SP2 story - did I do well?

[David]

I have deployed SP2 on a number of systems to date as I am sick of cleaning
up desktops and laptops of security issues that could have been avoided by
the user. I am living in hope that SP2 will help reduce my workload. We have
also gone through a period of testing in operation, so I/we are confident
its a good upgrade.

However, I installed it on a desktop this weekend that caused my confidence
to plummet. The desktop used a ASUS MoBo with Silicon Images SATA (and RAID)
interface. This was the S3112 set. The SATA drive was a single C: drive....
no RAID.

SP2 installed fine from the CD-ROM (of the 250 Meg download) and went to
reboot. On reboot it could not find the registry. At that point I was torn
between bad (read old) SATA drivers where the OS couldn't find the drive or
indeed a corrupt registry.

I popped in an XP CD and ran recovery consol having first made a floppy of
the SATA drivers so I could F6 it. Now in recovery consol the SATA drive
could be seen...... and I did the registry swap with the repair registry,
but on rebooting I got the XP logo and then a high speed BSD.... you know
the one you cannot see but for a millisecond or so.

It been Sunday on a labor day weekend, I figured I was on my own on this
one, so I quickly created a second clean install of XP on the machine and it
worked.

Did I then install SP2? Not on your life. The machine has gone back to its
owner in the hope that he doesn't pollute the Internet with more security
holes, and it has made me consider now before I upgrade any more machines
with SP2.

I will continue to read up on this issue and have only found one suggestion
on a forum to date regarding DEP. Of course I was not able to perform the
advice offered for a number of reasons.

Ideas anyone?

Jethro

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Troubleshooting SP2 for Windows XP
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I have deployed SP2 on a number of systems to date as I am sick of cleaning
| up desktops and laptops of security issues that could have been avoided by
| the user. I am living in hope that SP2 will help reduce my workload. We have
| also gone through a period of testing in operation, so I/we are confident
| its a good upgrade.
|
| However, I installed it on a desktop this weekend that caused my confidence
| to plummet. The desktop used a ASUS MoBo with Silicon Images SATA (and RAID)
| interface. This was the S3112 set. The SATA drive was a single C: drive....
| no RAID.
|
| SP2 installed fine from the CD-ROM (of the 250 Meg download) and went to
| reboot. On reboot it could not find the registry. At that point I was torn
| between bad (read old) SATA drivers where the OS couldn't find the drive or
| indeed a corrupt registry.
|
| I popped in an XP CD and ran recovery consol having first made a floppy of
| the SATA drivers so I could F6 it. Now in recovery consol the SATA drive
| could be seen...... and I did the registry swap with the repair registry,
| but on rebooting I got the XP logo and then a high speed BSD.... you know
| the one you cannot see but for a millisecond or so.
|
| It been Sunday on a labor day weekend, I figured I was on my own on this
| one, so I quickly created a second clean install of XP on the machine and it
| worked.
|
| Did I then install SP2? Not on your life. The machine has gone back to its
| owner in the hope that he doesn't pollute the Internet with more security
| holes, and it has made me consider now before I upgrade any more machines
| with SP2.
|
| I will continue to read up on this issue and have only found one suggestion
| on a forum to date regarding DEP. Of course I was not able to perform the
| advice offered for a number of reasons.
|
| Ideas anyone?
|
| Jethro

 

[dmac]

I had similar registry problem with sp2 on gigabyte ga8ik1100 rev 1 board
with raid 0.This board uses intel ichr5 sata/raid controller not SI, but
maybe they are acting similar.
The registry was able to rebuild but I had nothing but problems since then.
even removing sp2 didn't help.
The biggest problem was that right clicking any folder on C drive and
selecting properties did nothing.
MANY!! emails back and forth with Microsoft support trying various things
(including creating new admin account due to a similar reported problem) did
not help.
since it was all cluttered anyways I just did fresh install then immediately
put sp2 in. seems to work ok.
only issue I see is my printer folder doesn't show what's in queue for each
printer w/o opening printer.
This board uses intel ichr5 sata/raid controller not SI, but maybe they are
acting similar.
I still would like to know why though, if you ever find out what was the
root of your issue would you please let me know? my workplace will be
rolling out xp pro sp2 in next few months and I end up getting a lot of the
pc related questions there.
TIA

 

[Larsen]

Hey,
I have to stick my oar in here, as I wonder through the
site reading threads trying to find some clue about fixing
my PC.
I had a great, smooth running fast WinXP machine, always
updated, Norton AV, zonelabs, spybot, a clean machine.

Auto update sent me the SP2, so I let it do it. since then
I have been going from one problem to another, if it isnt
kernel stack errors, or random boot failures, its hangs and
crashes, and now it seems i am not even able to change or
update device drivers because access is denied.

I have tried restores, recoveries, and have sat here
watching reboots pretty much all weekend. I will NEVER let
Autoupdate autoupdate again. I will ONLY install service
packs, and this will be the last MS OS I will actually buy.
If I can get it free with a system I will take it, but i
refuse to spend hours/days every year fixing MS's fixes and
patches.

Anyway, thats my opinion, if you got this far, thanks for
listening, if you have any ideas, apart from reinstalling
everything, which is where i am now, and I'm just off to
buy another drive to do it on.

All the best! chin up!

Larsen

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I have to stick my oar in here, as I wonder through the
site reading threads trying to find some clue about fixing
my PC.
I had a great, smooth running fast WinXP machine, always
updated, Norton AV, zonelabs, spybot, a clean machine.

Auto update sent me the SP2, so I let it do it. since then
I have been going from one problem to another, if it isnt
kernel stack errors, or random boot failures, its hangs and
crashes, and now it seems i am not even able to change or
update device drivers because access is denied.

Larsen,

Athlon 64?

Just read http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm for solutions and
workarounds.

Hans-Georg

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I had similar registry problem with sp2 on gigabyte ga8ik1100 rev 1 board
with raid 0.This board uses intel ichr5 sata/raid controller not SI, but
maybe they are acting similar.
The registry was able to rebuild but I had nothing but problems since then.
even removing sp2 didn't help.
The biggest problem was that right clicking any folder on C drive and
selecting properties did nothing.
MANY!! emails back and forth with Microsoft support trying various things
(including creating new admin account due to a similar reported problem) did
not help.
since it was all cluttered anyways I just did fresh install then immediately
put sp2 in. seems to work ok.
only issue I see is my printer folder doesn't show what's in queue for each
printer w/o opening printer.
This board uses intel ichr5 sata/raid controller not SI, but maybe they are
acting similar.
I still would like to know why though, if you ever find out what was the
root of your issue would you please let me know? my workplace will be
rolling out xp pro sp2 in next few months and I end up getting a lot of the
pc related questions there.

The root of the problem can be the SATA/RAID controller driver,
an obsolete BIOS version, perhaps in connection with an Athlon
64 processor or some other processors. Please read the relevant
chapters in http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm for details.

Hans-Georg

 

[dmac]

P4 with updated bios but I think, also, it is a sata/raid controller
issue.ich5r driver is updated....
for lack of a better term it appeared that it wasn't "reading" the info
correctly on the c drive folders.


--
(e-mail address removed)
remove 1 to reply
P4 2.8 OC to 3.1
1024 mb DDR466 Buffalo
Ati 9800Pro 256 AGP
Twin Seagate 120 set RAID 0

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

P4 with updated bios but I think, also, it is a sata/raid controller
issue.ich5r driver is updated....
for lack of a better term it appeared that it wasn't "reading" the info
correctly on the c drive folders.

Did updating the driver solve the problem?

Hans-Georg

 

[dmac]

Didn't help a bit, driver was only out of date 1 revision anyways.

--
(e-mail address removed)
remove 1 to reply
P4 2.8 OC to 3.1
1024 mb DDR466 Buffalo
Ati 9800Pro 256 AGP
Twin Seagate 120 set RAID 0

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Didn't help a bit, driver was only out of date 1 revision anyways.

In relation to the very recent Service Pack 2 release that may
be 1 revision too much out of date.

Hans-Georg

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Didn't help a bit, driver was only out of date 1 revision anyways.

Is the new driver older or younger than Service Pack 2?

Hans-Georg

 

[dmac]

older I think, but on fresh install of xp with sp2 both this driver and
previous work fine.

--
(e-mail address removed)
remove 1 to reply
P4 2.8 OC to 3.1
1024 mb DDR466 Buffalo
Ati 9800Pro 256 AGP
Twin Seagate 120 set RAID 0

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

older I think, but on fresh install of xp with sp2 both this driver and
previous work fine.

A repair installation of Windows XP could help if none of the
other points in http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm solves the
problem.

Hans-Georg