \\...\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\<RebootRequired>

The PC is running Windows XP with service pack 3. Unfortunately, I do not know what update has been installed for it to require the restart...

Let me know if you require anymore info.. I am pulling out my hair over this 

Thanks in advance.


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## StrangleHold (Mar 25, 2009)

Have you tried just going to windows update and have it check for updates, if it list a update do it and restart and see if it goes away.


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## Verrona (Mar 26, 2009)

Hi StrangleHold, thanks for your reply. I did try this, however, when you go to the site, it comes back with an error saying 'it cannot continue as your PC needs to restart. Restart the PC and try again'. Obviously restarting does bugger all..

To be honest, as this a works PC, I have opted for reinstalling Windows and any applications... I did however notice, within the event viewer under 'application', the were a few error messages referencing to updates within the registry. After googling them, I exported the keys first then deleted them. This cleared the anymore errors appearing, but it didn't resolve the problem overall..

I think this post can be closed now, not much more can be done. 

Thanks for your help though :good:


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## TFT (Mar 26, 2009)

I had a heap of problems a few months back when I upgraded to SP3 with the windows updates, my only solution was to revert back to SP2. Here's a thread from a few months back.

http://www.computerforum.com/129951-xp-sp3-concern.html


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## StrangleHold (Mar 26, 2009)

Verrona said:


> This cleared the anymore errors appearing, but it didn't resolve the problem overall..


 
Just curious, did the , need to restart to finish updates go away. But you still could not do windows update because of the error?


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## Verrona (Apr 1, 2009)

StrangleHold said:


> Just curious, did the , need to restart to finish updates go away. But you still could not do windows update because of the error?



No it did not, it only removed the error messages that were appearing within the eventlog. To confirm also, I still could not use the windows update website. Before and after removing those registry keys.

I have found another computer with the same issue, however, this time, it's a laptop!


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## StrangleHold (Apr 1, 2009)

Go to your Windows Update folder, see if there is any updates lingering around. Dont delete wuhistv3.log.


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