Windows 7 hanging during update

If there's any wonder after that long, take a look at your hard drive activity light. You'll see either no activity at all stuck or very regular but very short flashes of light not stuck. Chances are that the updates are hung before the 3-hour mark, but this is a reasonable amount of time to wait and longer than we've ever seen a Windows update take to successfully install.

If so, log on as you normally would and let the updates continue to install successfully. If nothing happens most likely then move on to Step 2. Restart your computer using either the reset button or by powering it off and then back on with the power button.

Windows will start normally and finish installing the updates. If the Windows update installation is truly frozen, you have no other choice but to hard-reboot. On a tablet or laptop, removing the battery may be necessary.

If you're using Windows 10 or Windows 8, and you're taken to the sign-in screen after the restart, try tapping or clicking the power icon on the bottom-right and choosing Update and Restart , if available.

If you're automatically taken to the Advanced Boot Options or Startup Settings menu after restarting, choose Safe Mode and see the comments in Step 3 below. Start Windows in Safe Mode.

This special diagnostic mode of Windows only loads the minimum drivers and services that Windows absolutely needs, so if another program or service is conflicting with one of the Windows updates, the install might finish up just fine.

If the Windows updates do install successfully and you continue to Safe Mode, just restart from there to enter Windows normally. Complete a System Restore to undo the changes made so far by the incomplete installation of the Windows updates.

Since you can't access Windows normally, try doing this from Safe Mode. See the link in Step 3 if you're not sure how to start in Safe Mode. During the System Restore, be sure to choose the restore point created by Windows just prior to the update installation.

Assuming a restore point was made and System Restore is successful, your computer should be returned to the state it was in before the updates started. If this problem occurred after automatic updating, like what happens on Patch Tuesday, be sure to change Windows Update settings so this problem doesn't reoccur on its own. Since these menus of tools are available from "outside" of Windows, you can try this even if Windows is completely unavailable.

This option is not available in Windows XP. Start your computer's "automatic" repair process. While a System Restore is a more direct way of undoing changes, in this case of a Windows update, sometimes a more comprehensive repair process is in order. Test your computer's memory with a free program. It's possible that failing RAM could be causing the patch installations to freeze. Fortunately, memory is really easy to test.

Update BIOS. An outdated BIOS isn't a common cause for this problem, but it's possible. If one or more of the updates Windows is trying to install is involved with how Windows works with your motherboard or other built-in hardware, a BIOS update could solve the issue. Do a clean install of Windows. A clean install involves completely erasing the hard drive that Windows is installed on and then installing Windows again from scratch on that same hard drive.

If there is a lot of dust in the system, use some compressed air and clean it out good. For example, if you have a DVD drive s , then go ahead and disconnect them from the system internally.

Try to boot up now and see if you can get past the hanging screen. If you have it attached to your computer during boot up, it can sometimes try to use that as a boot device and fail. Go ahead and disconnect any peripherals attached to the computer.

A lot of those KVM switches use USB and for whatever weird reason, it can cause problems with the boot process on certain machines. Try enabling and disabling this feature and try to restart your computer. If so, change it to IDE. If you get back into Windows, you can then do a system restore, etc. You can clear out the CMOS in several ways including pressing a button on your motherboard, changing a jumper setting, etc.

You will need to perform a Google search for your particular machine to find out how to clear the CMOS. As a last resort, you can try using some spare parts if you have any and replace as much as you can: graphics card, sound card, hard drive, etc. Note that the first thing to try is to restart the computer in Safe Mode and then perform a shutdown.

If the computer hangs while shutting down in Safe Mode, it could be a hardware issue. There are a few hotfixes that Microsoft has released that pertain to this exact issue and therefore could solve your problem without you having to do anything. One client had 7-zip installed and it was causing Windows 7 to hang on shutdown. Another client was using the Sticky Notes app that Microsoft wrote! After putting a note on his desktop, the computer started hanging.

Removing the note and the app fixed the problem. Other programs include anti-spyware apps or anti-virus apps, which could definitely cause this type of problem. Disable all startup items and see if your problem goes away.

If it does, then re-enable items one by one until you find the problem startup item. This should be sufficient for most situations. However, you may have to try a larger value in your environment. Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode.

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