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It has come to our attention that an update released through Microsoft's Windows Update Site, around the weekend of February 15-17, can cause systems to become stuck in a continual shut down and reboot loop.

The system appears to install the updates and then reaches a point where it says "Configuring updates: stage 3 of 3 - 0% complete" then the system shuts down and reboots to exactly the same screen, with no way to break out of this loop.

SOLUTION: The only way to by-pass this loop is to restore your system to a previous restore point using the Windows Vista DVD.

Here is what to do to restore your system:

1. To be safe, plug your tablet into its external power supply. If the restore procedure is interrupted it could corrupt your system.
2. Plug in an external USB DVD drive, USB mouse, and a USB keyboard into the tablet (a USB hub to connect all three devices, if you don't have a hub, you can swap the mouse for the keyboard after choosing to boot from the DVD drive in step 7 below).
   
3. Power on the DVD drive and insert the Windows Vista Installation DVD, not the System Restore DVD.
4. Power on your tablet and enter the BIOS by pressing the [Delete] key repeatedly until the BIOS screen appears. Sahara Slate PC i400 series owners can more easily do this by pressing the "Rotate Screen" function button located on the face of their tablets to the left of screen as soon as the TabletKiosk logo appears on the screen.
5. Navigate to the "Boot" menu and select the USB DVD drive as the first boot device.
   
6. Hit [F10] to save the changes and reboot.
7. Immediately after the TabletKiosk logo screen disappears, a message appears asking you to hit any key on the keyboard to boot from the DVD. Hit any key to boot from the DVD. (Note: Users without a USB hub can swap the mouse for the keyboard after hitting the key to boot from the DVD.)
8. Your tablet should boot to the initial Windows Vista installation screen. Click the "Next" button, using the mouse, to accept the language settings and proceed.
9. In the lower left hand corner of the screen that appears, click on "Repair your computer". DO NOT click on "Install now" unless you have decided you want to reinstall Windows.
   
10. Click the "Next >" button to accept the installation on your internal drive and proceed.
11. From the "System Recovery Options" screen, click on "System Restore".
12. After a few moments, a screen explaining about system restore will appear. Click "Next >" to continue to the "System Restore" screen. Choose a restore point from a previous time you knew your system was functioning properly. The most recent restore point in the list should be sufficient. Click the "Next >" button to continue with the restore. DO NOT attempt to restart or interfere until the restore completes or you can completely corrupt your Windows installation to the point that only a clean reinstall with fix it. Be patient as this procedure can take a few minutes. (NOTE: This restore procedure will NOT affect any documents you have created or edited since the time of the restore point, only application installations, driver installations and other system configuration changes are affected.)
13. When completed, restart the tablet and again choose to enter the BIOS and change the 1st boot device back to your internal HDD (following essentially the same procedure as described above in steps 5 - 7).
14. Your system should now successfully boot into Windows Vista normally and inform you that the restore procedure was successful.

Edited by TKAdmin - 05/06/08 at 4:41pm

The restore option mentioned in the above post isn't a complete reinstall, but rather a restore of the system to an earlier point in time. Your operating system edition won't change, just your configuration, and only to whatever it was at the restore point. Any genuine Windows Vista installation disc should work (assuming that the version, meaning 32-bit or 64-bit, is correct). If it doesn't, you'll know long before you wipe out your installation as it will tell you it couldn't find a valid version of Windows to restore.

If you want to completely restore your operating system by reinstalling, then that is a different story. That said, if I remember correctly, I believe Vista installation media is all inclusive (32-bit OR 64-bit, not both) and that the key code entered at the time of installation determines the edition of Vista that is installed.

Just make sure to follow the above steps correctly or you might find yourself reinstalling instead of simply restoring.

Yes, it appears that all is good in Microsoft land. They fixed the bug in the security updater and it should be safe to update your system. If you find you ever have a problem after a system update, use the steps outlined above to get you back up and running.