Community Newsletter: Q&A: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no?
- 9/1/05 4:38 PM
9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no?
by SwanMoon - 9/2/05 6:41 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
One of the area's of concern prior to upgrading your computer to Windows XP SP2, would be to check with your computer manufacturer. For example, some Hewlitt Packard computer's that came with XP SP1 has a specialty download that must be installed prior to the installation of XP SP2.
SP2 Failure!!
by crfqueen - 9/2/05 6:57 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I am a victim of SP2 failure. My Dell 4200 XP 1.7 G 620 RAM computer 20 G hard drive + 120 Maxtor hardrive as slave, has not been able to handle SP2. I have tried downloading the program and then nothing else is allowed to be downloaded from IE. I cannot open my Yahoo mail. I cannot open any files using AOL. I finally unloaded the program. I read about making sure that all service packs were removed and tried again with the same results. I gave up.
I now have a problem with my slave drive...I can't get XP to run the slave drive. It won't plug and play with XP. It allowed me to put it in as like Windows '98. The message was something about NTCF?(I may have screwed the letters) files? Any help on both would be appreciated. My daughter downloads crap off the internet, or visits a lot of IM homepages and we get a lot of virus/adware/malware. I have Nortons 2005, Spybot, Adware, Spysweeper that I run virtually every day...it doesn't help.
Be wary if you use your serial port!!!
by shadowrabbit - 9/2/05 6:59 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
SP2 can (and will) adversly affect the use of your serial port if you use say for instance an old DOS app. to program devices. In my case, I was using the serial port to program Kenwood uhf radio's, after SP2 it became impossible to get the DOS application and the COM port to work with each other! The only thing that worked was a dual boot system (WIN98SE and XPSP2)
until i finally wrangled the WINDOWS app. for programming those radios. Other than that, SP2 has undoubtedly provided some protection against threats to the system.
PEACE! Rabbit Out!
Can I uninstall SP2?
by cnanew2k5 - 9/2/05 7:39 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Thanks, Miguel for wonderful answer.
Also,many thanks for Lee to provide this column.
After installing SP2 ( I think) somehow I lost the function of IME (Korean). I used to have no problem switching English-Korean back and forth in Hotmail or Yahoo email compose, but now I can't. However, I tried same IME in Firefox or Netscape, they both work. So, It must be Internet Explorer with SP2...
I am using IE 6.0.3900.2180 xpsp_sp2_qdr.050301-1519
And I have installed imekor.exe and ie_ko.exe
Can you help?
Thanks,
Daniel
upgrading to sp2
by carabao925 - 9/2/05 7:41 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If I upgrade to sp2 will some of my program cease to function properly? e.g. pinnacle, creative lab, power dvd,etc.
Thanks
Many updates wont be available unless you have sp2
by simonxliu - 9/2/05 7:51 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Many updates wont be available unless you have sp2, Microsoft is planning to stop non sp2 users from using windows update at all.
XP SP2 annoyance
by david_terzian - 9/2/05 7:58 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
That stupid IE Information Bar is the sole reason keeping me from downloading Windows XP SP2. It became annoying as hell, when trying to open Yahoo mail, and some other applications. If I want to open Yahoo mail, I don't need a stupid information bar informing me of whether or not to allow the active x controls to work or to block them. Now an improvement can be made on it if it took a sort of Norton Firewall approach, and learns and remembers after one or two times just exactly when to allow active x, or not.
Windows XP SP-2 you need it!
by snreu - 9/2/05 8:08 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I can't imagine why anyone would bo afraid of SP-2. From my own experience in the computer repair field, having installed SP-2 on many machines that I have worked on, I have seen none of the issues that some of these posts refer to. If you do your homework, put some effort into actually preparing for the install, ie. scan for malware, back-up data just in case, check hardware compatability, check for and prepare for any driver updates, then the install should be painless. At least that has been my experience. Without fail, when a customer brings me a PC that they have tried to install SP-2 and have had a problem, the problem can be related to no preparation on their part. If you expect to put in a disk, hit install, and sit back, then you will have a problem. But we should all be honest enough to admit that SP-2 fixes lots of problems that need to be fixed with XP. It would be nice if Uncle Bill would do all the homework needed to release an O/S or applications that were perfect out of the box and need no additional service packs, but that would be impossible. Or software would be even more pricey than it is now.
It's not perfect, but for now it's all we have. In the meantime, do your homework, prepare, and don't blame Microsoft if you don't.
An alternative to SP2
by Guido Muldoon - 9/2/05 9:39 AM In reply to: Windows XP SP-2 you need it! by snreuI have a laptop and 2 desktops all with SP2 installed. One of the desktops required multiple attempts to get it right so I started looking for an acceptable alternative. What I came up with is a service pack called Apple OS X 10.4. It came with its own 15" laptop. If I can find some idiot on Ebay to buy my Windows machines I'm getting a Power Mac G5 with the biggest Cinema display I can afford and a 12" iBook to complement my 15" Powerbook and I'm never looking back. By the way, my Windows experience goes back to 3.1 in the early 90's.
SP2
by art233 - 9/4/05 8:51 PM In reply to: An alternative to SP2 by Guido MuldoonWhen I first downloaded SP2, my AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ w/ HyperTransport Technology was fairly new. It runs XP professional. I had purchased a new printer ,scanner combo, and of course the 8 bit sound system to go with Flight Simulator 2004 to which I adore.I am behind a Linksys firewall router and Zone Alarm. Anti Virus by Mcafee, pop blocker by Yahoo.
My problems started with SP2. Not only did it change the shorcut paths to most of my normally used programs buut some of them quit completely. I was tols to makes sure that I had no adware onboard. being fairly new, there wasn't much checking but alas, nothing helped. I even tried uninstalling some of those programs and reinstalling them to no avail.
Finally I began unistalling SP2 and a small menu popped up stating"if you uninstall SP2, the below listed programs will no longer work".
My blood pressure went up as I read the list of items that would not work. They were that same ones that stopped working when I installed SP2.
Upon the completetion of inistalling SP2, my computer has been humming smoothly for over a year. I refuse to allow it to download on my system but I do allow the other upgrades.
I have no alternative but As I read some of the other problems that peopl were have , within the Forum I am enrolled into, I was told that they got theirs running by reformatting the hard drive and starting everything all over. That is those that kept SP2.
Now, my wife run an AMD 2800 computer on the same network, and plays a lot of games online. SP2 has been downloaded and it runs fine on that one. ANd believe me, there are tons of adware on that computer???
Per Gateway
by Cal Emerich - 9/3/05 11:44 AM In reply to: Windows XP SP-2 you need it! by snreuI tried going to SP2 on my Gateway 700 and had numerous hangs and programs that failed. I was told to uninstall and go back to SP1. That was months ago.
I recontacted GW support two weeks ago and got the following reply -
Hello Clarence,
Thank you for your e-mail. Regarding your concern with upgrading Service Pack 2, I would suggest not to upgrade. I had received several e-mails from Gateway customers that their computer messed up after
upgrading Service Pack 2. If you do not want to received confirmation about upgrading Service Pack 2, I would suggest that you disable start up programs running in your computer using Msconfig.
XP SP2
by edday - 9/2/05 9:19 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
This upgrading to SP2 is great except that it broke my wireless usb connection. Apparently the automatic configuration stuff checks for available access points about every minute. If your card can't keep up, then the connection is broken. Took me about a month to finally find the fix, which was, to disable the automatic configuration and go with another wireless connection manager.
It's still not perfect, but the connection stays up longer than a few minutes.
XP2 Operating Changes
by Jodz - 9/2/05 9:24 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I successfully upgraded to SP2 a few months ago and there are several changes I hadn't expected. I'm not sure if they are new because of the upgrade or if I have something set incorrectly after the upgrade. The most noticible of these is my current inability to save login password information. For example, my ISP asks me if I want to save either my login name, or my login name and password so I don't have to re-enter it every time. As this is my home computer I used to do that. Now, I can save my login name but not my password. I have to re-enter that every time.
The other thing that is frankly, driving me crazy, is the incredibly long time it takes to boot my system - about 12 minutes. I have stripped my startup to nothing but essentials and totally cleaned my computer of any temp files etc and it still takes this long. The computer is virus free. This started happening after the upgrade. After the machine boots everything runs correctly....
Jodz
excellent reply!
by urr_quasdim - 9/2/05 9:26 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Miguel did a great job of answering the question of whether or not to install SP2. Even if one doesn't use IE (I use Firefox) the new firewall and security center are strong enough reasons for the upgrade in these times of massive onslaught by viruses, worms, spyware and all sorts of malware.
XP SP2 a hassle
by GRainone - 9/2/05 9:42 AM In reply to: 9/2/05 Upgrading to Windows XP SP2: yes or no? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My computer never worked as well after the download. Firewall conflicts with router and software...and BALKY slow running.
Operating systems are for FIRST INSTALL...OR reinstall....patching messes with 'em, imho..
G. Rainone,
Longwood, FL
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