Service Pack 2 Woes...

[Guest]

OK, so I sent my computer in for repairs, and I have now a new harddrive for
it. The computer did not have Windows installed, so I used my disks from when
I first bought it (in June 2003) to install Windows. After it installed, I
went to download Windows updates. So no problems, until I reached the Service
Pack 2.

First, Service Pack 1 didn't download, I don't know if that is relevant.

Second, it downloaded fine, I think, and when it was installing, it froze
halfway for about 3 hours. I asked on these forums what to do, and they told
me to exit windows, and it should resume. ...well I eventually did, but when
windows started up, it showed me a blueish screen saying recovering., or
something or other, and now I am getting:

"The Windows Service Pack instalation did not complete. This system is in an
unstable state. Go to Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs and choose to
uninstall the Windows Service Pack, or contact your system administrator."

The service pack didn't resume installing, and when I see the threads about
removing the service pack, the errors scare me x.x I don't mind reinstalling
windows, but if this happens again...

 

[Guest]

SP2 contains SP1, so you don't need to download it.

You can try uninstalling the service pack. Reboot Windows and see if
everything comes up. If not, you can run a Windows repair on your system to
see if this fixes the problem. If not, you may just want to do a fresh
install of Windows, download SP2 to your PC and install it that way.

 

[Jim]

OK, so I sent my computer in for repairs, and I have now a new harddrive
for
it. The computer did not have Windows installed, so I used my disks from
when
I first bought it (in June 2003) to install Windows. After it installed, I
went to download Windows updates. So no problems, until I reached the
Service
Pack 2.

First, Service Pack 1 didn't download, I don't know if that is relevant.

Second, it downloaded fine, I think, and when it was installing, it froze
halfway for about 3 hours. I asked on these forums what to do, and they
told
me to exit windows, and it should resume. ...well I eventually did, but
when
windows started up, it showed me a blueish screen saying recovering., or
something or other, and now I am getting:

"The Windows Service Pack instalation did not complete. This system is in
an
unstable state. Go to Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs and choose to
uninstall the Windows Service Pack, or contact your system administrator."

The service pack didn't resume installing, and when I see the threads
about
removing the service pack, the errors scare me x.x I don't mind
reinstalling
windows, but if this happens again...

Did you make certain that your system is ready for SP2? This includes
(perhaps) flashing the BIOS, checking for the latest drivers, latest
versions of all software, etc.
There is more to installing SP2 than what you have described so far.
Jim

 

[Kerry Brown]

OK, so I sent my computer in for repairs, and I have now a new
harddrive for it. The computer did not have Windows installed, so I
used my disks from when I first bought it (in June 2003) to install
Windows. After it installed, I went to download Windows updates. So
no problems, until I reached the Service Pack 2.

First, Service Pack 1 didn't download, I don't know if that is
relevant.

Second, it downloaded fine, I think, and when it was installing, it
froze halfway for about 3 hours. I asked on these forums what to do,
and they told me to exit windows, and it should resume. ...well I
eventually did, but when windows started up, it showed me a blueish
screen saying recovering., or something or other, and now I am
getting:

"The Windows Service Pack instalation did not complete. This system
is in an unstable state. Go to Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs
and choose to uninstall the Windows Service Pack, or contact your
system administrator."

The service pack didn't resume installing, and when I see the threads
about removing the service pack, the errors scare me x.x I don't mind
reinstalling windows, but if this happens again...

How are you connected to the Internet? If you do not have a firewall in
place you probably contracted a worm. A pre SP1 XP computer can be infected
within seconds of connecting to the Internet. If you did this without a
firewall in place then you will probably have to start again with a clean
install. Make sure you do not have a network cable or a phone cable hooked
up until you have a firewall installed. You can use a software firewall or a
hardware firewall or NAT router. The easiest method to ensure you are
protected is to use a different computer, download SP2, burn it to CD,
install Windows on your computer, then immediately install SP2 from the CD.
Here is a link to download SP2.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...be-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&DisplayLang=en

Once you have SP2 installed you are safe to connect and download drivers,
Windows updates etc.

Kerry