XP SP2 installer crashed

[Sam]

I finally gave in today and tried to install SP2 on it. Unfortunately, right
at the end, when it was saying stuff like "executing final commands" or
something like that, it crashed and the "send error report" box came up. So
I did, hoping maybe this was a known problem.

And according to error reporting, it was, but there was no solution. Except
to upgrade to SP2!!!?????

Then it quit, and windows update just assumed that the install was
successful. Nothing prompted me to restart.

I'm leaving the computer on right now, just in case the computer dies when I
reboot. It could very well be fine, but I'm not going to take that risk yet.
at the moment, I'm redownloading the SP2 installer (couldn't figure out
where windows update saves the installers) and I'm going to see what it says
when I try to install.

Anyone have similar experiences? Is there a better newsgroup to post this
in, where maybe some MS guys will read this?

 

[Steven L.]

I finally gave in today and tried to install SP2 on it. Unfortunately, right
at the end, when it was saying stuff like "executing final commands" or
something like that, it crashed and the "send error report" box came up. So
I did, hoping maybe this was a known problem.

And according to error reporting, it was, but there was no solution. Except
to upgrade to SP2!!!?????

Then it quit, and windows update just assumed that the install was
successful. Nothing prompted me to restart.

I'm leaving the computer on right now, just in case the computer dies when I
reboot. It could very well be fine, but I'm not going to take that risk yet.
at the moment, I'm redownloading the SP2 installer (couldn't figure out
where windows update saves the installers) and I'm going to see what it says
when I try to install.

Anyone have similar experiences?

Yep.
And in my case, everything worked out for the best:

When doing the install of SP2 yesterday, it got to the point where it
said "Performing cleanup." There it sat for the better part of two
hours, until it finally displayed the dialog "Install has encountered an
error and needs to close...Send Error Report\Don't send"

So I rebooted to see what would happen.

The system went thru some new but normal initialization, including
asking me for some settings for the new Security Center. After that, I
got my desktop back, and so far, everything looks fine and dandy. SP2
hasn't crashed once yet in 30 continuous hours of heavy use (Internet
downloads, Automatic Update, video, graphics, etc.).

So I don't want to take the responsibility of just telling you to
reboot. All I will say is that for me, that did the trick.

 

[Sam]

Thanks, I'll restart. . .

once this install is finished. I can't believe it--I spent the last couple
of hours debugging the error by looking through the sp2 install log. I found
out that it has to do with "migrating" the patches you already installed to
sp2 versions. It seems that on my computer, a couple of the patches weren't
really installed for whatever reason, so setup crashes when it tries to
access the registry settings for an uninstalled patch. Funniest thing
though, is that I found out that each patch gets installed after it crashes.
So I went through setup like 10 times so far to install these missing
patches, and it finally went through all the hotfixes.

guess what? Even after the hotfixes finished migrating, it crashed again.
And the log didn't note any problems with migrating the patches.

Ugh, I guess I'll just restart after this round of installing finishes up. .
..

 

[Steven L.]

Thanks, I'll restart. . .

once this install is finished. I can't believe it--I spent the last couple
of hours debugging the error by looking through the sp2 install log. I found
out that it has to do with "migrating" the patches you already installed to
sp2 versions. It seems that on my computer, a couple of the patches weren't
really installed for whatever reason, so setup crashes when it tries to
access the registry settings for an uninstalled patch. Funniest thing
though, is that I found out that each patch gets installed after it crashes.
So I went through setup like 10 times so far to install these missing
patches, and it finally went through all the hotfixes.

guess what? Even after the hotfixes finished migrating, it crashed again.
And the log didn't note any problems with migrating the patches.

Ugh, I guess I'll just restart after this round of installing finishes up. .

If your installation got as far as mine did ("Performing cleanup..."),
then you may be OK to restart.