My Acer Aspire 5742 had been running well for the past 5 years or so without any issues, when all of a sudden I encountered an issue when I tried booting it up today. A couple of days ago, Windows Update did its usual thing and installed some updates before the computer shut down. Whenever it's doing an update I always make sure the charger is plugged in just so that the power supply doesn't cut out / the battery doesn't run out which may cause issues with the update.The laptop shut down as normal.
Upon startup, a message appears saying "Failure configuring Windows Update. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer." I have left it running for at least 8 hours in the hope that it will "revert", but nothing seems to have happened. I have given up and also tried booting in safe mode, but to no avail.
Any ideas on what to do? I have done some light research into it on the web, but none of the solutions seem to match.
Also, whilst I am asking this question; if I were to completely reformat the laptop (in order to get rid of this issue) how would I go about getting the OEM locked key for the Windows 7 as it came pre-installed? I currently have no way to access the Acer Recovery part on the laptop so a complete reformat seems like the easiest thing to do as I have nothing I want to keep on the harddrive.
