Can't uninstall W2K SP4

[Dennis Freeze]

After installing SP4, my system wouldn't boot -- it
crashed every time with "Unexpected Kernel Mode Trap".
When I booted into Safe Mode, the keyboard didn't work.
Since I have to have this machine working for my business,
I decided to uninstall SP4 (to revert back to SP3). I
followed the procedure in Article 825062, but there seems
to be a problem. When I start the "batch spuninst.bat"
step, it went through a short list of "Access denied"
messages, then settled into a rhythm of "1 File(s)
Copied." It continued spitting out the same line about
every 6 seconds for almost 3 hours. Since the article
doesn't mention long delays, and because the "1 files
copied" message happens like clockwork every 6 seconds, it
appears that something is wrong.

I stopped it and restarted it, and it's doing the same
thing again. I'll let it run all night this time, but it
seems like it's not doing the right thing -- the
regularity of it defies logic, since the files are all
different sizes.

I booted up after stopping it the first time, but I get
the exact same "unexpected kernel mode trap" message, so
then I restarted it.

Is there hope of recovering my system to a usable state?
Any ideas for how to get back to SP3 and "normality"? Are
there logs I can check from the Recovery Console?

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[Leonard Severt [MSFT]]

After installing SP4, my system wouldn't boot -- it
crashed every time with "Unexpected Kernel Mode Trap".
When I booted into Safe Mode, the keyboard didn't work.
Since I have to have this machine working for my business,
I decided to uninstall SP4 (to revert back to SP3). I
followed the procedure in Article 825062, but there seems
to be a problem. When I start the "batch spuninst.bat"
step, it went through a short list of "Access denied"
messages, then settled into a rhythm of "1 File(s)
Copied." It continued spitting out the same line about
every 6 seconds for almost 3 hours. Since the article
doesn't mention long delays, and because the "1 files
copied" message happens like clockwork every 6 seconds, it
appears that something is wrong.

I stopped it and restarted it, and it's doing the same
thing again. I'll let it run all night this time, but it
seems like it's not doing the right thing -- the
regularity of it defies logic, since the files are all
different sizes.

I booted up after stopping it the first time, but I get
the exact same "unexpected kernel mode trap" message, so
then I restarted it.

Is there hope of recovering my system to a usable state?
Any ideas for how to get back to SP3 and "normality"? Are
there logs I can check from the Recovery Console?

Thanks,
Dennis

Its not looking good. The process you are trying is correct. The access
denied messages indicate that some files don't have administrator
access. Maybe someone was trying to tighten the system and removed
Everyone but didn't add Administrator. The uninstall batch file does
take a while as it is copying up to about 1300 files one at a time.
However it would not take 3 hours, more like 15 minutes and the longest
I have seen on slow system is 40 minutes. At this point I expect you
have a mixture of different versions of files. About the only thing you
can do is a repair install of Windows. Boot from CD, choose setup and
choose to repair the current install.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team