Now that Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is available at Windows Update for online update of both the XP Home Edition and XP Professional Edition platforms, you need to be prepared for the changes you’ll see as a result of the security controls XP SP2 installs and activates by default. A query of Microsoft's XP SP2 Knowledgebase articles posted during the past 2 weeks turned up a laundry list of installation and device-related bugs, information about the affects of the now disabled Alerter and Messenger services, problems related to the enabled firewall, third-party network backup, and other application problems.

Keep in mind that, by default, the Windows Firewall severely restricts inbound traffic to an SP2 system. This restriction might prevent remote management, disrupt peer-to-peer networking, block FTP or Microsoft IIS connectivity, prevent browsing on new integrated installations of XP with SP2 (File and Print Sharing isn't enabled by default), and cause a host of other connectivity problems. You can find instructions for working with Windows Firewall in the Microsoft article "How to configure the Windows Firewall feature in Windows XP Service Pack 2" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=875356).

XP SP2 Web Servers
By default, Windows Firewall blocks activity on most ports. To allow native and third-party software to run, you must identify and open the port or ports that each application requires. So, for example, an XP system that you configure as a Web server running IIS and either Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions or Windows SharePoint Team Services will refuse connections because, by default, the firewall blocks traffic on TCP port 80. To enable access, you must add a rule on the firewall that opens TCP port 80 to incoming traffic. On a related note, if you use an FTP utility alone or in combination with an application such as AutoCAD, you’ll need to open TCP port 21. See the Microsoft article "Web server functionality may not work correctly after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=883607) for details.

NetWorker, VERITAS, and ARCServe Backups
Default Windows Firewall settings prevent network-based backups from successfully attaching to remote SP2 systems. Remote backups initiated by Legato NetWorker, Computer Associates BrightStor ARCServe Backup, and VERITAS BackupExec will be unable to connect to a remote system, possibly reporting “Network path not found” when it tries to locate the remote machine. You need to add your backup software to the list of permitted firewall applications. For more information about this problem, see the Microsoft articles "You cannot use Legato NetWorker to back up a remote computer that is running Windows XP Service Pack 2" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=873162); "You cannot use Computer Associates BrightStor ARCServe Backup 9.0 Manager to back up a Windows XP Service Pack 2-based computer from a remote computer" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=873165); and "You cannot use Veritas Backup Exec to back up a remote Windows XP Service Pack 2-based computer" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=873164).

Virus Scanner Problems
You can experience problems with virus-scanning software from several companies, including McAfee, SOURCENEXT, SonicWALL, and Command AntiVirus. These problems, which have a variety of manifestations, including the inability to start the software or system crashes, are more likely to occur with older versions of virus-scanning software. On the laundry list:

· When you attempt to install a version of McAfee Virusscan Professional earlier than version 7.0, the installation will fail on XP SP2 systems with the error message, “Webscanx.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close.” McAfee’s Internet Security Software 4.0 exhibits the same symptoms and must be updated to operate correctly.

· SOURCENEXT’s VirusSecurity2004 uses a non-standard technique to invoke the scanner driver k7sentry.sys. Because the method is no longer valid, SP2 prevents the driver from starting, which effectively disables VirusSecurity's realtime scanning. The official SOURCENEXT Web site (http://www.sourcenext.com) is currently available only in Japanese.

· SonicWall Complete Anti-Virus software uses a custom service to implement the automatic update feature. Security improvements in SP2 require that all services, native and third party, be installed with run and activate permissions. Because the custom service doesn't use such permissions, SP2 doesn't let the service start, which in turn, causes SonicWALL's update feature to fail in both automatic and manual modes. If you rely on this software to protect your systems, wait to install the SP2 upgrade until SonicWALL modifies the virus scanner to conform to the more restrictive service rules. This problem also causes a new installation of SonicWall to fail on an XP system already upgraded to SP2. You can contact the vendor at http://www.sonicwall.com/products/antivirus.html.

· Anthemium Command AntiVirus 4.62.4 scanning software causes an XP SP2 system to crash with a stop code of 0x0000007f and message text “Bug check Symbolic Name.” Contact the vendor, http://www.authentium.com, for an updated version that is compatible with SP2.

Alcohol CD/DVD Software and Daemon Tools Setup might fail with the error message “Setup cannot copy the file Atapi.sys” when you upgrade a system running Daemon tools or Alcohol CD/DVD software. Both these applications lock the disk driver, which prevents Setup from making a backup copy during the upgrade. To work around this problem, cancel Setup, uninstall the software, and restart the upgrade.

Netzero
Older versions of Netzero, including versions 4, 3, and 2.2, 3, will fail on SP2 systems with the error message “Netzero has encountered a problem and needs to close…” If you rely on this software for Internet access, upgrade the software before you install SP2. Contact Netzero, http://www.netzero.com, for program updates.

UMAX Scanners If you upgrade an XP system that has a UMAX scanner driver installed, when Setup completes, the system might reboot continuously. To eliminate the problem, restart the machine in Safe Mode with Networking and uninstall the scanner driver. Next, while still in Safe Mode, you need to remove SP2 by running Add/Remove Programs from a command prompt. To do so, open a command prompt and enter

appwiz.cpl

Find Windows XP SP2 in the program list, click remove, and reboot. Assuming you can live without the scanner, you can now safely upgrade to SP2.

OOBE Installations
SP2 might fail to install on some HP systems with the error message “XP Setup is incompatible with this version of windows” when using the Out-of-Box-Experience (OOBE) interface because this method installs the SP1 version of the Recovery Console. You can work around the problem by removing three registry keys before you start the SP2 upgrade. See the Microsoft article "You receive a 'Windows XP Setup is incompatible with this version of Windows' error message when you install Windows XP Service Pack 2 on a Hewlett-Packard computer" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870898) for details about the registry modifications you need to make.

An OOBE installation doesn't let you start applications until the setup process is complete. When you install SP2 using this method, the screen reader that starts when XP starts and the screen reader that runs when you use a keyboard shortcut don't function. See the Microsoft article "Your screen reader software may not function if you install Windows XP Service Pack 2 by using OOBE" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=873153) for instructions on how to work around this problem.

BootSkin Stardock's BootSkin software changes the appearance of the XP startup screen by using a screen driver that runs during system startup. To avoid a blue screen, turn off BootSkin before you start the upgrade and leave it off until the upgrade is finished and the system restarts. If BootSkin is enabled when SP2 reboots after installation, the machine might crash with a stop code of 0x00000050 and the text PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA.

USB Driver Display Problem
A display problem in SP2 incorrectly displays the previous version of USB drivers on the system, even though the drivers have been replaced with newer versions. To correct the display problem, run the Device Manager, select, in turn, each USB device that is reporting an old version of the driver, and click the Update Driver button. After you complete the update for each USB device, Device Manager should display the correct version for each driver.

Reader Comments

“Setup cannot copy the file Atapi.sys”: You don't have to uninstall Daemon Tools and/or Alcohol: Just delete atapi.sys, it will be recreated correctly during install. Testetd one >10 installations.

The Netgear WG311 drivers have some serious issues with WinXP SP2. See: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11186583~mode=flat

For the atapi related error, rather than uninstall the software, simply download a free utility from Sysinternals called Process Explorer -- http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml . You can then use Process Explorer to remove the lock on the file handle and voila, continue installation as normal... no uninstalling necessary. (The deletion of the atapi.sys file doesn't always work if you've got Daemon Tools... you may encounter a problem reinstalling it after a reboot.) In Process Explorer, go to the Find menu and choose Find Handle... type in atapi.sys and double click it from the list when it appears. You'll be brought back to the main Process Explorer interface with the atapi.sys file handle highlighted. Right click it and choose Close Handle.

Can Windows xp service pack 2 be uninstalled if that becomes necessary?

After installing SP2 I can no longer open Adobe 6.0 files. I've deleted and re-installed the Adobe with the same results. Any ideas? All I get is a box.

SP2 works fine on every machine I've seen it running on. Your complaints are very superficial and seems that the people you take into account just like moaning about everything

If you rely heavily on external firewire storage devices, think carefully about installing SP2. It definitely hoses FW 800 and there are issues with FW 400 despite claims that FW 400 is not affected.

After installing SP2 I can no longer transfer photos from Olympus camera.

Get a mac!

When upgrading xp home to xp pro I get errors saying that *.xs_ files can't be copied.

I am also having problems openning Adobe 6.0 Files now that I have installed SP2 :=(

I can't live without my Scanner,... that's no option is it?

After installing SP2, everything seemed fine. I was chatting away on MSN Messanger and all of a sudden i got sogned out, and couldn't sign back in. After asking friends, their versions of messanger work on sp1 and lower. After uninstalling sp2, i STILL cannot use messanger!

I have a startup script that copies the local server comment into the computer description in AD. But, ever since SP 2 was installed it no longer functions.

Afer installing SP2 I cannot use my Canon printer, copier, scanner. Is there a way around this?.

w sp2 is utter bollox. Nothing works with it and it slows your pc down by 48% dont get it!!!!

SP2 is a disgrace. I regret the day i installed it. Why bring something out that slows down a pc and conflicts with aplications.

I installed SP2 And I lost all connection to the internet, Not finding a solution to get back online, I was forced to do a system restore just so i could get back online. So far i've not found any other cases of this happening.

After installing SP2, explorer.exe crashes repeatedly whenever i try to right click on something. any ideas?

I think that microsoft should get off their butts and fix these web browser problems tostop hackers and bug viruses from getting in to personel accounts or micro. will loose their valuable guesters to free software.

I got the same problem with crashes of Eplorer when right clicking an icon

Since updating to SP2 i can't get my scanner and printer to work. So like any person out there i contacted the Microsoft team, you know the experts! I asked if there was an alternative to getting my hardware to work apart from uninstalling SP2 or purchasing new hardware. Now i expected a fairly good answer by these chaps who gets paid a bit i recon but this was there reply... "Technical Support, my name is ****** and I will be dealing with your case. To ensure you receive an accurate and prompt resolution both options of purchasing a new scanner that is compatible with xp sp2 or removing sp2 should get you up and running with a working scanner. " So my question again is .... Sheesh i think i could apply for his position seems easy enough.

Most people are having problems cause there system isnt clean before install of sp2. if you scan for spyware and viruses before install it should be OK. it is also recommended by microsoft to do this.

Finally a Real Comment. Always clean your system before applying a Service Pack!!!!!!!!

After installing Windows XP SP2 my browser will open then close. In fact no internet website browsing software will open for more than a second before closing.

After installing SP2 i got a message about compatibilty issues with Nero (which i've read can be fixed by downloading something from their website but I haven't checked it out yet). Ive also been signed out of MSN Messenger for no reason and couldn't get back in until a reboot. I didn't put it down to the SP2 until I read these messages. To top it all off, about a week after installing the SP2 my PC wouldn't boot up. I got a message about a corrupt registry file and couldn't even get into safe mode. Ended up having to format my C drive after the Repair didn't work, re-install XP onto that partition again, backup all my files that were on another partition (60 cds worth, 2 days of continious burning!!) and do a full system restore and start all over again. I'm now at the point where i've got an empty pc, just downloaded all the critical Windows updates from Microsoft and i'm seriously looking the problems other people have had with the XP Service Pack 2, I don't want to put everything back into my pc if the SP2 is going to give me the same crap again.

When windows finishes downloading its update file,where does it put the file?

If someone could get Windows programs to work better with more reliability on Linux... I would be a Linux Man!

Hopefully SP3 is around the corner.. that will sort out the crap in in SP2 !

I can't run AVG in safe mode and my Task Manager won't work either not to mention how slow my pc is now and surfing the internet with out error is a fun task.

I can't open "Help and Support", Run and Search from the start menu after installing SP2.

after sp2 applied even on clean system installation: when I go to install software like office or project 2003 after installation and first reboot I can't browse network interfaces and internet connection and also I can't remove and install software, only solution is to remove sp2, then it works fine. So what’s the point of SERVICE PACK?

hmmm.. after downloading this and fiddling with it all night i got really frustrated. I can't open internet explorer, aol, my computer, or control panel. I also now get a message saying so and so program didn't work it has a wierd name like DrNorman Debugger and makes me able to do nothing. Gonna call microsoft but sof far this SP2 seems like a piece of crap

Cleaning the sytem is one thing which fortunately for me i had done prior to updating, however, my sp2 was updated automatically. For some its late the harm is done. The other thing is that some of my hardware is not compatible with SP2 and unfoortunatly for me the hardware vendor has since gone into liquidation and unable to get get any updated driver. Looks to me i have to uninstall SP2. If i was in the states i would sue Bill Gates for allowing this to happen to happ-en in the first place.

looks like we all have been had, bend over and take it from "micro" again.

After Installing PS2 I cant open MY COMPUTER, MY DOCUMENTS, MYPICS, MY MUSIC, SEARCH, CONTROL PANEL, RECYCLING BIN!!! WITW?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

My computer started to freeze up on me after I installed SP 2 last week. "programs" dissappered from the start button and nothing worked untill I did a reboot. after another 30 min. or so, my troubles started all over again. Well, thank goodness (not Microsoft) for system restore at least.

I installed sp2 2 days ago. I'm uninstalling it as we speak.

Dear Diary, I see my plan for world domination is going as planned. First, I will take over thier computers then tell them that service pack 2 will make all of their problems go away. Then this will raise their blood pressure so much that they need medication to relax. Once medicated, I will control their minds.From there the possibilities are endless!! (insert world domination music here) Billy Gates

I dont see the purpose.

after installing SP2 could no longer copy or cut any files. MS tech support useless

Microsoft made it clear to clean your system first and to check for driver updates as well. One can delay an install of SP2 until done with pre tasks. I have installed SP2 on over 20 machines with NO problems. Do the work first, then upgrade.

Microsoft made it clear to clean your system first and to check for driver updates as well. One can delay an install of SP2 until done with pre tasks. I have installed SP2 on over 20 machines with NO problems. Do the work first, then upgrade.

Winlogon.exe fatal error on a new cleaned and Norton anti-virus protected computer after SP2 installation! Sorry to say that SP2 is yet another reason to hate MS...

After SP2 was installed the resolution has become 4bit! And it woun't give me the option to change it. How do i get some clear and sharp images back??

Install a compatible driver. Or stand 20 feet away from the screen, they'll look OK from there

im sure all will be right in SP3 ;0)

I also have right click problem when i have installed SP2. It´s on a new clean installed mashine. No problems when SP2 are uninstalled.

I couldn't run aim after installing SP2 so I uninstalled it and went back to normal. I thought it was a problem with the fact I use "tablet edition" but apparently everyone else is having problems.

What is SP2? I dont know how to use computers....

What is SP2? I dont know how to use computers....

What is SP2? I dont know how to use computers....

After upgrading I couldn't display any Nikon RAW-files (NEF) thumbnails anymore. I also lost my ADSL Internet Connexion. I had to do an uninstall.

After installing XP SP2 nothing went wrong. My PC had been up-until then patched, firewalled, virus protected (up to date), adaware monitored and well looked after. Looks like my past efforts paid off. Tip - Look after your PC and it will work fine.

I installed XP SP2 and now I no longer have an ikon in the windows tray to stop my USB devices when I want to remove them. How do you stop the devices now?

After installing SP2 on my DELL 4600, my HP PSC 1200 Series all-in-one and Broderbund Total 3D Home Deluxe program would not access. A techie friend of mine got the HP all-in-one to work again but my 3D program still won't load. I am a contractor so I rely on this program.

After installing SP2 on my DELL 4600, my HP PSC 1200 Series all-in-one and Broderbund Total 3D Home Deluxe program would not access. A techie friend of mine got the HP all-in-one to work again but my 3D program still won't load. I am a contractor so I rely on this program.

I am also having this problem with Adobe Acrobat and Windows XP SP2. Only the Adobe logo screen comes up, the cpu gets 100% utilized with Adobe taking up 90% plus. Everything was fine before installinf=g XP Service Pack 2. Has anyone been able to resolve this issue. If yes, please post how you did it? Its so frustrating. Multiple installs and de-installs of both XP SP2 as well as Adobe have not resolved the issue...

I am also having this problem with Adobe Acrobat and Windows XP SP2. Only the Adobe logo screen comes up, the cpu gets 100% utilized with Adobe taking up 90% plus. Everything was fine before installinf=g XP Service Pack 2. Has anyone been able to resolve this issue. If yes, please post how you did it? Its so frustrating. Multiple installs and de-installs of both XP SP2 as well as Adobe have not resolved the issue...

My SP 2 installed automatically. Afterwards booting up took forever and was erratic each time. connecting to Internet was difficult as it refused to connect automatically and I was unable to access the modem through Start>Connect to. Logging off is also very erratic and, more often than not, the 'puter refuses to shut down. I find it cruelly ironic that they call this a SERVICE pack, when it obviously has very little to do with service. Microsoft continue to delude. After uninstalling, there are still numerous problems.

My SP 2 installed automatically. Afterwards booting up took forever and was erratic each time. connecting to Internet was difficult as it refused to connect automatically and I was unable to access the modem through Start>Connect to. Logging off is also very erratic and, more often than not, the 'puter refuses to shut down. I find it cruelly ironic that they call this a SERVICE pack, when it obviously has very little to do with service. Microsoft continue to delude. After uninstalling, there are still numerous problems.

Service Pack 2 is great. It looks like a lot of people are just a bunch of idiots. First of all if you have no knowledge about computers why you are not using Macintosh instead of a flaky OS like Microsoft. I really thank Bill Gates for his flaky OS that's why we still get the big bucks. So just install SP2 because you just had to do it, didn't you! No knowledge about computers and to cheap to buy yourself a decent computer. cya nora!

Ever somce I installed SP2 my USB drive doesn't work claiming that I have no drivers. :S This thing sucks, how do I uninstall it?

I had no problems with SP2 until this weekend where its now taking me over twice the time to encode divx files and shrink dvd files that it did before, I'm now looking to uninstall, I'm sure that once all the softies release their fixes for SP2 everything will be cool, but until then I'd avoid until there are updates for all your hardware and software..... Good old micrososft, bring back the Amiga :)

I had no problems with SP2 until this weekend where its now taking me over twice the time to encode divx files and shrink dvd files that it did before, I'm now looking to uninstall, I'm sure that once all the softies release their fixes for SP2 everything will be cool, but until then I'd avoid until there are updates for all your hardware and software..... Good old micrososft, bring back the Amiga :)

I'm not going to call anyone names, because I don't think that is the reason this article exists. I will, however, add my two cents. I have been very fortunate with my SP2 install, except for the fact that my Cable internet connection is now closer to a 28.8 modem. I am currently looking for resolution, as that this seems to be the only negative effect I have experienced. For the rest of you having MAJOR issues, you have my empathy. I understand how it feels to have problems with your MS systems. Good Luck to all !!

SP2 works fine on all my machines at home. We've deployed SP2 to many machines at work and they are working fine. No idea why people are having so many issues, and SP2 does not make your system run slower.

Just like others I received a message saying that my PC was ready for XP SP2 update. After 2hrs of downloading it stopped and asked for the files to be removed. I have not been able to reboot since and I keep getting an arror C0000135. Thanks for nothing Microsoft.

Anybody obnoxious enough to make across the board statments insinuating that those who are having problems w/ SP2 are incompetent are just plain ignorant. Obviously you don't have the experience to understand that there are more complicated configs than yours or maybe applications you don't understand. Let people get their questions answered. Deploying it on 20 machines all with the same stuff is simple- It gives you one experience 20 times.

Installed SP2. A Disaster! CLASS ACTION SUIT! All the other upgrades worked fine. This one has been a disaster. System crashed, became unstable. Uninstalled SP2 and everything locked up. Lost USB, basic function. Just finished third attempt to reinstall windows from original disks supplied with system. Still having problems. IS ANYONE THINKING THAT A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT IS ORDER REGARDING THIS SP2 GARBAGE?

Because of all the problems with SP2, downloading it is completely blocked at my place of employment (over 450 employees each with desktop or laptop). My company is willing to wait for SP3 since they are already doing due diligence in maintaining network integrity. It should be worth the wait rather than dealing with the potential headaches.

till now I had never problems using SP2 on all the company PCs

I got rid of windows xp sp2 all together, it scewed both of my pc's up, wouldnt let me restore back to previous version so I formatted and put sp1 back on. xp sp2 is absolutley horrible.

I got rid of windows xp sp2 all together, it scewed both of my pc's up, wouldnt let me restore back to previous version so I formatted and put sp1 back on. xp sp2 is absolutley horrible.

Installed SP2 on 3 machines of various ages in August. they are connected on a wireless network to a cable modem. All were regularly cleaned of spyware and viruses. After SP2 installation, all was fine for 3 days, then suddenly I could not access IE 6.0 on any of the 3. All machines showed clear connections (via cable) to the ISP. Contacted MS tech support and spent 5 hours checking and editing registry, doing a system restore, and reinstalling XP. Finally and spontaneoulsly got access to the browser again. Next day, same thing occurred. Contacted ISP's tech support, and after a half hour concluded problem was SP2. Uninstalled SP2, and have had no problems since. Have installed all non-SP2 updates since with no problem.

Installed SP2 on 3 machines of various ages in August. they are connected on a wireless network to a cable modem. All were regularly cleaned of spyware and viruses. After SP2 installation, all was fine for 3 days, then suddenly I could not access IE 6.0 on any of the 3. All machines showed clear connections (via cable) to the ISP. Contacted MS tech support and spent 5 hours checking and editing registry, doing a system restore, and reinstalling XP. Finally and spontaneoulsly got access to the browser again. Next day, same thing occurred. Contacted ISP's tech support, and after a half hour concluded problem was SP2. Uninstalled SP2, and have had no problems since. Have installed all non-SP2 updates since with no problem.

If you don't like what SP2 does to your computer than simply use a good external firewall and make sure you have an up to date antivirus and DON'T install SP2. Most problems i have seen from SP2 have nothing to do with SP2 but more with other settings the USER has changed in order for their software to work the way they want it too. Moreover, if you don't like what Microsoft is doing then maybe you should try Linux!

If you don't like what SP2 does to your computer than simply use a good external firewall and make sure you have an up to date antivirus and DON'T install SP2. Most problems i have seen from SP2 have nothing to do with SP2 but more with other settings the USER has changed in order for their software to work the way they want it too. Moreover, if you don't like what Microsoft is doing then maybe you should try Linux!

XP SP1 or SP2 same prob: conflicts happen with USB device (kodak camera software). Once i install this kodak crap on my laptop it c0cks up. On the desktop its OK. Basically XP works great for me (SP2) on 4 machines. Defrag is important to keep everything running tiptop.

SP2 = CR@P Explorer keeps crashing, programs don't work. I have done a fresh install and it still is CR@P, its back to SP1 for me. Read this knolwedge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;883791

after installing sp2 i can't run, i also caught a rather nasty cold, very shortly after. ms... grrr

SP2 seems to be not that well written. I was on Microsoft.com for two straight days. I found a patch that fixed clicking an icon locking up. Worked an hour. It is NtDll.dll file that starts the whole mess in XP. The question now is will we have to wait for update #3?

I installed SP2, and also having the display problems. Very checkered pictures and it won't let me change resolution or color bit.

I installed SP2 after a reinstall of Windows XP Home. My system was a little buggy afterwards, so I uninstalled it. Back to SP1. I currently use updated antivirus, Sygate firewall, Spybot, Adaware, and Firefox(no IE use). All this on dialup, so I feel I can get by without SP2 Some of you mentioned waiting for a service pack 3- don't hold your breath. Gatesy will release a new Windows OS before another SP for XP.

I installed SP2 after a reinstall of Windows XP Home. My system was a little buggy afterwards, so I uninstalled it. Back to SP1. I currently use updated antivirus, Sygate firewall, Spybot, Adaware, and Firefox(no IE use). All this on dialup, so I feel I can get by without SP2 Some of you mentioned waiting for a service pack 3- don't hold your breath. Gatesy will release a new Windows OS before another SP for XP. Add: I am moving to Linux soon, so the whole matter is moot anyway.

Installed SP2 on a clean install of Windows XP, updated all drivers. NOW I have the same problem as many... I can't right click on ANYTHING on my desktop and cannot double-click on ANY program as well! Great to have a desktop you can't use. Thanks Microsoft! Just bought Linux SUSE 9.1 today.

I have the exact same problem with Adobe Acrobat and XP Home not running together. My computer freezes up around the Acrobat startup screen and I have to reboot. Reinstalling does not help. I have checked for multiple copies running simultaneously, and this is also not the issue. Does ANYONE know what this is? I need to be able to view PDFs for my job and no one has been able to fix this for me!

I have the exact same problem with Adobe Acrobat and XP Home not running together. My computer freezes up around the Acrobat startup screen and I have to reboot. Reinstalling does not help. I have checked for multiple copies running simultaneously, and this is also not the issue. Does ANYONE know what this is? I need to be able to view PDFs for my job and no one has been able to fix this for me!

I consider myself very familiar with computers...SP2 can cause problems, like all the above mentioned. If I have multiple windows opened in IE, I receive errors each time I close just one open window. It's the standard "...has encountered a problem and needs to close" error. However, all other open windows continue to be stable and I can continue to surf in IE. It's way too annoying to receive this error. I now use Firefox/Mozilla and plan to revert back to SP1. Also, USE CAUTION, your intalled sound software may have problems too. Other strange things may occur like boot time taking up to twice as long as you used to boot. Although I've come up with work-arounds and get by with SP2, I'm not at all happy with it!

After working with XP SP2 I have found that it seriously mucks around with the Video I/O streams and various programs will hang on initialization. The fix for my issues was a patch to the latest Catalyst Drivers (ATI). Things have worked well since this change.

It slows down everything. Kill Gates

External video cards (pci) that worked with XP Pro minus SP2, now only work in safe mode... if at all.

I cleaned my computer, installed SP2 and had to uninstall it because many programs no longer worked properly and some just could not be opened. Lucky for me I am using both XP and Linux on my system so I always had a few things that kept working!

I cleaned my computer, installed SP2 and had to uninstall it because many programs no longer worked properly and some just could not be opened. Lucky for me I am using both XP and Linux on my system so I always had a few things that kept working!

whiners...format, install xp w/ SP2 right from the get-go.

i installed it, it shut down and now it won't start back up again, what do i do?

i installed it, it shut down and now it won't start back up again, what do i do?

While Microsoft's attempts at security in SP2 are weak and unimpressive, people truly concerned about security should be using a hardware firewall anyway. For the application blocking and compatibility, it's more annoying than secure. Lots of pointless / lame implementations and obviously lots of compatibility problems. That said, if you want to run SP2, it works a lot better on a clean re-load. Skip trying to install it on your 2 year old already exploited and spyware ridden OS and start fresh. Really... what do you expect? You abused your OS for a few years, half of the files on the system are no longer the ones from Microsoft (spyware / your applications replaced them all, hid them, set them to read only, made multiple copies, changed the registered file / location...etc). Garbage before SP2, garbage after SP2. Anyway.... lots of really informed people here I see. best practice for most seems to be the following: - Turn machine off - Unplug it and put it back in the box - Take it back to where you got it because you have no clue and shouldn't own a computer anyway. In this age there should be a computer license and a computer ed class... like for driving... ya know ?

PS... where can I get me one of those external PCI video cards ?

First of all, I am not an idiot and I will freely admit the SP2 is horrible... It has crashed way too many machines (so much so that I now WARN my clients that an install of SP2 before I email them that it is okay to do so will void their support contract). I know all the processes, I can manually hunt down and delete viruses, I can find most ad/mal ware by hand as well. Running Anti-Virus and AdAware will usually tell me that I have little or nothing left bad on my machine.. Why am I saying this? Easy...... I **KNOW** what I am doing and I have installed SP2 on 100% clean installs of XP with all drivers updates and the darn thing STILL kills browsing... (Well, it actually killed my entire OS at home but I think that that was due to me deleting too many reg keys when SP1 was installed 8-) ) Microsoft is *AWARE* that SP2 does some quite horrible things to people's systems; Why do you think they started to provide FREE TECH. SUPPORT for SP2 through a 1-888 tel #? (By the way, their techs in INDIA do not know what a PING is). Me: I can connect, I get an IP, I can ping yahoo.com with 100 packets of 1492 bytes in size yet NO browser will work and email won't either. I can not reset TCP since I am "missing a file".. Tech: Okay, lets see. Did you enter the proper user name and p/w? Me: Of course I did. I am connected and can ping. tech: Okay, lets go through the steps that you used to connect so we can verify that you are connected... Me: never mind, I will try on my own. All in all, do yourself a favour and stay away from SP2 if you do not know how to ghost your system or re-install from scratch.... Alex Small Business PC & N/W support since 1984

After downloading Microsoft's newest XP upgrade I suddenly realized my mistake in thinking Microsoft can do any prommaming without seriously messing stuff up. I had removed all traces of Microsoft's Messenger service, removed Internet Explorer (I was running Mozilla's Firefox), and now after Microsoft cramming their newest creation down my throat because I mistakingly did not turn off Windows auto update, now my other computer is a great looking paper weight. I have tried using the factory restore disk and all I get is cannot find Ghost text error file. I had the system completely cleaned and a new copy of XP placed on the hard drive but still can not get the NIC to even show up. I have tried everything including having 2 local computer shops check it out. I suppose I can say this with the knowledge of the problems I have had with their newer version of XP " DO NOT UPGRADE!!!"

We have just deployed XPSP2 to just over 4000 systems. We had no problems, all hardware was mixed. We also have around 400 applications, many in house. They all worked.

I am amazed how many people realize WHAT is in the SERVICE PACK 2, do they know its a BUG correcting pack ? - Thing is, ladys and gents, the Windows platform is far from perfect, but HEY we have 9 years in advance, and this is the version of windows 2004. since 1995 with win95 ( the first alpha-beta windows :). Do you think Linux is BUG-free? try to install it, get the new videoboard running, get your scanner, videocam, and so on running, and you will see what kind of problems, you end up with... - ok, bottom line, if you dont know wtf the SP2 is, dont bother to install it. if youre not sure, GET A PROFESSIONAL DO IT. at least you have someone to complain if it doesnt woork.

I am amazed how many people realize WHAT is in the SERVICE PACK 2, do they know its a BUG correcting pack ? - Thing is, ladys and gents, the Windows platform is far from perfect, but HEY we have 9 years in advance, and this is the version of windows 2004. since 1995 with win95 ( the first alpha-beta windows :). Do you think Linux is BUG-free? try to install it, get the new videoboard running, get your scanner, videocam, and so on running, and you will see what kind of problems, you end up with... - ok, bottom line, if you dont know wtf the SP2 is, dont bother to install it. if youre not sure, GET A PROFESSIONAL DO IT. at least you have someone to complain if it doesnt woork.

after i installed sp2 (build2186), my pc freezes about 2 times per day,so does my friends....

i've always loved microsoft for its friendly GUI, but since they came out with (CRAP)SP2 my computer has become the biggest recyling plant ever. once a day my network card will be disabled and i have to re-enable it to go online, when i boot up i have to unplug my cable modem for 10 seconds and reconnect to get a connection or my whole connection and browser usage is down the crapper. maybe MS should take the time now to really get 100% bug free for the release of Longhorn and any further updates that come out, otherwise i'm gonna have to join a cult of MAC users.

i've always loved microsoft for its friendly GUI, but since they came out with (CRAP)SP2 my computer has become the biggest recyling plant ever. once a day my network card will be disabled and i have to re-enable it to go online, when i boot up i have to unplug my cable modem for 10 seconds and reconnect to get a connection or my whole connection and browser usage is down the crapper. maybe MS should take the time now to really get 100% bug free for the release of Longhorn and any further updates that come out, otherwise i'm gonna have to join a cult of MAC users.

XP Service Pack 2 downloaded as an automatic update conflicts with Norton AV 2005. Could not load the latter after first removing earlier version per instructions. System became very unstable and eventually crashed. Had to reformat and reload everything.

all you weirdo's that think SP2 sucks so bad should go to Linux. You'd be much better off. The grass is always greener ladies and gents... Trust me, Linux will do you great. Practically works right out of the box on any system and for FREE, you'll be happy you switched, and i'll be happy you stopped whining. (heavy sarcasm)

As soon as I installed sp2, my internet stopped working. Even system restore won't work.

SP2 is not the problem. It's more likely that most of the systems having problems with sp2, already have problems BEFORE installing SP2. So fix those problems first before upgrading to sp2. Problems could include spyware virus/worm infections.

I thought this was for helping each other solve problems. Sounds more like a bitching session to me. This is my first time here and my last.

My UMAX scanner doesn`t work anymore and probably the most stupid thing is that my Corel 11 software gives me error on every corelfile i try to open from my computer. The strange part is that it openes files from the network. I`ve never seen something like that. So--good luck!

For those who are having problems with explorer and explorer related programs crashing I found a solution. This will happen if you have Adobe Photoshop installed. You need to turn off thumbnail view in photoshop. My sp2 system now has no probs.

hahahahahha. yes. lets all get a mac, shall we?

heh. take heart, mac users. http://www.winnetmag.com/Windows/Article/ArticleID/43798/Windows_43798.html an article on windows problems after SP2. Fan-Tas-Tic.

SP2 was a joke. I installed it and my computer slowed down dramatically. What was even more aggravating was that could no longer scroll windows and had to click things 5 or 6 times just to open. I had to wipe out my system and reload everything it was so aggravating. So of course I wrote to Microsoft and nothing. Not even an acknowledgement. I'm going to get a Mac G5 at the first of 2005 and dump Microsoft.

I have been testing a computer with SP2 for over 3 weeks. Before I updated, I made sure all of my drivers were updated, cleaned my system, and ran virus scan. I have been trying to crash this machine. Its an older Gateway computer with a pentium II 397 MHz processor and 128 MB of RAM. I have had two minor issues- 1)Bad connection to KVM caused BSOD. 2)Novell Client caused BSOD when connecting to network volumes. Updated the version to 49sp1a and all is well. I sympathize with those of you that are having problems. Note: Those who are considering Linux-Have fun in the Open Source Community and we'll see you back soon!

I wish I had a bunny!

I hate to say that M$ has a good OS at all, but 2K is still years ahead of XP insomuch as stability and speed. Just use a better M$OS and all of your XPSP2 headaches will go away. XP stands for X-tra Problems anyhow...

I live in the UK, after speaking to microsoft engineers in the states for over a week to resolve my sp2 update, I was left with no option but the recovery disk from my manufacture, as my system would not boot up from anywhere. de-installing sp2 failed and dont even attempt to system restore back to before the install as you will crash halfway through, which is what happened to me and its lights out after that. Well even after restoring back to factory settings (you need to run restore CD with nothing going in to your usb ports by the way) I installed sp2 from a cd. one by one i installed ADSL, printer, ISP etc, etc. etc. and thought ok we must be working, untill i tried to use them. tried playing XBOX live which has a shared internet connection with the PC, and the LAG was unbearable. tried the internet and it just died every 2 mins or so. Now I have read all this and just want to cry. I even tried friged the firewall to except all these connections and then turned firewall off totally, but still the same. so its back to factory settings for me again i think, unless one of you guys has any other ideas. aye and it does slow your PC down untill it eventully just stops. ticking timebomb.

When I installed SP2 from the net it crashed my whole system, requiring approximately 45 minutes online with a service tech from MSN to help me uninstall it. They said that it was corrupted. Then they sent me a disk and it continues to alert me that my virus protection is in jeapardy as they cannot determine the status - but then I pull up my Norton anti-virus and it is fine.

Not had one single problem with XP sp2 at all !!

If there was nay good reason to switch to a Mac...it's SP2 What a disaster.It's completely f'd up my home network. Utterly disgraceful. I can't wait to dump the PC for a G5.

XPSP2 breaks computers. damn u again bill

After installing XP SP2, I was no longer able to connect to the internet using internet explorer 6 or outlook express; However, my sbcyahoo browser still worked because they had done updates. I think it had something to do with the fact that sbcyahoo uses a SOCKS proxy server and the program uses Sun Solaris and they aren't compatable. It worked once I took SP2 off. I want to be able to re-install it but am unsure about who to bug about changing their software: My internet provider, Microsoft, Sun ? Who? Arghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything seems to work fine after my sp2 update, except IE6. For some reason, I can no longer download files... and can't figure out why not. Any ideas?

SP2 SUCKS DID YOU HEAR ME SUCKS I BOUGHT A NEW HP LAPTOP AND DOWNLOADED SP2 I HAD NOTHNG BUT PROBLEMS WITH IT IT KEPT CRASHING MY SYSTEM. DO NOT INSTALL IT. WAIT FOR MS TO WORK ALL THE BUGS OUT FIRST.

Acrobat Reader won't launch go to the start menu> run> type: %temp% How many files are in here? This is a hidden temp folder that isnt covered clearly in KB 329444...65,536+ and you've found the issue. open the start menu> run> type the following without quotations: "cmd" > enter (opens comand prompt) "c:" > enter "cd\" > enter "del acr*.tmp /s" > enter (the actual line that deletes the files) After it runs through a number of files it will be back at c:\> and you can close the window out and acrobat should be functional. This will clear out the acrobat temp files which are causing the issue. Basically acro 6.00 does not clear out its temp files all the time, but this is fixed in 6.01 so make sure thats what you're running and it wont reoccur.

After installing XP SP2, I've had continual spontaneous restarts while using Internet Explorer and occassional restarts while using several other applications. This is happening on a brand new system with a fresh install of XP Home and only a sprinkling of other applications installed.

I dont know if its just me or what, but after installing SP2, "microsoft" access won't run. tried 2000 and XP, no go. Uninstalled SP2 and all was good, reinstaled SP2 same crap. How can they release a service pack that breaks MS's own programs?? wtf?

Downloading with IE6_ If you are having problems downloading with IE6, check the information bar below the address bar when you are on the download page. Check the following link for more info http://www.gadgetopia.com/2004/09/23/TheIEInformationBar.html

after finally installing SP2, my McAffee Firewall SVC went tits up on me(waiting on a reply from them), also I lost my sound card as well as both of my network adapters. Just uninstalled SP2, and had to reinstall my network adapters again. Sound card will come later.-Sean in El Paso

since installing the sp2 I can no longer update my windows

Although both parties saying the contrary, after installing SP2, Norton Antivirus 2003 failed to operate on my machine. I have uninstalled and reinstalled NAV, but every time it popped up a different error code and failed to be installed correctly. Also, my personal opinion, if you are not using microsoft product on your machine mainly, do not install SP2 as it only patches security / component craps and does nothing else to improve the system. Yes it also slows down the computer enormously (I have SP2 installed on my office computer and it sux). At home, I am only using XP Pro as OS and no components of it (ie int. explorer, messenger, outlook express etc). Even I did not configure internet proxy settings not to have any OS component reaching the net without my knowledge and installed a very good firewall software to prevent every access of MS products / components to the net. Believe me I am very comfortable this way. So you do not need SP2 unless you are a microsoft addict.

Most of my stuff works, but I can't see my e: drive and I can't play or burn DVDs. I went through the troubleshooting steps in XP but it ended up at a point where it didn't have the answers.

Man.... Use Linux.. It never hangs up!!!

>after i installed sp2 (build2186), my pc freezes about 2 times per day,so does my friends.... this is exactly my problem, only that it happens more often than twice a day. It happens on a nforce2 platform with atl. xp 3200, the board is an asus n7n8x-e deluxe. I have tried to find out, which driver, hardware or service may be responsible for that issue by replacing almost anything except for the board and the cpu, I reinstalled anything (including windows) multiple times but couldn't find any hint. The freezes seem to be completely random. On 3 IBM ThinkCentres (2,66 and 2,8 ghz) there was an issue with bluescreens after installing sp2, which appeared randomly, when I accessed files on a novell netware server. It turned out to be the webdav service (webclient under services). After deactivating it, it works now. On all other pc's (3 more with a bit older hardware and 2 Notebooks) I have no problems (so far). If anyone got a hint for me concerning the freezes, please contact me at almatic@coole-files.de, it's so annoying ! PS: as far as linux is concerned, yeah, it never crashes as long as you use a stable kernel and console only.

I automatically installed SP2 yesterday, and noticed my computer slowing down, and froze a couple of times. Then, this morning, it crashed completely and now does not recognize the hard drive. After spending an hour on the phone with Dell, it is clear that I have lost everything. I am shocked. I am not a computer whiz like you all, just an every day user looking for answers to this incomprehensible injustice! I am seriously going to return my computer to Dell and go buy a Mac. I am so frustrated!

After installing XP, my bowels emptied, I vomited, and George Bush got elected. Bad stuff.

sp 2 is completely waste , my norton antivirus 2004 is not working properly since i have installed sp2 , automatic protect is disabled , live update is disabled and evry thing is waste , microsoft should test there product before launching it , now i cant go for purchasing a new antivirus when my old anti virus is just a 2 months old , i really dont know what to do

has anyone had problems with activating windows after installing sp2. I did and the only way to cure it was to start again from scratch.

Two words.... Mandrake Linux.

windows xp is incompatible with sp2

I've installed SP2 on 14 computers ranging from PIIIs to a new dell inspiron P4 so far and have had zero problems.

Installing SP2 is only recommended on a clean load of Windows. It will most likely give you some undesired results otherwise. How do I know you ask? Because I load operating systems all day.

I tried twice to install SP2. Yes, I upgraded my bios, cleaned my system. Both times the process hung. I could not even boot in safe mode. Somehow the system decided to go back to previous version. When I booted that system, it said to uninstall SP2. I did that. I lost the drivers, which were then then "plug and play" reinstalled. Perhaps I'm lucky I cannot install the service pack.

I have had problems after uninstalling service pack 2. I uninstalled because of the slowing down of the computer. Now I am left without star buttons and no icons on the desktop and it has left me with corrupted files somewhere. I have talked with MS and they say that i need to download it again and then it will replace what it has done, but what if you don't want it back on? I tried restoring it and nothing, even tried last know good cong. and that won't help. I have lost to accounts on this computer because of the service pack. When going thru the add and remove it was successful, it said, but then all this is wrong.Didn't have it before hand. If anyone can help, please reply. Thanks for listening. Oh yeah, I have windows xp pro running and a reinstall of xp won't help it out either. Thot I'd tell anyone who is asking.

Can't Play Games

First time xp user, installed sp2 just after driver installation with no progs loaded. Installed rest of software and had nothing but a pleasant experience

To the person who said that we are all whining: You need to watch your tounge before you decide to comment on something you obviously know nothing about. The SP2 slows down performance PCS in so many ways that it completely destroys the use of certain programs. I.E. My son plays Diablo 2, and he can no longer play online due to the large bog down from the new patch. Also, surfing online has become more of a chore than an enjoyment. I am running a BRAND NEW system that costed me over $2000. It has a 3.4GHz processor, 1,028Mb Ram, and several other gems. There is no reason for this. Our "superficial moaning" is with just cause.

Having to uninstall and reinstall all programs is not a good thing after a "SUPPORT PACK" install. It's suppose to be a support pack not a headache pack

This BLOWS. Do not download this piece of crap. I can no longer connect my laptop or Xbox live. Pissed off!

xp service pack 2 works great on one computer but on my other computer... it crashed my computer... boohoo! however sp2 is pretty nice on my working computer its def a must dl and to take risk for. as for other comp i got to find out whats wrong.

dont install the sp2, for a normal everyday computer it is pretty much useless, use alternative firewall such as zonealarm. Microsoft should make sure that the program is going to work on all computers

I do not think this article is that useful because it does not explain the scale of this disaster and I believe SP2 is even less useful. I have uninstalled SP2 on every computer in our company with XP. This is an IT nightmare our SUS server was over ridden and everyone has the choice to install it through automatic updates. If you are in a corporate environment and 100 computers with XP SP2 and their App's quit because of it SP2 and related patches, how good can that be? We are behind a firewall so we were protected. This may be ok for the home user but in our situation, it stinks. MS failed to secure their product to begin with so they have had to lick their wounds and cause more issue. Not a happy SP2 camper

Since installing XP Service pack 2, my CD rewriter no longer works. I'm doing a system restore. I wouldn't recommend add/remove programs to delete it - it made a complete mess of my laptop when I tried it.

Afew days after installing windows service pack 2, my hard drive (only 5 months old) crashed. Can't even boot up now. Thanks, Bill Gates.

I have had service pack 2 installed since it came out, before the 'public' release and have had no problems with it. I run Visual Studio 6 and .net, nero6 and photoshop7. no problems at all. as someone else said, make sure your machine is clean first. MS are not great but they arn't the root of all evil either!

I have been using my 4G iPod on my HP PC running Windows XP since the 4G came out. I have always used my firewire port instead of either of my USB ports. I have NEVER encountered problems syncing to iTunes... until the very next sync AFTER I installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). Now I sync through firewire and iTunes starts to update my iPod, and I can see the iPod in My Computer as a external drive....BUT before iTunes finishes transferring all the songs/playlists, the iPod freezes, then disappears as a drive from My Computer, and iTunes says its updated.... Then I have to undock, manually reset the iPod, then restart the computer, then try it again to only find that the same thing happens all over again. The only difference on my computer between when my pod worked and now is the fact that I installed SP2. PLEASE respond to this message if you have had this problem and resolved it somehow (let me know if you restored your computer to a point before you installed SP2 and let me know if that worked). Thank you for all your help. Us iPodders are a family, and Microsoft seems to be the alcoholism that breaks appart the very fabric of our relationship- our iPod.

I have no problems at all..!! What is my solution? Simple; Slip Stream a WinXP CD-Rom with first SP1A (without MS JavaVM) test if it boots, Slip-Stream this CD(WXPsp1a) with SP2, Uninstall all Firewall, AntiVirus, CD/DVD Rom burning software (because off: Atapi.sys) and Backup Software, Check if the current Windows Firewall is "off" (disabled) reboot the PC, Then, when logged in as the Administrator, "re-install" Windows XP on the same partition, in de same directory, without formatting the drive. After installing, setup/install all removed software again: Firewall, AntiVirus, CD/DVD Rom burning & Backup Software, Reboot the PC, log in as Admin again, and now you can safely turn-on the Windows XP SP2 Firewall without having problems. Succes garanteed!

SP3! Ummm hello, is this thing on? Why in the hell would want another "service pack" when roughly about 99.9% of the reviews that you read are negative? You could try a different OS. Linux for example is one that I would highly recommend, if you aren't familiar with Linux it's getting easier and cheaper by the minute. As a matter of fact I think you can even get free as long as you don't want submit any source codes. I could be mistaken on that, it's been a few years. Linux, by the way is a much more stable OS and at a fraction of the cost of a WinXP install. Just as a helpful hint in regards to the install of SP2, I too had install probs,got frustrated,tried to uninstall, got pissed and found myself zero filling my HD, just to illiminate the hassle of trblshooting. After I installed XP Pro, and my ethernet drivers, I turned on automatic update and let the MS site determine which updates I needed. I probably had to restart 4 or 5 times before I was able to get the SP2 to install. After all that, I haven't had one problem, been stable going on a few weeks now, I believe. Don't know if the fresh install had anything to do with it or not but just starting from sq.1 sure did something for me. L8er, Linux Rox!!!!!!!!!

i recently installed SP2 and have not had any major problems except the fact that when i am using internet explorer all web sites that i view have a white background and has affected the text size. is this a problem due to installation of SP2 or is it something i have done on my computer, any suggestions on how to fix it?

I have problem with pdf documents now too... won't open ... did find page that converts them to html though http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_simple_form.html

with pdf documents converted. you give the web page at this site see note immediately above this one- and it coverts it for you into html so don't have to have it saved... (which is problem now since it won't even open!)

I have installed Microsofts Service Pack 2 on over 200 machines ranging from Pent2 250mhz machines up to Dell Dimension 4.5 Ghz and I can safely say that it completely screwed up the lot of them. Especially if done on a clean installation. SP2 is the end of all computer problems because installing it is the end of the computer. So kiss bye bye to your pc by installing Service Pack 2 today. Hell, it even can screw up Linux if you install it on that too. How Bill Gates must be laughing all the way to the bank.

I even installed SP2 on a Mac and it screwed that up as well...

SP2 installed, now using the "del" key to delete files in "my computer" for example, causes the machine to hanh, as does right-clicking on files. Microsoft updates doesn't work either. I think an unistall - thanks to the advice here - is called for !

Bought brand new PC...with all the bells and whistles...loaded SP2 ..and after that could not boot up !! Had a horrible time trying to get everything working again as even the restore disks would not load properly !! My machine had been checked by adaware, spybot S&D, the latest Norton patterns..and it was clean prior to loading SP2. I did have Zone Alarm firewall and i have read that this can cause problems with SP2....but not brave enough again to put SP2 onto my machine. Wait for SP3 !!

I am an employee for a DSL tech support company. SP2 is the most annoying stupid thing that I have to deal with on a dialy basis. I try, and try to explain to customers that it sucks but they dont believe me. Trust me, if your computer was working fine before you installed it and now it isn't. Dont you think that MIGHT be the problem?

Bring back Windows for Workgroups 3.11!!!

To the techhie who slipstreamed, uninstalled, reinstalled XP and installed software again, why should I jump through all those hoops? Geeze, I surf the net behind firewalls, read some recipes and make greeting cards on my PC, and while I know the difference between BIOS and USB, I don't anticipate getting a computing degree just so I can do the aforementioned tasks. If Microsoft thinks I'm going to install SP2, they're going to be waiting a long time. Everything works fine now and I'm not a risk-taker.

Yeah met too. Have tried loading Service Pack 2 three times. Causes a variety of problems - most annoying is that the computer will shut down and reboot for no apparent reason several times a day after a few days. Restored back to before the "upgrade" and back to a stable usable system.

It can enable file sharing by default if you were connecting to another computer on a home network before. Everyone should check and make sure it is not enabled for internet connections.

SP2 screwed up my computer so bad I had to buy another one. OK Bill Gates when do I get a check?

After installing SP2 (on a clean computer) I could not maintain a connection to AOL, got bumped off after two or three minutes. After the automatic reconnect, AOL, Explorer and blitzmail were all frozen. I had to restart the computer or even turn it off for a while to unfreeze AOL and get back on line. I spent two days trying AOL's suggestions to no avail, and finally uninstalled SP2. AOL's working normally again.

Did a clean install of XP, but crashes on reboot after SP2 install. ARRRGGGHHH! Why? Why?

Very slow when Opening My Computer since installing SP2 any ideas kimnsara@unwired.com.au

well i updated everything on my xp i even put sp1 then i updated dl sp2 rebooted. when when i try to surf the web it wont let me, i cmd then ping to see if it was the connection that was fine, so i stopped the ms firewall and vmsirus checker tried to log on got the same thing, i reformated and tried again, after all that, i installed nortons internet securty and what does it find win32 spybot worm how the hell did that get on there? when i did a format and fresh install, updated from microsoft update site, didnt install any of my driver apart from my dsl drivers which a scanned and it was fine i also scanned my nortons cd that was fine, there must be a virus on ms update site. but even after all that my internet explorer still cant surf. sort this out microsoft.

add this to my comment above i did allow ie to work in nortons so nortons isnt blocking it just in case you maybe asking

My problems; I have cleaninstalled windows xp pro several times, updated with SP2 aftwerwards. In the beginning all worked fine, but after a while (some weeks) the following errors occurred; * Slow access to internet with IE6 and Outlook 2003. * Citical error message in IE6 (Close program and restart program). * Swithing on and off of wireless connections. All these errors originated also the previous times: clean installation + SP2. Last week I noticed the problems again and saw a link between the previous problems: the were all the same. May be the solution is not installing SP2 I am not really sure but the problems occurred after installing SP2 (But not directly). The 'not directly-part I find very strange. Maybe someone can help me. Regards.

After reading all these posts to the end, I have to sit back and chuckle a little. There is just such a huge diverse of users out there and thats what makes the whole thing such a problem. To all the users that posted having problems, I feel your pain. I tried SP2 on a non critical machine of mine and found that it turned it into a quivering pile of useless computing power. If you have not figured it out by now.....you will never get it. By the way...to all the ones that posted that they had/have no problems...give it time, you'll get there. When you look at the number posts Pro and Con, and not just here...you will see a huge difference in favour of Con, I stopped counting here at 50 to 1. THINK ABOUT IT

SP2 gave me herpes

I installed SP2, and now all it says is "Illegal Operation".. Now I'm in jail.

after i had installed sp2 none of of my programs seem to work even one that startup at the begging of login. only internetexplorer works

Bill Gates Must DIE!!! What was wrong with 98se, not enough money in it for BG because it was too easy to copy? XP throws up the same errors as that other wonderful (see OBSOLETE) OS, NT4 and it's too expensive for what it is. Will Longhorn be better, or will we just get shafted again in another two years? STICK WITH 98 PEOPLE leave xp to the worms.

updated my pc with the sp2 and my monitor started flickering (Something like explorer initializes and kills itself) the same was also happening in Safe Mode, i had to reinstall the whole thing.

I installed sp2 on my pc and had no problems. Then this week I built a new amd64 pc. Installed XP, then when my pc was running perfect, I decided to put sp2 on it. After install the only way to restart my pc was to reboot in safemode and uninstall sp2 again. Pc has been slower since

I'm a serious computer professional and help manage about 60 PCs. When SP2 was announced, I installed it because other Windows updates seemed to work well. Unfortunately, the upgrade see not work (see notes below, dated 2004-08-24). Since then, other users in the office have had a variety of problems, including lack of connectivity to their PDAs, problems with E-mail tools. For me, Acrobat 6.01 and Word 2003 would crash several times a day. Our systems have the latest patches, all have Norton AV/Firewall, and *don't* run IE as the default browser (run Netscape 7.1). The machines are controlled and clean of viruses/spyware. So we uninstalled SP2 and everything was back to normal. However, we have another problem: when using Help in any of the tools, the "helpsvc.exe" task is started and consumes all the virtaul memory and CPU (takes about 20 minutes to consume everything). According to MS, the problem is fixed in SP2. Someone told me SP2 was updated to fix the Acrobat crashing problems, but it appears people are still having a bad experience with SP2. I guess that leaves us will killing "helpsvc.exe" when it gets out of control (rather than applying SP2). Below, please find the notes from 2004-08-24 on the SP2 upgrade and some tips you might find helpful. ------------------------------- IMPORTANT #1: Be aware of the time element in tip #3 -- update will take about 2-3 hours. IMPORTANT #2: Read this E-mail completely in case things occur in a different order on your workstation/latptop. (1) The pack will take a while to download -- even if you have full bandwidth. I'm not sure if this is a problem with Windows servers or simply a rate-limiting feature of the update. Anyway, it can be as short as one hour and as long as several days. If you get disconnected, it will continue where you left off. (2) Once you have downloaded the updates, it will ask you to install them. VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure all of you applications are closed when you do this. (3) Plan on taking lunch/dinner went you start the updates. I expected that this would take about 10-20 minutes -- a typical update. THE UPDATE CAN TAKE UP TO 2 HOURS. Given the tasks that is it claiming to do (backing up DLLs, the registry, etc.), I would recommend that you DO NOT INTERRUPT the update process. Yes, installing the update takes longer than installing Windows itself. :-( DO NOT RUN/START OTHER APPLICATIONS while the update is in progress. (4) After installation and reboot, it will take a while and there will be some unfamiliar prompts. Here's some tips: - When it asks for configuring Windows automatic updates as "ON" or "OFF", click "ON". The configuration process is more complex and you'll have to fix it later. - The firewall/protection settings are confusing. If you are running Norton Anti-Virus, you'll see the "internet protection" is marked "ON", yet when you click on "configure internet protection", you'll see Microsoft Windows internet firewall turned off. In short, I belive you do not need to do anything: I believe it is already set correctly, regardless of what it reports. Since Matt did this virus/firewall configuration, I'll let him explain any additional details. - Once you have configured the anti-virus/firewall, there is no clear action to take -- no "OK" button. So just close the window. (5) After the anti-virus/firewall configuration is done, it will appear that your system is dead: a desktop with no icons. Give the three-finger-salute: CTRL-ALT-DELETE. This will bring up the Task Manager. Pull down the menu Shutdown, then click Shutdown -> Log off. You'll be able to log in again and things will somewhat work OK. (6) After reboot, your fonts will be dithered wrong (or not dithered at all). This will make your screen look cruddy (a technical term). Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Display Click on the Appearance tab Click the Effects button Check the box "Use ... to smooth edges of screen fonts" Pull down the list and select "ClearType" Click OK Now click Apply on the Display properties dialog box Click OK (7) After reboot, your internet firewall settings will probably be wrong. You'll have to fix them as you use each application.

I yesterday post a solution for slow or no access to the internet with IE6 or OUTLOOK2003 after installing SP2. I have shut down the firewallsettings and installed the free zonealarm (www.zonelabs.com). Note: as described on the zonelabs-site you must use version 5 or higher.

Can anyone tell me why postings 'dissapear' on this site?

I did have almost exacly have the same problems as this guy: "Installed SP2 on 3 machines of various ages in August. they are connected on a wireless network to a cable modem. All were regularly cleaned of spyware and viruses. After SP2 installation, all was fine for 3 days, then suddenly I could not access IE 6.0 on any of the 3. All machines showed clear connections (via cable) to the ISP. Contacted MS tech support and spent 5 hours checking and editing registry, doing a system restore, and reinstalling XP. Finally and spontaneoulsly got access to the browser again. Next day, same thing occurred. Contacted ISP's tech support, and after a half hour concluded problem was SP2. Uninstalled SP2, and have had no problems since. Have installed all non-SP2 updates since with no problem. Anonymous User -October 26, 2004" My solution is described above: do not user SP2 firewall settings anymore and install zonealarm. Why: I dont know, but it works....

After SP2 intallation I can't: use my usb compact flash reader, use my digital8 video camcorder, hybernate my laptop

Back again, my last post: "Anonymous User -November 29, 2004" did not describe the right solution. After some day's exactly the same problem occurred. I had my computer on for just 15 minutes every worked fine. I logged of and the same day in the evening I started my PC and all problems were back again. The only difference I saw was that windows did made itself a 'restore point'. I am totally lost now. Maybe I go back and donot install SP2 anymore. But the strange thing is that my other PC (laptop) works fine...

ever since i got sp2 update, i've had problems getting on the internet. often i have to restart my computer more than 1 time, sometimes takes more than 30 min to get online. i did a system restore but that didn't help. so i undid that. #@! bill gates. i wish i never would have downloaded sp2. the only good thing about it is the pop up blocker

Once upon a time we had 400 systems on our network that worked fine with SMS. After installing 80 new systems with XP SP2, most of them won't work in SMS or even show up in SMS's collections. Hmmmmm???

Ref Nov 25th para 4....When dealing with the anti-virus/firewall options, scroll up and you'll find an OK button. If you just close you'll get problems. After I installed SP2, the cat was sick on the carpet. How did Microsoft arrange for this?

"Anonymous User -November 29, 2004"; the guy of 1 dec is right, it is not THE solution. I encountered the same problems some day's after.. Now a friend told me that this could be a DNS-problem. Just type the name e.g. www.freebsd.org or type the IP-adress of that site 62.69.162.130. If the last one works more quickly it is likely to be a DNS-problem. But... I do not know how to solve this.

Obviously some people have a problem with people having problems!!?? The reason for these pages is to help those who do have a problem, not ridicule them! grow up! Ahem, now i'm looking for information that will help me with SP2, i noticed a couple of people said that they could not access the internet after installing. I also found this but the strange thing was that when i first booted up my computer the net worked for about a minute then stopped. It was a clean install of XP SP1 then i added SP2 afterwards, i used spybot to check for spyware and it found none. Weird! Uninstalled SP2 and it was fine again. Any ideas?

First: any suggestion or remark on supposed solutions (of everyone) are welcome. This is the only way we can help each other finding the appropriate solution. Anonymous of 09 december: did you verify everything mentioned in this article? Because it could be a driver problem. I have read (at other weblogs) that new drivers (of some hardware) are neccesary after installing SP2.

After I installed xp2, my computer exploded. It took out three square blocks.

My computers runs for more than a week now, without any problems. I encountered all the problems as described above. I deactivated the windowsfirewall and installed zonealarm. After granting access to several windows-processes it worked fine ever since. So it is worth to give it a try. Thanx for the tips! And, to the 'funny guy', my computer didn't explode but my head almost did ("How the hell do I fix this").

I had sp2 on my rig and I installed norton 2005 system works, and the live update did not work, so I uninstalled norton and uninstalled sp2, then I loaded norton first then loaded sp2 and live update worked.

My simple IIS web server was running fine before SP2. I had web/ftp/rdp connectivity through a netgear gateway port-forwarding router, to my server. But now, after sp2, I'm hosed. I shouldn't have been patch-happy. I already had zonealarm pro and norton antivirus... i don't know what i was thinking. even after disabling the new XP firewall and uninstalling ipv6, i'm still toast. i know a thing or two about opening ports; but now i'm confused why my server can't be seen anymore -- even after disabling ALL protection i'm aware of, for short periods of time just to test connectivity. DON'T DO IT if you are using XP pro on your server box, unless you've got time to waste figuring it out. (By now, you've read all the other advice.)

After reading from the guy of Nov 2, 2004, I came to some thoughts: 1.) I was interested in dude's arguments; backward compatibility issues was an interesting point on vulnerability. 2.) SP2 put its neck out there by trying to incorporate a more robust firewall into their OS. So this 1st wave of NOTICEABLE firewall integration was the bumpy one. Does that make it acceptable? It's your opinion. personally, I don't like it. But consider this: if you prefer to buy a preconfigured system, then you like bundled... crap, so go ahead risk installing it. However, if you're pickier with what guts comprise your machines, then you likely want separate softwares to deal with separate functionality verticals. An all-comprehensive OS takes away personalization. 3.) Maybe Microsoft should not concentrate on being competitive in all markets until it's solidified the bugs in the current market.

I do not know how can microsoft think that millions of people are subject to their experiments in real world? after installing sp2 I lost the wireless connectivity and I wrote lots of emails to compaq to help me solve the problem. However, they could not do anything. Because microsoft dominates everywhere and the experts of computer manufacturers are also talks the 'microsoft's language' which means it is a dead end! congratulations bill!

fix your machine before you install it, you wouldnt build a house in a mudpit so why install on an unstable computer?

I installed SP2 on 6 machines at work All are exactly the same. Result: Computer #1,2,3 - computers appear to be operating normally. Comptuer #4 - computer is unable to open microsoft word. After uninstalling & reinstalling office it still don't work #5 - computer can not be on Internet Explorer for more than about 2 minutes. It then hangs and freezes the computer completely. Must be manually restared. Solution: After removing SP2 system runs normally. Computer #6 - Digital media reader, doesn't work and corrupts and smartmedia disk that is put in it. Solution: Still doesn't work. For all you people who didn't have problems. Congratulations, your luck. By the looks of it theres a 50/50 chance you'll be ok after installing SP2. Note:All the computers were virus checked, spyware free and properly updated prior to installation.

Do not install SP2 and turn off your automatic update if your Computer is working fine, unless you are a Computer savvy and knows how to uninstall it. Microsoft will not take responsability if your Computer crash or not run quite right after SP2 update.Why else they released such a crappy SP2? because they are not accountable for it anyway. Microsoft will come up with SP3 then The next generation OS LongHorn, then they will come up with patches like L2 packasge, L3 update etc, etc never ending garbage after garbage and people will keep buying new software and new hardware and Microsoft and Bill Gate will keep getting richer! Like Automotive manufucturers, they are responsible to recall and fix their defective product. Bill Gate's Microsoft should be held accountable for selling defective Window Xp in the first place. God know He made enough Billions out of us ignorant people. Just because we buy Computer loaded with Microsoft products and software. We should not be expected to be a Computer Technie savvy overnight. Just because we buy and drive a Car, doesn't make us an expert Automobile Mechanic like some people here suggested. But we expect this product we buy to work like they are suppose to.

I've had no real problems with it. The only thing was that the firewall was keeping items in my outbox for a short while or until I clicked on it. I disabled it and now Outlook works fine.

When I installed SP2 I can no longer log into anything that requires a user name and a pass word.

After installing SP2, every time I boot my machine for each USB printer I have directly on my machine (an HP LaserJet and Samsung Laser), I get a message saying new hardware found - {printer name}. Then a message box saying " Cannot install this hardware There was a problem installing this harware: {printer name} An error ocurred during the installation of this device The required section was not found in the INF." The printer(s) are already installed and working fine!! I have tried USB 2.0 ports as well as USB 1.1 ports on the computer.

Have installed SP2 on various systems with a few problems especially on certain Laptop Systems. You do need to read the blub that MS gives you and always backup important data. Perhaps MS should not relase service packs to users until it has been tested by tech support people. I am Microsoft Certified but and it took me a while to solve the various hicups. I had problems with IIS, slow machines and anti virus software on different machines. Latest Drivers are essential. JB

The range of problems produced by SP2 is horrifing. Oh god, do NOT get this if you havent, for gods sake TURN OFF AUTO UPDATES! SP2 is a death trap. I think because of the skin tight changes microshaft made, its causing a variaty of problems depending on how your computers set up. My box is custom to the bone so I consider myself lucky, the problems I experiance seem to be limited to certian protocals. I use cable, and some things run at full speed but some dont. Some examples are: AIM takes so long to load I feel like I'm back on my PM 6400/200 on my 33.6 modem, except SLOWER, but when it loads its fine. Same with halo and Mu, my online games behave the same way. With bittorent I can access the tracker and find users and stuff, but I cant transfer files or chat (Azerus). I got one thing to say to microshaft, April was MONTHS ago, and I am NOT a fool. I want a fix, and I dont mean later. -Gravian

I installed SP2 via the online download. Everything went fine. It was ONLY 10 hours on a dial up to accomplish this! Whew. OK .. Booted up, everything OK. I went online, and straight to my Yahoo web based mail box and some functions would work, and some such as delete messages would not. Same with Yahoo chat = messed up. 10 hours work for an update that screws things up? Geesh. I wasted NO TIME in getting rid of SP2. I didn't want to get sick over any other yet undiscovered functions and problems I may encounter. I mean ... pretty basic... go on line and check your Yahoo email? I am dumb founded over the lack of QC testing Microsoft obviously did NOT do regarding this update. I didn't try my "Hotmail" box, but that probably would have worked perfectly. (laughs) Anyway.. I used the system restore to config my system back before this all day download SP2 nightmare. I am back to SP1 and everything is fine except that Microsoft wasted my time and has shattered my confidence in them.

New Dell with SP2 preinstalled. Cable Internet access worked for a few days then died. Says all is OK and I can get dynamic IP reassigned all day, just no websites or email. Ping fails, then works, then fails. Don't want the PC... come and get it Dell you idiots. Typing this on rock stable Win98SE ZoneAlarmed PC on same network. Gates, you have royally mucked this one.

Hi mr New Dell, I have had exactly the same problems as you can read in previous posts. I foudn out that a lot of problems looked related to the 'automatic restore point' windows is making. Every time windows did make such a restore point my connections was failing like you described. I recently turned of this feature (for all drives) and now evenrything looks fine. I will keep you up-to-date after a week or so, to tell you if this really helps (Because I thought I had found the clue more than once....)

Lost my IIS ability to use FTP/SMTP/Web SIte servers. Turned off MS Firewall - No Joy! Am going to uninstall SP2. If they work, no more SP2, and maybe not SP3!

I have just installed sp2 also I have not experienced any problems other than my usually fast connection and browsing being fast is now unbelievably slow ot takes longer to load pages, to load type and to do searches it sooo annoying If any one knows of a reason this is happening please help, I am no technical genius but surley there is a glitch somewhere I also have run spybot s&d and its not making any difference, thanks

i installed a clean install of windows xp home then windows sp2 my internet connection speed is no higher than 26.4kbps if i uninstall windows sp2 i get a connection of 48000kbps whats up with sp2.

i done a clean install of sp2 never had a problem in 4 months with it

I just built a new AMD 64 Puter, Loaded WIN XP1 with all, updates. Then loaded SP2. My computer started to reboot itself everytime it looked like it was loading explorer.exe. I reloaded SP1 and it works great. I do not intend to load SP 2 untyil the bugs are worked out. If some else has had this problem, please post a fix or a web site article. Thanks

hey...i got a suggestion for al of u... instead of applying SP2 externally ...u can slipstream the service pack into ur original XP CD.. what i mean is that after slipstreaming (which means that i integrate the service pack nd original OS into one) u get a single updated windows XP setup with SP2 integrated in it..and i have found out that most of my s/ws work after installing from that CD...instead of applying SP2 and upgrading a system wid SP1a already installed...try it out..for info on slipstreaming..visit tacktech.com..and they also address the nero problems...u gotta get nreo 6.6 reloaded to work on SP2 bcoz nero ppl started supporting SP2 from arnd august... if u need ne more info... (this is all i know..but still.. ;))...u can add me to ur yahoo msgr..my id is :: zanny4u_2000@yahoo.com

and another...those of u who got a blue screen...i think there is some website which tells u da soln for that prob...if i am not very much wrong..da site is www.crn.com ...will tell u da exact url soon...

yeah...here is the link i rpomised...the CRN ppl have posted a review..which helps in coreecting the blue screen problem:: http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml?articleId=23905071

btw...i also have some probs...i have older versions of DAP and YM...and when i login to my YM..i am able to do so..but as soon as i try to enter a chat room...or double click on a frnds name to open a chat window...my YM disappears!! ..i guess it shud some port prob that YM uses..i am getting da new version of YM..hope it works...btw..the best s/ws u can use for keeping out adwares and spywares are :: 1] AD-Aware 2] SPYBOT both of these r freely dloadable from download.com. besides spybot also has a cool popup blocker..try them out...if ne 1 can solve my prob..plz tell me :) adios

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1READ ME FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!! All, I am following this usergroup several months; the problems with one of my computers I encoutered were: * Unstable wireless * Problems with explorer * Could not install official software (e.g. office 2003); .cab files from official CD's are supposed not readable and so on. ..and much more. All together I call it an unstable windows environment. My Laptop however had no problems at all. My solution to this all: use a not-black-listed serial for installing Windows XP and all problems dissapear. Windows XP and office 2003 (and maybe more microsoft software) included a defense mechanism of illigal use: a blacklist of Windows XP serials which will cause a unstable environment. When I try to recover the moment of this defense mechanism I guess microsoft implemented this feature around april 2004. I guess they surf the net as well and add black-list serials when found. These will be added locally via an windows-update. So to my opinion the only way to eliminate all these problems is to use a serial which is not on the black list (you can also check it via de www.microsoft.com....), so a serial which is not available on the internet. And one extra important note: when you want to reinstall windows do a COMPLETE format of the partition on which you want to install windows again. Reason: the installation inspects the partition, and when a previous illegal version was previously installen AND you dit only a quick format Windows will NOT install. Also remove any directory's (mostly on you last harddrive e.g. z:\\) which were made by SP2! When you leave these on your computer Windows will also not install. Note: in my case deleting these files was only possible by formatting this partition...

I agree with this read me first guy....esp. the Cd key beginning with FCKGW..is known as then "devil's own" version of XP..and is blacklisted...if u want a CD key..which is valid...contact me...i can u give u the info u want...u know my address..mentioned above...yesterday..

SP2 stopped my firewire 400 m-audio audiophile from working. No one else seems to have this problem- maybe I am being thick but lo and behold, reinstalling windows to sp1 fixed the problem. That's where its going to stay.

the one thing for internet not connecting is the port might be blocked so what u want to do is go to the internet options and then go to connection settings go to lan settings and then make sure that the proxy settings are checked and type the IP address and port no 3128 and click ok. ur internet should work fine

can i remove sp2 without haveing to remove windowsxp?

You don't have to uninstall any software or download any "fixes" for the Issue with Atapi.sys when Installing SP2. All you need to do is 1) Open this location on your computer /windows/system32/drivers where windows is the folder for your windows installation 2) Locate Atapi.sys 3) Copy Atapi.sys to another directory namely the root of the drive for easy access 4) When SP2 asks for the location of atapi.sys tell to get it from the root of the drive say if you drive is C: or D: tell it to look in C:\ or D:\, respectively That Works quite well, and takes about 5 sec.

Bill Gates Here: Calm down everyone, I just want everyone to know I have 3 computers in every room of my 50000 suare foot manson, and all of them have SP2 installed. Im having problems too on everyone of them, My IE6 won't work, and all of my mp3's and porn file take a while to execute. For everyone with USB problems just click Start-->Control Panel--->System---->THe "Hardware" TAB------>Device Manager, and just update your drives, and for anyone who wants to uninstall this crappy upgrade, you can do so by clicking Start---control panel---add/remove programs. Sorry about the inconvence, but hey at least im still the richest man in the world.

Hey Bill, you need to be kicked in your nuts.

He should be kicked in the nuts till he dies from it. EVERY system that I've seen SP2 installed on has multiple problems and no solutions to be found. I feel like they just re-released windows 95 again. XPSP2 is yet ANOTHER POS from MRSoftie...and that would be fine if their products were FREE and I was a PAID ADMIN. Most people are not Admins(paid or otherwise)...and the OS Software isnt FREE. When is this insanity gonna stop? Im sick of being a lab rat for $hitty designs and $hitty programming.

To all those who are calling those of us with SP2 problems "whiners", you are really off base. I have 2 computers with nearly identical software. One installed SP2 without problems, the other was a disaster. MICROSOFT JUST PLAIN SUCKS. I suspect that some of my problems are related to V5 of the updating software, which was released just before SP2. My solution has been to use Mozilla or Firefox which doesn't need weekly fixes.

SP2 DONT GET IT!!! iT CRASHED 2 PCS, CAUSED ME TO DO 2 REFORMATS, IT IS COMPLETE GARBAGE.

I was running V-Com's CD Anywhere program that lets you create image files of CD/DVD's and assign them to up to one of 26 virtual cd drives. This is no longer working since installing SP2. V-Com has pulled the product since they cannot solve it and MS won't help. Any suggestions or names of replacement software.

SP2 install prevents my PC from booting! (WXP - Proffessional) I installed SP2 from a CD and it seemed to go Ok and then asked me to restar t the computer... Now it won't boot! It gets to the Xp home start up logo and screen, then the screen goes black and there it stays. I tried to repair install by booting from the windows XP cd. However, the PC can't 'see' the old install and just offers me the choice of a new partitio n or installing over the old one (ie I loose everything!)

Hi my name is Bill After reading some of the posts here, I see that some of you lamers are having problems with Windows XP SP2. If it's any comfort to you, I'm having the same problems. There's not much I can do about it until we release SP3. In the mean time don't try to do an upgrade even if it recommends it when you put the CD in. It will not work!!!! It will just screw up your boot sector system files. It's best to do a fresh install after a complete format. (not the quickie). Don't forget to remove all your important files first. Lesbian Porno etc. In case you are wondering why SP2 is so "Buggy" Blame it on all the hackers that are always trying to cause me problems. They are just jealous that Microsoft is so successful. Because of them I have to keep making patches and hot fixes etc. SP2 was still in the testing stage and wasn't really ready to be released but the computer stores were saying that their customers wanted a system that was "ready to go" and didn't feel they should have to download patches as soon as they take their computer out of the box. You can understand the situation we were in. Some people were starting to ask about Linux OS. So we just had to let it out even if it was beta. Even though I know Linux will never catch on for the majority of users, I still need to sell some cd's, especially since so many people are downloading it for free and sharing their serial numbers. Let me tell you, just thinking about all that sharing gives me ulcers. I figure I'm out at least $50 million. I need that money to develop the new Windows version and some other stuff, so please help me out here. Thankyou Bill Gates Microsoft Certified.

Here's one I bet you haven't heard of. On my AMD Athlon 64 / MSI K8T Neo system, SP2 installs and runs just fine until you try to open explorer to find a file. This results in (a) no explorer and (b) system tray icons disappear. MS says don't install SP2 on 64-bit systems but AMD encourages SP@ on 64-bit Athlons. Anyone know anything about this pls email me: petecomp1@msn.com :) Thanks

The biggest problems on sp2 are constant crash,s running Microsoft games eg zoo tycoon complete dated 2003 wow do these games go out of date quick runs well on ME or 98 what,s going on .....

MICROSOFT SUCKS ASS. THEIR SUPPORT LINE SUCKS AND THEY DONT KNOW ANYTHING. I CAN NO LONGER SIGN INTO AIM..IT SAYS "AIM SERVICE AND NOT BE REACED" CAN NOT BE REACHED MY ASS. SP2 SCREWED EVERYTHING UP AND IM PISSED OFF. REAL PISSED. I CANT ACSESS SOME WEBSITES ALSO. IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO FIX THIS DAMN PROBLEM PLEASE LET ME KNOW BEFORE I HIT SOMEONE.

wow

Dude.... Re: Microsoft Sucks... You must be really upset. I deal with this stuff on an hourly basis. There is no fix. The only thing I can say is , " Breath though the top of your head like a whale" It won't solve your problem, but you might fell a little less stressed! Take Care

I just spent 3 weeks creating a complex video production project with Pinnacle Studio 8. I burned one pre-production preview DVD, then XP automatically installed SP2. All my working files and rendering files went away, and I'm dead in the water. All I get is crashes with error messages mentioning SP2 as a culprit. I've got over 30 years of experience as a computer software engineer and as a video engineer and I KNOW what I'm doing! I just wish Bill Gates would stop counting his money and make his "improvements" actually "improve" something. Hey Bill, READ THE DAMN ERROR REPORTING CODES WE SEND YOU EVERY DAY AND FIX IT!!! Don't sell us any more software until you fix the billions of problems already out there!

One of these days, somebody's going to file a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for false advertising and costing the industry billions in lost time. The "fixes" just turn a hundred problems into hundreds of DIFFERENT problems.

SP2 is nothing compared to the nightmare that I have been experiencing. I have an HP Pavillion a340n that had XP home, I did an install of XP Pro and lost control of my USB controllers. After asking HP what to do, "they say order the recovery discs, because you cannot update to XP Pro on an HP's XP Home computer" evidently you can't change anything about the HP computer system without having severe complications. HP systems are not upgradable. I feel like I have purchased a real piece of garbage.

is this just a gripe session or do people actually respond with helpful info? My Computer at work has the offensive sp2. I don't see any problems. However my cpu at home is alot slower and I get out of memory errors when running elaborate programs. How do I uninstall this? and does sp2 use alot of ram to run? It seems like my ram is only half there now.

After installing SP2, my Epson Photo 300 responds extremely slowly. The ink level indicator has disappeared. I contacted Epson and trhey said that the newest driver would correct the problem. It didn't. My wife reports that she cannot open Acrobat files, etc. I cannot see any reason to install SP2 unless you can't afford Norton Anti-Virus and Firewall Protection. The rigamarole you have to go through to make your computer function "as normal" with SP2 just isn't worth it. I am having to format my hard drive and start all over. Just uninstalling SP2 doesn't correct my problems. Microsoft is becoming more like a Dilbert cartoon all of the time.

Have XP Pro. Sent for CD from MS with SP2. Installed it. Loaded with spyware and adware. Got many pop-ups in Explorer. In MSN Hotmail.: Got email from company I purchased product from. Had link to check tracking information. Link would not work. Got Hotmail error message that there was an error and to click on another link to fix it. That link also did nothing. In Yahoo mail I tried to compose an email and when I selected the link to "insert addresses" it did not work. Don't know what else SP2 screwed up but uninstalled it and everything works fine, now. You can be proud of this update, Bill Gates.

installed sp2 on Dell inspiron 8100 with Nvidia GeForce2. Display has black band around it and text is microscopic. Microsoft says I need new video card. Is this true? Help!

Seems to me that most of the posters here have no business using or owning a computer in the first place. I've installed SP2 on doezens of computers, both Home and Pro w/o ANY issues. If the freaking thing was infected w/spyware and viruses before you did the SP2 install, what the heck did you expect would be the outcome. Maybe you dumba**es need to just buy an etch-a-sketch?

LOL your funny

SP2 killed my cat and makes my head turn blue every 10 minutes (Blue Scalp Of Dave) Ok, not true. BUT........... From a clean fully formatted hard drive ('puter is PCChips M810L with XP1900+ 256Mb) I have now tried twice to get SP2 to work. It is probably a hardware compatability issue but halfway through the install it just dies and restarts, leaving me with a very unstable OS! I was installing SP2 from a CD which I had seen install perfectly at work (where all the PCs are on SP2 without problem). I have all the patches and SP1 installed. The system was clean before attempting the SP2 install. Our IT department have recommended disabling the LAN driver as I don't need it and I believe the Indexing service can cause problems but I really can't be bothered any more. SP1 will do me fine thanks! (plus Zone Alarm, AVG and Ad-Aware SE). Take a bit of time to set up IE6 properly and you shouldn't have too many security issues if you're careful. The issue here though is: If SP2 is offered to ALL XP users as an AUTOMATIC update, then it should WORK WITH ALL SYSTEMS AND CONFIGS! Otherwise it should not be offered in this way. I do appreciate that it must be extremely difficult to cater for every PC likely to be running on XP but then the ones with problems need to be investigated and SP2 should only be available as a manually requested download. Shouldn't it? If the system remains unstable I shall do a full format and re-install (all my data is backed up) and return to SP1, with automatic updates turned off. It was running just fine on that spec!

Would to see Bill Gates install SP2 on this unit.Have installed it three time and each time have had to dump system and go back to SP1.Hired a Microsoft tech to come to my home and install SP2, he failed and refunded my money. He told me to run with SP1 and forget SP2. Keep my Norton up to date and have no trouble.

Not sure about those who have had no problems but I recently installed SP2 on a clean drive and nothing but problems. Videos will not play and neither will DVD's. Heck even some of Microsoft's games such as Rise of Nations will not play. I am going to reformat and go back to SP1 THANKS A LOT AS USUAL MICROSOFT WHY NOT MAKE SOMETHING THAT WORKS FOR ONCE.

I am having an application which is related with sql server and this application reads the information from sql server and gives the output and the application main advantage is speed printing in dot. This application was working in all win98se o/s and even when i upgraded to win xp it was workign. But i tried in another system to upgrade to win xp. but there i am not able to run my application. The application will just log on to the user. When i use the application menu it will close all and wuill return to win xp. Kindly suggest me to solve the problem.

I have an old DELL XP450 - installed XP2 last Fall - took several tries (had to drop zonealarm) but it's working ok. Just tried to install SP2 last night on a new DELL Inspiron 1000 Notebook with SP1. Now I can't: (1) Get anything to work off Start, like Control Panel, Windows Explorer. I get an abending DRWATSON, and the machine freezes. (2) I got IE working, but when it won't let me permanently change home page or Favorites list. Oh, it accepts the changes, but after a reboot, they've gone back to prior settings. (3) Nothing in the System Tray. I've seen all these problems in previous postings here - wish I'd read them before I tried SP2. I'm going to cross my fingers and uninstall SP2 tonight. If that works, I'm going to switch to Firefox.

All of our systems at work have no problem with SP2. My problem came about when I installed the system my XP Pro at home. I lost all connection to my DSL. SBC had me uninstall the pack and I was up and running again. If you decide to try SP2, make sure you have rollback enabled.

SP2 Took me 6 hours to download and install. After which I lost the use of my internet browser. Had to disable automatic updates to fix that problem. Now my computer runs to slow to do anything that it could do before. Leave it to Microsoft to turn my laptop into a typwriter. Had to use other computers to seek help and info on this problem. Seems to be pretty common.

Hmm. Maybe I'll wait

muuuuhahahahahahahaha

if your system response goes down the tubes after installling SP2 and it takes forever to load the taskbar - boot in safe mode and run REGEDIT. At HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcSs the value should be changed to LocalSystem. It ran fine for me once this was done.

After installing Windows xp sp2 pinter will not print anything from my PC

Sp2 is really better than the release package, because my Celeron 900Mhz machine actually boots without having to do the WinXP Cd boot with CHKDSK /r stuff to get it going. It is only Nero that doesn't work, but MagicISO and MountDeamon is more than useful for the same task - bundled CD writing software Nero v5 do write music CD's!

I went from windows 2000 to windows XP pro SP2 and now my computer no longer works. I installed it into my computer and now it constantly crashes. I get errors when ever i try to run any program and then the computer restarts. Im gonna have to switch back. I don't know why Microsoft would produce a bad Service Pack.

i can not run yahoo messanger olz help.

Just want to know if anyone has had this experience. I installed SP2 and rebooted the computer. On reboot, all I got was a black screen with a cursor. No start menu, no icons, nothing. Tried to reboot again in safe mode, last good boot, and still got the black screen. I ended up having to reformat the computer and reinstall Windows. This happened to 3 different computers. I finally was able to get SP2 installed on one of the computers but i installed it on a fresh install of Windows XP. The computer seems to be doing fine. So i think i've figured out how to fix SP2. Just install it 4 times, since it seems to work 25% of the time. NUTS!

Only problems with Norton Antivirus 2005, it works but causes errors

I can't download updates for Windows XP (2pk)? I've been given some suggestions from both DELL and Microsoft Support Techs to no avail. Any suggestions?

I dont know if this is of any help to anyone having problems with sp2 ..but, i have found if you take your original xp disc(with or without sp1) copy it onto your hard drive into a folder. Then download a full version of sp2(from memory about the 250mb size) place that into a seperate folder. Slipstream (merge the two together) create a boot up disc encorporating the merged files. If possible format and install onto a now cleaned computer. Failing that upgrade from the disc(making sure virus checked and any spyware removed)...both have worked for me on different computers. (for full details on slipstreaming goto- http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp )

Truth of the matter is, you need to know how to use it. I do, so if you want any tips you may contact me on madwog_360@hotmail.com. Feel free to add me to messenger. Please quote XPSP2 Issues.

XP keeps coming up with updates which corrupt or make other applications crash. The best thing one can do is to get a iMAC. - Madhu Mohan.

One needs XP2 to install and run the Visual Studio 2005 family. I am so doomed... - Val -

I have installed XP SP2 on 4 dell machines and it randomly crashes all of them. They are lucky if they last 24 hours without crashing. I have tested this by flattening one and installing XP SP1 with all updates (except SP2). This had no problems and didn't crash for the week that i left it running for. I then upgraded to SP2 and within 24 hours it crashed. When the pcs crash everything freezes but there seems to be a lot of network traffic coming from them. I know it's not spyware or viruses as the one that i flattened was off the network and couldn't have been infected, and also the others all have up to date anti-virus and anti-spyware on them. I've tried everything i can think of and have looked for solutions on the web but now have to go to Microsoft to see if they have any solutions.....

I've seen what you're talking about a bunch of times. Everyone has this "It's a spyware and adware thing" attitude. Like you wouldn't check for viruses and spyware in the first place. Of course, no one seems to have an answer to these SP2 crashes...I have yet to see a real solution. For such an "ugrade" MS claims SP2 is, you'd think they'd see what this crash vulnerablility on many XP (NOT ALL - you "I never had a problem" condescending jackasses) SP2 units have an get on it. Then again, it's MS...unless it's for sale, they could care less.

Sp2 woes, ran sp1 with no probs. performance test = 390-410, with Sp2 now 320-330, internet speed (250Kbs)tests =240Kbs, with Sp1 down to 190Kbs, 2 clean installs (with latest drivers) later with Sp2, I am still way down on speeds, guess I am a slow learner ? no other probs, except i.e.6 lockups, cured with one of Bills patches Sp2 has definatly slowed up my computer, great pop up blocker though ! apart from its one way firewall, which I dont use (sygate) what other advantages or security are on offer in Sp2, coz I'm thinking of freash install with Sp1 only, cant bear the loss of speeds on my machine, P.S. my cat didn't die either, but my daughters Goldfish did !! has Bill got that much power ?

(No other problems )me and my big mouth ??? My Dr. Watson log file grew to 418mb in size, and crashed the computer when I tried to open it, Just glad I didn't try to print it P.S yes the cat ate the goldfish, spooky the cat now has that same smug look as Bill, As her Maj. The Queen said, there are dark forces at work, so beware of strangers bearing gifts, bloody Trojans again,

I installed sp2 for my windows XP. My previous applications in vb 6.0 sp4 are'nt opening now. It crashes during opening. But when i log on as an administrator it opens. then once the application is open in administrator login then my application opens in my login. Then i found out that even when i add a flexigrid control into a new project in normal user login the vb crashes abruptly. When i go to admin login and add the component to a new project it adds successfully. Then when i log in as a normal user and add flexgrid then its successful. Anybody faced such a problem I am in urgent need of the solution Thanks in advance. mail to me at maheshjj@yahoo.com

Just done a clean install of XP with SP2 on a brand new disk. Cannot load anything (Encountered a problem...) no CD will install. If I put the XP disk in the drive, IT'S Autorun comes up with the same error message! Class act Bill!

Hi, i see lots of complaints regarding WIN XP SP2, i have installed and upgraded over 50 systems with sp2 and have not had most of the problems mentioned here, i think the only issue is that some drivers for printers etc might need updating, this is the part of the hardware manufacturer to post a updated driver at their site, also, make sure that the system is clean/virus free/ before the install, SP2 has worked brillently so far! at least for me, systems uograded range from old pentium 3 500's to the new p4 3ghz, no problems!

So how do you remove the latest Microsnot update on sp2? The genuine thing. Cant even log in to windows now. Took me a week to get my new motherboard running with my other components then I stupidly get a windows update! What file does windows seek on boot to authenticate system? and i will remove it.

Sad to hear of all the problems in this post. I recently installed a new hard drive with WinXP Pro and received all the updates via my SBC DSL access and have had no problems whatsoever with SP2. Thankfully, my computer works very well.