Failure configuring Windows Updates Reverting-T61 Win7 64bit

[Muse]

A couple of days ago my Windows 7 64bit Ultimate T61 indicated that there were updates to install and I let the machine do the updates as a batch, had the machine restart but got this message:
- - - -
Failure configuring Windows updates
Reverting changes.
Do not turn off your computer.
- - - -
I see no way out of this. The machine eventually reboots and comes back to the same screen. I saw a page in Lenovo support this morning saying I could reboot, going into Safe Mode, get to a command prompt and run sfc/ scannow to fix the problem, but the boot process does not complete. The machine returns to the same "Failure configuring Windows updates..." condition before I have any control. It's a loop I haven't been able to break.

Is there a remedy short of restoring from an image or reinstalling the operating system? I have the Windows 7 installation disk. Should I try to do a repair with it? Thanks for any help.

[Muse]

The machine worked its way out of the cycle and booted to Windows. To make sure, I rebooted, and it appears OK. What will happen if I do a Windows Update I don't know. Assuming there are updates available (I assume so), I think I should try installing them one by one, or at least identify somehow which one is the problem and do it separately.

[Saucey]

I think its a problem with OEM certificate.
I just had this problem the other day setting up a few machines...
Once I was able to get out of the loop, there would be an error code after another update and no 3rd party software would be able to launch on the machine.

I bookmarked it on a different machine, I'll try to get back to you today for it.

[Saucey]

Hmmm. Maybe it might not pertain to your set up but I know these are known errors.

KB 28 72 339Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems KB2872339
KB 28 59 537Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems KB2859537
KB 28 82 822Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems KB2859537

Source

[Muse]

As might be expected (after Win7 undid the updates that prevented it from booting)...

Signed into the booted machine, I went to Windows Update. Now, it said there were ~45 important updates to do and ~44 optional updates. I'd seen posts suggesting that people updating Win7 had a similar experience involving an update that looked something like this: KB.....773, so looked up and down the big important update list, didn't notice that. Not knowing which of these updates to do first or exclude, I clicked a button to install updates and the whole thing happened again, AFAIK just like before. The machine requested to restart after the updates were all downloaded and set up to be configured and I restarted the machine. Eventually it threw that same error and apparently went through the same lengthy cycle trying to undo changes and reach a state where it could boot. This takes a while, quite a while apparently. I left the machine, just looked at it again this morning and it was ready for my sign in. So, basically, it appears I can't run Windows Update at this point unless I (perhaps) figure out what to install first, or separately to allow the system to digest the list of updates.

I haven't been using that machine on a daily basis lately, which I suppose contributes to the problem. ~45 updates is a lot. Well, I have Ghost images of the machine from a while back. Presumably I could restore one of those. They are from June 2012. I have the installation disk and could do a fresh install of Win7 64bit Ultimate, after backing up the data to an external HD. The data isn't terribly critical, I keep most of my important data on external HDs, but I will save it anyway, if necessary to restore to the machine. The biggest issue if I do a fresh install is all the Windows configuring and application installation/configuring I'd have to do. And what's to guarantee that the machine would successfully accept all the Windows Updates from my restore state or fresh state? Thanks for any suggestions/help.

[Muse]

Hmmm. Maybe it might not pertain to your set up but I know these are known errors.

KB 28 72 339Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems KB2872339
KB 28 59 537Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems KB2859537
KB 28 82 822Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems KB2859537

Source

Well, I am not throwing those errors.

Honestly I don't know how to proceed at this point. As I said in my last post (carefully written, has anyone bothered to read it?), I have images from June 2012, should I restore from one of those? As is, the machine cannot digest the ~45 "important" updates now available. I figure it's ridiculous to install and reboot 45 updates one at a time. What's to be done? Go to some other forum? Guess I could.

[Muse]

I posted at Anandtech "Operating Systems" forum and got a brilliant response:

"You don't have to install them one at a time, but you're definitely going to have to install them piecemeal. Install half of the updates; if it works then install half of the remaining half, etc. Sooner or later you will figure out which update is the culprit, and it will be faster than going one at a time (see: binary search)."