Microsoft XP Sp 2

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 29 May 2005 2:07 pm

I have downloaded Sp2 and it hangs up after going about half way. so I uninstalled it and got the CD and loaded the SP2 from the Cd, the same thing happened. "Program not responding". Anyone got any ideas what gives here.?...thanks...al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 29 May 2005 3:49 pm

Al, It's hard to tell without a little info on your PC. e.g. What PC (model) do you have and how much memory(RAM)?

Make sure it's virus and spyware clean before doing the SP. Also, defrag the hard drive first. When you install the SP2, do not have any other programs running and disable antivirus, etc.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 29 May 2005 6:55 pm

Jack-Thanks for all the info. I did disable my Norton Anit-virus, defragged, and didn't have anything running that I knew of.

Quite a while ago, I downloaded SP2 and the same thing happened. An the auto updates of Sp2 do a lot then hang up before the finish.
I have tried thes at diferent times and still wind up with "Not responding". Sent error to Micro soft and they havn't fixed it yet.
My computer is a HP Pentium 4 with 80GB of HD , with 64% Free. 500MGB of Ram memory. I have a 120GB Western Digital External Hard Drive for backup.
Anything you can suggest that I try will be appreciated....Thanks...al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 29 May 2005 6:56 pm

* oops double post.[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 01 June 2005 at 08:30 PM.][This message was edited by Al Marcus on 04 June 2005 at 09:14 AM.]

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 30 May 2005 2:25 am

Unfortunately, it may take a "clean" install to get it fixed. The clean install is reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything.

But, before the "last resort" of the clean install, try a Windows XP "Repair" operation. That is like reinstalling XP over the existing installation but instead of actually reinstalling you select the Repair option. It just "repairs" any corrupt files and reloads any missing files. Many times that will correct whatever is wrong in the Operating System. The "repair" operation won't affect other programs and you shouldn't have to reinstall anything.

After the repair you can then try the SP2 update.

Les Pierce · Post by **Les Pierce** » 30 May 2005 7:54 pm

No basis for my opinion, other than experience: I have run into quite a number of installation problems, etc, and the name "Norton" always comes up. I don't use Norton anything, because of these things. Norton is a lot like HAL in 2001, it seems.

I could be totally wrong, but I recommend to all that will listen to stay away from Norton. I have never used it, so like I said, it has just been my experiences with computer repairs that I am speaking from.

Les

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 31 May 2005 2:17 pm

Les-My problem has been just the opposite with Norton. It has worked fine for me.

But I had lots of trouble with MCAfee got rid of it and never got my money back.

Oh Well, that's computers for you,I don't like them but have to use them anyway....al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 31 May 2005 2:20 pm

Jack-I tried a "Restore" back to an earlier date and it works but my update for SP2 still doesn't finish its task. I'll just ignore that update for now.Thanks...al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Les Pierce · Post by **Les Pierce** » 31 May 2005 7:34 pm

Al, from what I've read, you don't have to use SP2. There are probably some security issues that won't be addressed, (probably would never come up on your home computer, anyway), and you can get most of the improvements to the firewall, etc, through 3rd party software. I think I liked XP before I went to SP2.

For what it's worth:

I have gotten excellent results with the following programs, all freeware:

SpyBot Search & Destroy ver. 1.4
Spyware Blaster ver. 3.4
AntiVir Guard for Windows XP Personal Edition

I have been using these, (and previous versions), for a couple of years now, with excellent results.

Les

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 31 May 2005 8:26 pm

I say forget SP2 and all the other updates. Long live Drive Image.

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Gary Shepherd

Sierra Session D-10

Carter D-10

www.16tracks.com

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 1 Jun 2005 2:18 am

The SP2, along with the secruity "enhancements" also has some fixes and if you are having USB 2.0 problems some of the USB problems are addressed in SP2.

I do part-time computer support and ALL of my customers that have XP are upgraded to SP2 without any problems. This includes XP (Pro), XP (Home) and XP Media Center.

A couple of issues that may affect SP2 installation (or SP1 installation) is a corrupted basic XP, or a "user" tweaked XP. Another issue that can affect it is the Intel Applications Accelerator and that needs uninstalled before doing the SP upgrades (actually there are a lot of posts that the IAA really doesn't help and may even have a negative effect on the CPU).

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 1 Jun 2005 6:07 pm

Les-Thanks for your input.

Gary-You may be right.

My Xp seemed to run faster before I trie SP2, I thought I just had to have it. Or dire things will happen to my computer.Maybe I don't.

Jack-How do I get to that "Repair" , that sounds good. I did find restore but no other option like "Repair".
Can you tell me what is the differnce between XP Home , XP Media Center and XP Professional. Is there any advantages of one over the other? Thanks...al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 2 Jun 2005 1:41 am

Al, in order ot get the Repair option you have to boot your PC with your Windows XP CD. It will give you an option to reinstall XP or Repair. Select the Repair option.

The XP Home and Pro are basically the same, just some extra internal security and Pro will support connecting to networks with more than 4 workstations. For 99% of the consumer/home user the XP Home is all that is needed. The Media Center version has some additional support for video and audio applications built in.

Here is the link to the MS Windows XP site. It has more detailed info on the differences. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/default.mspx

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 2 Jun 2005 8:06 pm

Jack-Thanks for all your help, I appreciate it.
Windows XP was pre-loaded when I bought the computer. So I never had an XP CD....al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 3 Jun 2005 2:31 am

Al, you have to have some way of restoring. Many new PC's no longer come with the physical CD's but they have a "restore partition" on the hard drive and should have also come with a procedure to create your own set of "backup" CD's.

Mew Dell's are that way. New HP's are that way as are new Gateway's.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 3 Jun 2005 7:08 am

Jack-Thanks again. Yes I have a "Restore " on my hard drive. I did use it to set a date prior to my problems and it seems to be working ok now, but still slower than it used to with the SP2 instaled....al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 3 Jun 2005 11:36 am

Al, I'm not talking about the Windows XP "System Restore".

I'm referring the Restore "partition" (separate section ont he hard drive) that contains the Operating System and all device drivers, chipset drivers, applications software, etc - whatever was provided when it was new from the manufacturer. This is separate from the System Restore function.

If the PC would "die" or have a hard drive crash, you will need the CD's (if you cant access the restore partition on the hard drive) to reinstall everything and recover. This is very important to have the CD's, whether they came with the PC or if they are a "user" responsibility to create from data on the "restore" partition.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 4 Jun 2005 8:29 am

Jack-Thanks again for your help. This is all getting too deep for me. Computers ought to be able to "Repair" their own mistakes and problems. None of them are at that point in time yet. Sorry to say...al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Bill Bosler · Post by **Bill Bosler** » 7 Jun 2005 3:50 pm

One thing I will advise is to get rid of the Norton Software. Norton Anti-Virus software is able to open hidden windows system files that are not accessible to any other programs. It opens them to scan for viruses. If those files are not closed properly because of a power failure or system reboot, your operating system is toast. You can't restore those files. There are plenty of other virus protection programs that won't mess with your system files.

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 8 Jun 2005 6:35 am

There are plenty of other virus protection programs that won't mess with your system files.

Using one of those virus protection programs, what happens when a system file is replaced by malware that includes a virus?

Bill Bosler · Post by **Bill Bosler** » 8 Jun 2005 6:16 pm

I use AntiVir Guard and when I'm running a scan I close all other applications. Never had a problem. I don't like Norton because it's always messing with something while you're not aware of it.

Jon Moen · Post by **Jon Moen** » 8 Jun 2005 7:37 pm

Bill,

I don't like Norton because it's always messing with something while you're not aware of it.

I thought that is why you install an AV program.

Jon

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 9 Jun 2005 6:07 am

I must admit, I lost interest in the Symantec lineup a year or so ago for various reasons, and I use AVG Free now for that. Seems to be doing a good job, no problems I can report, and, best of all, it's free. AVG sure does run an active update effort - it updates itself with new virus signatures about every day, which is a good thing.

My general philosophy on antivirus, anti-spyware, and firewalls is that one simply has to trust them to do their job and not worry about how they're doing it. If they get obtrusive, they get replaced. The AVG, Zone Alarm, and Microsoft anti-spyware I'm running now are quietly in the background and don't interfere with anything.

I absolutely *DO* want my anti-virus software to look at ALL my files, system files included. A favorite ploy by the malcontents who write malicious code is to write a virus into a file named the same as one of the system files, and copy it to your hard drive in the same location, replacing the good file. Not checking system files for virus infections is asking for trouble.

*Thread Creep Alert*[This message was edited by Dave Potter on 09 June 2005 at 07:09 AM.]

Bill Bosler · Post by **Bill Bosler** » 9 Jun 2005 11:03 am

Scanning system files for viruses (viri?) and actually opening them are two different things. Norton is the only program I'm aware of that actually opens the files, thus creating the problems if they aren't closed properly. Here's another opinion on Norton. http://www.spywareguide.com/shop/az_detail_B0002UCJV6.html [This message was edited by Bill Bosler on 09 June 2005 at 06:08 PM.]