Windows XP - SP2 Questions

[Greg B]

I have XP Pro and have held off on installing SP2. I haven't investigated fully, - have been more interested in my new D70

Plus, I am just about to move from 56k dialup to broadband, with the obvious benefits.

However, I would be very interested in hearing your views on SP2 - are the reported problems with software compatability fairly easily resolved? Any words of wisdom?

cheers

Greg

[Glen]

xp home and mine died. Not really sure who's fault but a computer guy I spoke to said he made all his clients hold off for 3-4 months so the software vendors can work through compatibility issues. Not sure how accurate that is.

[gstark]

Greg,

We have SP2 here, ready to go, but haven't yet installed it on any system. I'm waiting and watching; my experience with many Windoze "upgrades" is to wait and see ...

[Glen]

There's nothing worse than when you realise you are the only dopey bloke on the block


There must have been bugger all who installed this, everyone else was laughing at guys like me!

[hame]

Hi Greg
(thanks again for info on remote control )

Back 2 or 3 weeks ago i down loaded the service pack2 with a 56 k modem as well and took ages but thought well i better install it

left it to down load over night and tried to install it . Lets just say it did not work to well

tried to re boot the computer and it stuffed everything up.

it would partly load up then stop.. give you 3 different options (from memmory i think).. none of the options worked with one option showing the start up windows with the blue dot going from left to right at normal start up 2 1/2 times then froze..... go in to safe mode and you could see the files load and then it would get to one .dll (i think).... same thing over and over again...

rang the shop in adelaide were i brought the new computer in july and asked what was going on and if there was a problem with the service pack2 and lets just say that when his boss was not listening he said the same thing happned on his computer and he had to wipe his computer and re install xp all over again and said i would have to do that

i thought F^$#@@ that how could microsoft release a service pack 2 and have problems with it (others apart from him and my computer had exactly the same problem mind you ) and still tell you to down load it.

Anyway i did not want to lose everything and one option was to get in to the bios (dont do this unless you know what you doing and what your settings before and after you make any changes are) and change a few settings to alow me to install XP again. Did that and unfortunitly anything that was in "my documents" and out look express as an example were lost .BUT i did find a few folders with things in them that i glad i did not lose. Still had to install manyprograms as i presume soem drivers went missing even if the folder was still on the C drive and looked like things were inside it.

anyway much stuffing around and many hours later most programs re installed again but if it happned again i probably try and hook the drive up to a nother computer and see if i could down load anything from the bad drive to the new one and then format the bad drive and start again and transfer everything over that was saved

Well all i can say is how can microsoft get away with it?? if i brought a car or camera or anything and they said you need to add something to it now and you added it and stuffed it up and cost you many hours of your own time to fix it or you got a bill form some one else to do it the wouldn't you be able to get the cost back so you not out of pocket?? think of those people who had to ring the miscosoft help line in australia and were told they will help you fix it but hand over your credit card !!

one last coment the bloke from the computer shop said probably best to wait till a few months more till all problems fixed and realy the up dates were not realy that inportant and to wait till it comes out on a c.d

BUT thats only what happned to me and others may be fine with it and i am sure there are a few computer experts with d-70 here that have a different view

Hamish

[Onyx]

It may just be a coincidence, but in my case when I downloaded and installed SP2, I started getting system instabilities and my browser got seriously hijacked, despite having Spybot, Adaware and Spyware Blaster. It's still not fixed, I continually get problems. I've switched to Opera, but will format/reinstall when I get home.

I think there may also be an issue with Nikon View software needing the latest update to run on SP2, and NEF thumbnails displaying in Explorer.

Also a minor bug, but one that irritates me nonetheless, is the taskbar icon for the wireless connection. When it breaks, there's a red X indicating broken connection - but when I reconnect and fix it up, the icon still shows a red X and requires rebooting to make it green again.

[Greg B]

Thanks guys, great feedback.

Glen, I feel your pain. Be strong fella.

Hame, wow, even more pain. (Glad you are happy with the cheap remote at least!) A good deal of your grief could be reduced by having your hard drive partitioned. This is best done when everything is new before you even load the operating sytem, but it can be done later using Partition magic or similar. Worth looking into. I have 2 x 60 gig drives partitioned into C D E F G H I J K. Sounds crazy, but it makes organisation easier, and the only thing on C (more or less) is the operating system. All data is elsewhere.

As far as SP2 is concerned, I'll wait.

cheers

Greg

[birddog114]

I have all XP Prof. installed all 6 PCs at home/ works and just upgraded the SP2 week before the meet at Sans Souci. No problem at all, running well with all the applications, on my kid's PCs, they play Half Life, Doom etc... I've heard lot of problems with other people, but not mine. Happy with it.

[phillipb]

Me too, I had the disk sent to me because I couldn't be bothered to download it. I haven't noticed any problems although I had to turn off the popup blocker in some cases such as internet banking, but otherwise I see not much difference to the old xp pro.