When not to update to Windows XP SP2...

smee

Senior Member
Saturday afternoon, 2 weeks before Christmas.

This turns out to not be a very good time to do the update if you run into problems.

I decided it was about time to update my primary PC to SP2. The machine had passed sweeps for adware and viruses. So I went ahead and did the update. Then, of course, my computer entered a continuous restart cycle. I could enter safe mode, but couldn't do anything to repair it. After a few cycles of trying to figure something out, it decided it wouldn't even boot into safe mode.

So, I decided that I might as well start over with a new install of XP. I didn't want to overwrite the hard drive in case I need to pull something off it. I have recent backups of most data, but I didn't make a recent email backup. And, I'm sure there's other stuff I will be pulling off it.

It's really been time to clean things up for a while now, so I decided to go buy a new hard drive. Best Buy had an 80G Seagate with a 5 year warranty on sale (through yesterday) for $40 after rebate. So off I go to Best Buy. This is why it was the wrong time - Best Buy on a Saturday 2 weeks before Christmas is not really the place I want to be.

Actually, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I parked nowhere near the entrance so I didn't have to fight too much parking lot traffic (just the traffic to get into the parking lot). I was able to locate the drive easily enough and get into the single long line to checkout. I actually like the way Best Buy handles their lines at Christmas - a single line with someone assigning you to a register when you get to the head of the line. It works better than trying to find the best line. Of course, when I finally got to the register, the guy ahead of me was paying with a check. The clerk ID'd him for the check. Then the clerk ID'd him to prove he was over 17 (to buy Grand Theft Auto), after he had already put his driver's license away. And the guy was obviously over 17 - you need to lead a pretty hard life to look that grizzled at 17. Then, the tool the clerk used to remove the security box from the game wouldn't work. He needed to wander to several other registers to find one.

After that, it was quick to pay and get out. Until I got stuck in traffic taking the secret back exit from Best Buy. Still faster than going out the front, though.

After that, it was uneventful. The drive went in. I reinstalled XP Pro. I downloaded all updates (through SP2). Now it's just the fun of installing all the software that was on it. At least I can install all new versions of some of the stuff (without leaving bits and pieces of old versions around).

I've got the old hardrive connected through USB so I can use it as a reference.

Eventually, maybe, I'll get to work on something I want to work on.
 
Too late now but it was probably something as simple as a driver that needed to be updated. It took me about a month to figure out what driver it was but i finally got mine to stop rebooting after i installed SP2. Turns out mine was a ATI Video driver that needed to be upgraded. My pc would work fine for the most part but about 3 times a day it would crash and give me the blue screen. the errors i was sending to Microsoft were saying that the problem was a USB port problem and finally i figured since ATI's drivers have been causing me other problems from day one that i would try to update that driver.

ATI's new driver seems to be Rock Solid! Hope it stays the way.
 
Actually, I believe it may very well have been the video driver (based on where it was dying). However, it got to the point where it wouldn't even boot into safe mode to let me fiddle with the driver.

Rather than trying to repair it (and hope that nothing else was messed up), I figured it was probably as good an excuse as any to go ahead and rebuild a clean system.
 
Well, let me tell you if you have iVista 4.0 and use it to stream video, there's no good time to upgrade to XP SP2 - because iVista won't stream to remote machines and they aren't going to patch 4.0. You need to buy a new version of their software! guess iVista will go the way of W2k here - eventually it'll die and be replaced with something that works.

hehe, you're adventures sond like mine, smee. What Best Buy did you go to? Yesterday, the one at Sawgrass Mills Mall didn't even HAVE free parking spaces in the lot! I just circled, and circled, and circled...
 
As a former IVista customer, I would never use their product again. Their idea of support is a strange one at best.... I went to Vision GS, which works just fine with SP-2.

SP-2 GOOD

IVista BAAAAD
 
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