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I am stuck at this screen for the last one hour. Should I forcibly power off my laptop? How long should I wait?

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Ok. Just rebooted it. It asked me to choose from options like "Safe Mode" etc. Started it "normally". No data loss though. :) Thanks everyone. – Mayank May 25 '11 at 16:04

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1 hour should be enough to install 3 updates... shut it down. After you rebooted your computer you should install the failed update manual following these steps:

  1. Open your Windows Update under Start -> All Programs.
  2. Look at your Update-History. There should be one failed Update. Double click it.
  3. In that window that pops up, there is a link that looks like http://support.microsoft.com/kb/anyKbNumber. Click that link.
  4. The download-page for this update opens. Download it and install it manually (don't forget to right-click it and choose "Run as Administrator")

Manually installing updates solves most of the update-problems. Don't try to let this update get installed automatically. That's just time-wasting.

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You don’t need to turn the system off, just reset it. – Synetech May 25 '11 at 15:48
That's what I meant. But on newer Computers you have to power it off by pressing the power-button 6 seconds because there's no reset-button. Short: Just restart it the way you like. – wullxz May 25 '11 at 15:53
@Syne Please explain how to "reset" it? – Mayank May 25 '11 at 15:53
Just what I wrote: Press the power-button for 6 seconds. The system should turn off then. Power it on again after that and follow the steps in my answer to install that update manually. – wullxz May 25 '11 at 15:54
@Mayank, press the reset button. Desktops have such a button, and I’m fairly certain that laptops have one too. The reset button does a hard reset without removing power. – Synetech May 25 '11 at 17:43
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up vote 2 down vote

Press the CAPS LOCK key. If the LED turns on or off in response, your system is still alive somehow. If it doesn't, you might as well restart it. If the CAPS LOCK key does switch the LED, then look at the HD light on your system - if it's blinking them it's defintely doing something and you should give it more time.

One hour is quite unusual unless your system is really, really slow.

If CAPS LOCK works but your HD light is remaining off, give it about 5 minutes and restart it. Then check your system's Event viewer for clues on what went wrong.

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With 8 GB RAM and i7 processor, it is definitely not slow. The drive is bit locker encrypted though. Caps lock key works and HDD light also blinks intermittently. This is my work laptop and I am worried that I might lose some data if I reboot it. – Mayank May 25 '11 at 15:51
Your data should be saved. At this time, no normal process (like Word or sth. like that) should be running anymore. You can't do anything. That update may be in an endless-loop. – wullxz May 25 '11 at 15:56
I would give it as long as it takes. There are some occasional updates which do take ages, and don't necessarily do much disk IO. Sit it out if possible, or schedule updates/restarts to happen overnight instead. – Spectre May 25 '11 at 16:08
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I wouldn't turn the computer off. Depending on how many updates need to configure, it can take a long time. Perhaps in the future, it would be best to change your update settings to manual: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/windows-update

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