Sunday, July 20, 2008

Installing Vista SP1 error 0xC0190001 helppane.exe

While installing Vista service pack 1 the system froze with the error !!0XC0190001!! (604/72761) helppane.exe (this was a black screen with text only). Initially I recovered from this error by booting off the Vista installation DVD and doing a system restore.

I downloaded a standalone copy of the service pack 1 installer and tried again. Once again I ran into the same error during the install. This time I rebooted the system, hit F8 and chose Safe Mode. Vista started a safemode boot. It started loading files, and then appeared to stop, but the hard drive was still very active. I waited a while and it eventually rebooted itself, and the Vista service pack install continued, and successfully completed.

If you encounter this error try rebooting and go into safemode. Give the system some time and hopefully the service pack install will complete.

Also, if you search on this error you may find some forum discussions where it is advised to boot off the Vista DVD, attempt a repair, choose command prompt, and rename the offending file to .old, and then reboot and the service pack install should complete. I tried this and it did not work. Maybe it will work if this problem occurs with a different file but in my case, it did not help.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had the same problem and following the steps provided, it worked like a charm. After booting up in safe mode, it continued with the service pack installation. Thank you very much for the advise. I was ready to switch to Linux.

tobias said...

Hey Mark,
Glad this helped you. I know I was about ready to rip my hair out (I don't have any though). It was a big relief when it successfully finished in safemode.

Anonymous said...

First of all, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to post about your experience. I could not find any information or documentation on this error anywhere, even on Microsoft's own website! When my wife woke me this morning and told me "Can you come fix the computer, it has a black screen that says something about an error and "Help Pain.exe" :) I tried a reboot and was about to get out the Vista DVD, but I decided to do a google search on the error number 0xc0190001, and I found your blog. I simple booted to safe mode, the Vista SP1 completed and it rebooted, coming right back up to the "Installing Service Pack" screen. Thanks again for sharing your experience, it saved me from an aweful headache! For what it is worth, I am running Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit on an AMD X2 4400 platform. I have an Asus A8n32-SLI-Deluxe motherboard and an EVGA 7800GT graphics card. Just in case anyone notices a trend with this problem.

Anonymous said...

Toby,
thank you very much!
After spending days with Microsoft support and HP-support (I have an OEM-version of Vista) and at the end they came with nothing better than doing a re-install, I came accross your solution.
You made me very happy!
I owe you a beer!
I sort of translated your solution in Dutch in my own blog on http://www.ywema.com/yweblog/?p=384

You're the best!
Louis

tobias said...

That's good news! I am glad these instructions are helping others. Regarding translating to Dutch, that is great. I am glad you are further developing the instructions and helping others.

Anonymous said...

SAFER AND FASTER SOLUTION FOR THE HELPPANE.EXE ERROR ON VISTA SP1

Toby, thanx for your post. Had the same problem and luckily found your solution which gave me hope again. But while looking for the standalone download of SP1 on the Microsoft site I came accross:

Vista update KB950127

This official update is "to resolve an issue where a crash occurs in ks.sys when upgrading to Windows Vista SP1." I didn't know what this means but decided to install before I tried to install SP1 again. And guess what? The SP1 update afterwards worked like a charm. No more helppane.exe errors. Hope this solution can help others with the dreaded helppane.exe error. Good luck ervey one!

PS While installing SP1 I also closed down all antivirus and spyware programs.

Anonymous said...

Sir you are a star - I was desperate when I saw this helpane error. Micosoft were bu&&er all help but you saved me - Thanks

Why can't microsoft emply people like you rather than the intelectually stunted people who realeased this upgrade.

tobias said...

That's a compliment if I've ever heard one! LOL. Thanks, glad I was able to help you.

toby.

Dominic O'Brien said...

Just had the same problem with my wife's computer and can't tell you how happy your post made me! I did not do a restore or used the standalone installer. I simply booted into safe mode and after a quite a while, appearing "stuck", it rebooted and then came back up with the graphical interface telling me "Installing Service Pack: Stage 3 of 3" yada, yada, yada. I can't believe microsnot is getting away with releasing such alpha quality software to the general public. This update came to my wife as an automatic update. Gross. Anyway I won't rant on more and just thank you for your help so very, very much from the bottom of my java cup.

tobias said...

That's how it worked for me too, stuck there for a while during the safemode boot, then rebooted and back in business. I big relief to a potential monsterous headache. Glad it helped!

Anonymous said...

dude whoever you are you are my greatest solution!! do you have solutions to other problems? email me at raptorftcs@yahoo.com thanks man! Almighty Noob

Unknown said...

Many thanks for this extremely helpful post. I had the problem installing SP2 and the error pointed to "explorer.exe" !!! Thought I was in for a reinstall for sure but with the help of your post I'm back up and runnning.

Troy M. said...

Hi, I had this problem so I simply did a system restore and I'll have caught my system backed up by today so how should I try to get SP1 again without this problem? safe-mode?

tobias said...

Troy,
I believe (based on another commentors suggestions you can prevent this error by installing this fix before attempting the SP1 update.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6bed9155-be2f-427d-91c3-36b2c64c11c2&DisplayLang=en

Anonymous said...

Right on, Dude. I had the same error when updating to SP2 on Vista Ultimate. I just booted to safe mode and hard disk was active for a bit and then the system rebooted, with a SP2 install successful screen.

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