Problems with SP2 on XP home

[surfgatinho]

I know this is the XP Pro forum but as the XP home roll out of SP2 has happened and there isn't an XP home forum I thought I'd mention my experiences.

So far I've seen SP2 completely wreck three different machines including my own.
2 of the machines were AMD based, had no previous issues with updates and got the service pack via the updater.

The other machine was my own and I downloaded the SP and installed it from the exe. Exactly the same thing - machine won't even boot past first screen. My PC was a new P4 machine with a fresh instal of XP home.

As for the unistall instructions forget it system restore doesn't work, running spuninst doesn't work properly. I found the only fix is to run a repair from the installation disk. However, now the PC boots up really slowly.

I have read other reports of problems with this SP but having experienced it 3 times I'd like to suggest some caution.

http://a-connect.co.uk

 

[wantstolearncfm]

Ive rolled out 20 odd pcs now P4's - AMD64s - AMD Athlons your complete load of them and not ONE error with SP2
Seems to work a treat
I downloaded the large one because i know its all there, dont bad word SP2 microsoft spent a lot of time getting people to test this and they tried to remove as many errors as was possible, maybe you have been unlucky bad D/L or something!

 

[surfgatinho]

Just giving my experience.

Having been installing service packs for the past 3 years I've never had a problem before and now 3 in a week - IMHO this suggests a problem.

Also the uninstall has failed for all of these cases.

I presume it's fine on most of my client's PCs as I haven't had any more phone calls.

http://a-connect.co.uk

 

[wantstolearncfm]

No sooner had i said that a client rings up "sp2 has just automatically downloaded i cant get into windows!"
Here we go again!

Seems to be the way it goes now!
I now would like to add a small note of caution using a download feature other than the full MS Network Download, they seem to have got it through the automatic download!, if they didnt no doubt another spyware case

 

[jurgen36]

Well 6 of our students installed SP2 on their own XPpro machines, all of them could not boot afterwards. A repair with the SP2 CD did not seem to work either. Finally they asked me for help. I ghosted all their drives to a spare drive for data safety, did a repair installation with XPpro SP1 and all was ok again. I did not need to use the backup drives. Maybe luck. Afterwards I used JV16 to remove the new unused Reg. entries. They had to use their own machines as I do not permit any use of MSwindows in our University grounds. Regards

Jurgen

 

[bcastner]

Boot into Safe Mode.
Then:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=304449

 

[wantstolearncfm]

It seems there are problems with downloads other than the 'real' thing P2p networks are spreading this file which is where the trouble i have just encounted came from.
Looks like a reformat job to me totally wreked from what i can tell.
I think the 266 meg version (i think that is the size) the big network edition one is the only one i wouldtrust

 

[piracydontsux]

i've slipstreamed sp2 onto xp pro with an invalid no and put it on an old machine! no problems occured either in the the slipstreaming process or the loading of xp pro. also installed on an original xp pro and no problem at all. you must be very unlucky.

 

[linney]

This seems to be one update where you really should take the advise offered about backing up your system before installing the Service Pack.

875350 - How to remove Windows XP Service Pack 2 from your computer

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;875350&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

875355 - How to use the Automatic Recovery feature to recover your computer if the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Setup program is not completed successfully

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;875355&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

329015 - How to Manually Remove Windows XP Service Pack 1

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329015&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

878454 - How to help protect your computer if you decide to remove Windows XP Service Pack 2

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;878454&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH