CONTRIBUTE: SP2 Problems and fixes

**tutor** · September 29th, 2004, 09:28 PM

We produce educational software and use an authoring program used by major companies throughout the world to train employees. After installing SP2 we realized that certain types of questions in the evaluation could not be completed correctly since letters being typed in by a user were repeated 10x. We have been trying to find a solution since our software has been crippled from the point of view of an XP user. The producer of the authoring program tells us it will not be able to provide a solution for about 3 months (can you believe it??) After reading your posts on DEP we were wondering if that might be a temporary fix.

We welcome any comments or suggestions. Thanks for the postings. Very interesting reading!

**confus-ed** · September 30th, 2004, 03:39 AM

Welcome to the forums Tutor

..After reading your posts on DEP we were wondering if that might be a temporary fix...

Which bits ? My 'chewing gum & string' comments ? I'd suggest 'expert only' & 'last resort' are also comments I should have chucked in

Though I'm happy to expound if you give me a few clues on your situation

**Vergence** · October 7th, 2004, 10:40 AM

I had this problem on my computer at work:

New computer- using Win98 CD as the base and installing the Win XP upgrade ( I didn't do it, i just asked what he did). Install of Win Xp complete. Everything looks good, all applications installed look ok too.
Then I go (like a smarta$$) to install SP2 (nothing to lose right?). My ID was a member of Administrators on the box. Soafter it finishes and asked to reboot:
On boot I get a dos-like message: Error Loading Operating System.
I tried checking out the BIOS but everything there looked ok, can't get into safe mode (gives me the error before it will accept F8) either. Anyone encounter this before? Do we need to wipe and reinstall? This has pretty much convinced me that I'm not installing SP2 on my home computer.

Vergence

**CeeBee** · October 7th, 2004, 11:56 AM

Here's one that I've just found:
When defragmenting a striped NTFS volume that was formatted with more than 4k/cluster (in my case 64k), dfrgntfs.exe does not quit when the defragmentation is being interrupted. Even more, it seems like it keeps defragmenting in the background. If another defragmentation is attempted, the system will almost lock (mouse moving, attempting to start other apps will cause them to show in the task manager, but they don't start). Ctrl-alt-del stops working at this point as well. This issue can be reproduced. WinXP has been installed once from a Sp1a CD then upgraded to SP2 and once from a SP2-slipstreamed CD. I haven't checked if the issue is present in other SP levels.
dfrgntfs.exe version is 5.1.2600.2180 (2004-08-03).

**vanderer** · October 24th, 2004, 10:27 AM

hey can you guys please help me out i today installed SP2 and i have notebook compaq P3 1.2GHZ +384memory with Mobility radeon 16mb with win xp pro with all the updates in it and mcafee virusscan+firewall all works nice anyway install went nice and everything seems working but on network connections and local area connection i have adsl 512mb has this mark "!" and speed is shrinked.it says this after you click open local are connection:

limited or no connectivity: you might not be able to access internet or some network resources. this problem occurred because the network did not assign a network address for the computer.

can click repair it tries to find ip address again but no help.

network connection details are have physical address.ip address and subnet mask but default gateway,dns server and wins server are empty.

any ideas guys whats up? i have windows firewall disabled. and also in system tray that icon for windows security it has an X as disabled but can that be taken off from there its annoying

thanks in advance

**MorseLady** · November 7th, 2004, 06:38 PM

I gotta do it! It works OK on my spare computer but I know I must install the dreaded SP2 on this computer because our Instructor on my Server 2003 MCP course says so and I think all the others have done it!

A friend told me that SP2 on a clean or recent install of XP is much more likely to work without problems and that's why it works on my spare machine.

Anyway, SP2 is shipping with all retail copies of XP and in OEM installs and as I am about to buy a new computer with XP Pro on I guess I get SP2 whether I like it or not so here goes DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW............................................... .........he who hesitates is lost

bit like self destruction installing this SP2 OK bye here goes

**confus-ed** · November 8th, 2004, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by MorseLady

..A friend told me that SP2 on a clean or recent install of XP is much more likely to work without problems and that's why it works on my spare machine...

Anyway, SP2 is shipping with all retail copies of XP and in OEM installs and as I am about to buy a new computer with XP Pro on I guess I get SP2 whether I like it or not ..

So its worth repeating that most sp2 woes are issues with something thats not compliant with win api's fully & it mayn't make it work 'better' - but at least you can fathom whats not compliant this way if you have issues as you should see most of them as you install (as hopefully windows is fully compatible with itself -what am I saying ? ) - & this is one of the reasons why they are now 'forcing' this out - that & all the vulnerablities you have with an unpatched copy - even an sp1 slip streamed one ..

**Mustang** · December 9th, 2004, 08:55 PM

Ok Microsoft has made a toll free number for persons with service pack 2 having os issues...
Also service pack 1 is being supported as well.. ((( FOR FREE )))

TECH SUPPORT!!!

Seems They are eating crow and admitting they
have serious problems with service pack 2 and are giving
out free support!

1-888-772-4357
M-F 7am-11pm
Saturdays 8am-5pm

**TechZ** · December 10th, 2004, 05:23 AM

thanks for the update Mustang!

**lfoz** · July 27th, 2005, 12:41 PM

I'm glad i found these posts...I've been setting things up with XP Pro Sp2 and having a lot of difficulty and problems with programs running (that used to work fine before on windows 2000)...I had to reinstall the entire operating yesterday because under admnistrator there was no desktop (including the start button).

**TechZ** · July 30th, 2005, 02:31 AM

I found this site to be very useful, not only does it contain all the links to pretty much every hotfix/update for WindowsXP, its also keeping tracking of post SP2/pre SP3 patches

Link

**confus-ed** · July 30th, 2005, 03:48 AM

Originally Posted by TechZ

.. its also keeping tracking of post SP2/pre SP3 patches..

Oh give up !! .. I've had enough trouble with 1& 2 .. don't be scaring me & be talking about another one, already !

**lfoz** · August 3rd, 2005, 09:47 AM

They need to get sp2 working correctly first...Hopefully sp3 is way way off...I have mcdst training next month and i can't wait to hea the complaints....and don't worry, unlike other people i'll be sharing al the answers to the mcdst exam....a little help never hurt anyone!!!!! I actually had more problems with XP than any other OS...My verizon wireless card ran extremely funny (in/out of range) and cisco VPN wouldn't work right also...Of course both companies blamed XP....

**rpb1** · August 28th, 2005, 10:14 AM

SP2's DEP issue on an Athlon64 PCI Express system with Goback 3 or Goback 4 (or other "incompatible" applications/programs) can be resolved easily by adding the following after the default Boot in Boot.ini

/noexecute=alwaysoff /NOPAE

so that it reads something like

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXPH="Micros oft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /noexecute=alwaysoff /NOPAE

instead of

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXPH="Micros oft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

System Restore ONLY works if Windows will boot .... If you delete your Windows folder or rename it and empty the recycle bin system restore is useless ... if you delete all your fonts and try to use system restore ... it is useless .... Goback can fix all those and more .... I disable the useless System Restore (patterned after Second Chance from Powerqueswt [which is discontinued software,] and use Goback

**Archer** · August 28th, 2005, 10:33 AM

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP

Start the System Restore tool at a command prompt
1. Restart your computer, and then press F8 during the initial startup to start your computer in Safe Mode with a command prompt.

For additional information about the Safe mode with a command prompt, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
315222 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/) A description of the Safe mode boot options in Windows XP
2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.
3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state.