SP2 fails, then computer fails to boot

[Guest]

Hi,
I'm posting this on the newsgroups too, but you seem about the most
knowledgable person on there, so I wanted to be sure you saw this. I
had SP1 and all High priority updates installed. The only outstanding
one was SP2. I downloaded it and installed it. About 70% through the
installation, it failed. It said a file did not match the manifest
(or something similar) but did not tell me the name of the file in
question. All it did was say to click OK and it would uninstall SP2.
So I did, and it did, but when it rebooted, it failed to come all the
way up. It gets past the XP Pro screen with the progress bar, turns
to a blue screen where normally I would see a message like 'starting
up', 'starting network', etc. It does not show these messages. It
just thinks for a minute, and then reboots again.

I have tried Safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, safe mode with
networking, and last known good configuration. Nothing. I did create
a restore point before installing SP2, but I can't get anywhere to run
it.

Ideas?

Thanks,
Malcolm

 

[Jerry]

Did you try booting from the XP CD and then do a repair install? I don't
know if anyhting else could help at this point.

 

[Guest]

I finally resorted to that, and am now going through Windows Update again to
bring all patches up to current...except SP2. I'm leary of trying that
again. When it failed, it didn't tell me which file failed, so I fear the
contamination is still there somewhere.

Malcolm

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I finally resorted to that, and am now going through Windows Update again to
bring all patches up to current...except SP2. I'm leary of trying that
again. When it failed, it didn't tell me which file failed, so I fear the
contamination is still there somewhere.

Malcolm,

if you ever want to try SP2 again, have a look at
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm first.

Hans-Georg