A reader shares this tale of woe:
I thought I would share the disastrous results I had with Windows SP2.
I would consider myself an experienced user as I act as the IS manager for our retirement system. We have operations on a mid-sized AS/400 operation, Windows Servers, and use a Linux server.
This was my personal machine at home. No work software installed.
It was installed on a genuine Intel 2.0 ghz, 768 meg. mem., 60 Gig harddrive space – over 1/2 free. Windows XP Professional with every update religiously done when they come out to date before SP 2 was placed on.
The following resulted:
– Windows Update no longer can work on this machine. It gets the error “08EFD”. I have tried all recommended changes. Some of the sections it says to go to no longer exist on my computer; they did prior to the SP2 installation. Windows own site cannot overcome it’s own XP Professional update.
– I have the Administrator rights prior to the installation. After SP2 I am listed as the Administrator, but every program that refers to those rights says I do NOT have Administrator rights.
– Both Internet Explorer (6.0 with SP1) or Netscape (7.1) will NOT allow entry into any SECURED site. Any attempt to use a secure site comes with the message of cannot detect settings.
– Both browsers will allow entry to any UNsecured site.
– The Opera 7.5 browser installation that worked without conflict prior to SP 2 installation was deactivated completely, automatically, and the desktop icon automatically removed by SP2.
– Norton Internet Security was previously installed WITHOUT the Firewall activated. NI will NOT allow me to make any modifications to it because it states I don’t have Administrator rights. I can’t even uninstall it for the original CD.
_ Norton Utilities was particular hardhit with conflicts in the SP2 installation. It’s Internet Security product was in direct conflict with SP2. But you go to a Symantec website, and all you read is about glowing reports that nothings wrong.
– The internet is so crucial to my business, that this machine has now become totally useless. I feel my only approach is to wipe it all and go through the Microsoft installation dance.
– I couldn’t recover using Powerquest Drive Image because that also has been made unusable so any backup I had is unavailable because Drive Image no longer works.I finally, manually, removed every Windows Update item that referred to SP2. The remove feature required me to do this one by one. It took 25 reboots. After that I could get Drive Image, my main backup to work, and go back to an earlier save. Yes, I get the old pop ups back, but at least I have my computer back. Since we are all required to use Microsoft products, Microsoft should take better care.
I am particular disturbed as to how badly Symantec’s Internet Security screwed up in SP2. It locked me out of my own machine! It wouldn’t let me uninstall it, and it’s options were unworkable.
Microsoft supposedly spent $300 million on this update; at the same time giving away $36 billion to it’s shareholders. Maybe they could have diverted another 1% of their excess cash to get this right ($360 million).
“I couldn’t recover using Powerquest Drive Image because that also has been made unusable so any backup I had is unavailable because Drive Image no longer works.”
I’m no techno-whiz, but why couldn’t you run Drive Image from the CD and restore the appropriate partition(s)? [I’ve used this method myself (Drive Image 7).
I was more fortunate: I installed SP2 recently with apparently no hitches…. In fact, it was spooky, because the installation didn’t even hiccup at any point. –knock wood– (though why I need, for example, Media Player 9 to be part of a service pack release is beyond my comprehension– makes me wonder how much of the approx. 75 MB of download is really crucial, and how much has been padded to make it seem like a major upgrade).
I had no problems either, but to be frank, vast experience with MS upgrades has trained me to apply such large upgrades only to a clean system. This is entirely unreasonable, of course, but it does work well. Why can’t MS simply state that this is the preferred application of upgrades? Oh, never mind, I know better than that!
I would have teased that AS-400 manager for thinking the upgrade would work without significant cleanup, but I’ve managed AS-400’s, too, and you can in fact expect upgrades to work on that system. I think this is partly why bigger iron hasn’t been completely displaced by PC’s. Why displace something that works and works well?
Nothing major enough to make me work my way back to a restore point — though I set one before even starting — and the SP2 “update” also set one, eighteen minutes into the download and, again, about 20 minutes later during setup.
Still, the several folks I know who’ve done the SP2 “upgrade” all had conflicts with Norton Anti-Virus as a minimum. We not only had strange hiccups getting both laptops to log onto our wireless G+ network, I still have XP, now, trying to override the Linksys software running my wi-fi — about every third or fourth time I log on with the laptop.
The dumbest firewall issue has been the new XP firewall trying to warn me about using Microsoft Fax! Give me a break.
Now, today, a new wi-fi conflict with OpenOffice’s Word. I wanted to complete a draft of a new thread for an exercise and health site. It was a beautiful late summer/early autumn morning; so, I grabbed the laptop and headed out to the portal of our workshop with a monster coffee and a couple of fresh-baked cookies.
Logged onto the wi-fi easy as pie. Navigated to the draft on our main desktop machine, loaded it onto the laptop to sit back and polish it up. Except it loaded to the laptop as Read Only. Now, I’ve done the “upgrade” on all the machines. I don’t know which is the offender. But, all the permissions are set correctly on each machine. As they were beforehand. The properties [read from each end] show the file has NO restrictions. And the fix was even dumber.
Because I, then, saved a copy of the file to the laptop. That became editable. Then, saved the completed version, 1st to the laptop My Docs folder — and, then, back to the original My Docs file on the desktop — AND IT OVERWROTE THE ORIGINAL.
Whatever.
I’ve heard of the SP2 bug where if you right click on anything it restarts your computer.
I installed SP2, but found that background programs continuously took up 100% of my CPU resources and Windows Explorer crashed constantly telling me that something-or-other was trying to write a particularly section of memory (it was one of the new security feature in SP2, but I can’t remember what it was called).
Reboots sporadically wouldn’t work and would just lock-up at the screen with the scrolling blue bar.
Eventually I just wiped the C: partition and reinstalled XP with SP1a.
XP SP 2 worked good on my barely-used laptop. Haven’t been brave enough to try on any of other computers yet.
Loaded SP2 on a fairly freshly built-up 3.0 gHz 1.0 GB DDR400 PC intended for HTPC/Multimedia work — no files aboard, so I figured to take a chance. No immediate problems, but after the second or third boot it blew up and refused to even boot. Reformatted, reloaded XP and all programs, and it works fine — but I had to talk to the XP police to reactivate the XP Pro.
Before the first PC SP2 blew up on me, I got incautious and tried SP2 on our main workhorse: 3.0 gHz, 2.0 GB DDR400. Again, the files were all safe, on a different partition and on external drives, so let her rip — I expected a fair chance of success (again, PC 1 hadn’t blown up yet), but never got any where close to success. Same remedy — reformat, reload, reboot — but XP Activation mysteriously left me alone!
I don’t think either of the other PCs around here — a Shuttle with an old 3.0 gHz Northwood cpu used for auxiliary purposes, or an even older 2.8 gHz server, are getting the SP2 treatment at all!
Rule One before running any service pack: check your PC for viruses, spyware and other such applications that will affect whether your system files will be updated properly.
Viruses: I have used both Mcafee and Symantec.
Spyware: I use Spybot Search and Destroy; others use AdAware with good results. Like virus programs, keep them up to date.
My SP2 update took a long time; a half hour to download over a 1.5 Meg cable modem, 15 minutes to do the validation, and 15 minutes doing the update, but everything works.
SP2 on 2nd Machine – Minor Burps this time, but only minor.
SP2 just went on my second machine. Only minor problems, related to Microsoft’s crappy “Security Center.” (Ever notice how most of the time spent installing a Microsoft product is disabling all of the crappy stuff.)
Anyway, I finally convinced the Security Center that I really really really didn’t want MS’s firewall running. (It kept “forgetting,” which of course instills great confidence in the Security Center….
More important, I finally got the crappy little Security Center icon out of my taskbar. Pesky pesky pesky.
The Security Center is just a pure joke anyway. Typical Microsoft: lots of colors and panels with an encompassing-sounding name… “Security Center”… which does, well, nothing really. If you’ve already installed your third-party firewall and anti-virus protection, the “Security Center” is just a great big interface of… NOTHING. Of course, you can turn your automatic updates on and off from here. Wow.
Why does Microsoft bundle these second-rate products anyway? I mean, they finally have a reasonably reliable OS in WinXP, and they could coast along on that. But no, they have to glue a third-rate firewall into your palm, an also-ran internet browser, the latest version of Windows Media Player, etc. Why not just make these optional downloads? Could it be that the emperor’s clothes would thereby be revealed– a download of perhaps only 15 MB after all of the crappy-ware has been stripped? (“I waited a couple of years for *this*?, users would holler.)
Incidentally, I alluded to “the latest version of Windows Media Player” being bundled with SP2. It’s not. Version 10 is already out– this even as SP2 CDs are being mailed out across the country. Who coordinates the timing of these releases anyway?
You’ll have to excuse the rant. I was off-line for 30 hours (no power) because of storms from Hurricane Frances, and I need to let out a good blast to feel alive again.
I didn’t mean a word of it, Bill III. I am sure your mother is very proud of you.
While I’m on the subject of superfluous software integrated with SP2, I finally remembered to “peek” on the SP2 CD which I just received: Shouldn’t the ValueAdd folder have an XP version of Hover or something… Now that’s the kind of crappy-ware that I expect to find as a hidden bonus. 🙂
after SP2, installing unsigned (not blessed by MS) apps was forbidden, not optional. A bit torrent client also stopped working. Friends who can’t understand why MS , with it’s ability to hire the best brains in the world is plagued by such bad design. (ie Recent JPEG flaw) They’ve fled for Apples or even Linux. (Of course it could be deliberate bad design) SP3 should be the safest yet. It’ll drive the rest of us into the Apple or Linux (refugee) camps. Then we’ll finally have safe computing
I installed SP2 from CD. After setup, it appeared that I had a problem with Drive Image 7.03 as it took up to 7 minutes to fully boot the system. After checking with Windows event reporting, I discovered that Drive Image was not loading properly because XP was polling the CD drive looking for the presence a CD. XP SP2 is now up & running very well except that I must keep a CD, any CD, in the CD-RW drive at all times.
Anyone know what I need to reconfigure to eliminate this minor inconvenience?
I haven’t had many problems with SP2 – note i said not many as opposed to not any…
Firt off was the incompatability issues with 2 of my drive cleaning programs, then it was a screen-capture program, then most recently i have been plagued with Activation notices, about 3 weeks into the most recent install.
I slip-streamed the install with SP2 & everything associated with Windows XP has worked almost without incident, until the activation issue.
Seeing as i have an OEM install of the full product, the inherent ‘5-install limit’ is keeping me from activating now.
I have gone thru 4 major upgrades in the past year & a half and am NOT looking forward to shelling out another $200 for a new number in order to simply install the same thing i already paid for.
I have contacted MS & spoke with some gal who muttered the absolute worst broken-English i think i’ve ever encountered, and was assured there would be a new Activation number assigned & sent to me in my email. when it finally did arrive it was for a RETAIL version of XP HOME, not OEM version of XP PRO as i had plainly stated numerous times.
These people are all about the $$$ i guess. I certainly haven’t achieved any sort of ‘satisfied customer’ status as far as the backing up of their products goes.
All of the installs have been on my own pc, which I upgraded myself (2 motherboards & 2 processors, along with 2 new HD’s in the last year & a half).
now i am running an AMD Athlon XP 2500+, 768Mb of DDR333, a 20-, 80- and 120Gb seagate hard drive… and it’s all come down to this?!
Just when ‘the little guy’ starts to get ahead, Big Business has to knock him back down several rungs on the ladder it seems.
Pardon my expression & the obvious tone with which this comes out, but WTF?!
Anyone have any ideas which might save the production, credibility & $ of a ‘little guy’? (…aside from switching to another OS… this is the OS i have finally come to understand and the dog is too old to start learning new tricks).
At any rate, thanx for browsing my little rant…
John
Install sp2 from scratch and only put word on it and it will work fine. Please do not add 3rd party software as this will destroy your machine. You do not need any other software on your computer that isnt Microsoft. This is what the Microsoft techs want you to do. It is completly unrealistic in the real world but just go to thier forum and it is nothing but a Microsoft commercial on how thier products are great but dont add 3rd party products cause they are all bad.
Brice,
Thank you, thank you I have not been able to use Drive Image 7.03 since I installed SP2. I have been working with their support group without any luck. This has been going on for over two months. I even went so far as to restore the original XP Professional and applied SP2 and still had the same problem. I thought that some other software or modification I had made to the system might be causing the problem. To allow my system to boot properly while leaving Drive Image installed, I changed the V2iProtector service start option from Automatic to Manual. Now with your workaround when I want to use Drive Image I put a CD in the CD/RW drive and then start the V2iProtector service. This way I will not have to leave a CD in the drive at all times.
Also, I have both a DVD/RW and CD/RW drives and it is only the CD/RW drive that needs the CD to be in place for Drive Image to initialize correctly. Before I did my Google search this morning using DRIVE IMAGE and SP2 as search arguments and found your comments, I was going to remove SP2 and live without it.
Thank you again, Gene
CAN I EVER RELATE TO THE HORRORS OF SP2.!!!!!! IT TOTALLY DESTROYED MY COMPUTER TO THE POINT WHERE I COULD NOT EVEN GET INTO IT TO DELETE THE SP2. I HAD TO SPENT 3 DAYS AND $40 TO HAVE HELP TO EVEN GET INTO MY COMPUTER TO TOTALLY DELETE E V E R Y TH I N G. THEN I HAD TO START FROM SCRATCH TO REINSTALL EVERYTHING.
WHAT GETS ME MOST IS THAT I STILL GET THE MICROSOFT POPUPS TO INSTALL U P G R A D E S , E.G., SP2. SAD!!!!
Gene –
Happy to hear that someone else is able to use my workaround for the SP2/Drive Image conflict. Sorry to hear that your computer has the same problem as mine! I also contacted the Drive Image support group & found they didn’t have a clue!
After reading your comment, I replaced my CD-RW drive with a DVD-RW drive. I can now leave the V2iProtector service running WITHOUT leaving a CD in the drive. Too wierd!
Thanks for mentioning that your DVD drive didn’t need a disk!!
Brice
I am still getting automatic reminders to UPDATE, which is fine. BUT, every time I look into these automatic updates (without opening them), I get the same SP2 and no other necessary updates. Therefore, my computer has been fine. Of course, I also installed anti-anti-anti – you name it —and paid for it .
I periodically check to see if anybody has something positive to say about the SP2, because my windows update is still “bugging” me to install it as the latest “necessary” update to keep my computer running trouble-free.
I had to spendimoney and time to get rid of SP2 which completely disabled my computer and required me to literally start from scratch , I installed a $50 anti-everything and have had no problems whatsoever.
What is Microsoft’s obsession with the SP2?????