Windows XP Hack

[Vincent]

swift240 wrote:
5. Install WindowsXP as usual. Your XP Home Key will work.
Note: You cannot apply SP2 to the hacked WindowsXP Pro.

Well if you cant do the above then what is the point?
SP2 is needed compared to not needing it.
Windows XP Home Edition or Pro are better of with SP2.  Dont you think.

I had plenty of problems with SP2, it's not needed.

[Vincent]

bloodline wrote:
SP2 was a nightmare for me... I realise now what the System Restore feature is for :-)

At least you got to use yours!  As soon as the WinXP logo and loading bar came up it'd die - no matter if it was in safe mode, restore to previous settings etc.

Wouldn't touch SP2 with a barge pole now.

[Vincent]

X-ray wrote:
It was a fly in the ointment, it was sand in the vaseline, piss in the wine, doggy-doo in the hair gel...

:lol: nice metaphors :-D

Our XP is legit and we had problems with it on the old mobo.  That mobo is now very dead and we got a new one (a foxconn) and we had exactly the same problems with SP2.

The only things that are the same in the PC now as before is the graphics card (GeForce FX5200) and the HD.  We're using the onboard sound card with the foxconn instead of the cheap 5.1 TECSound we had before.  The ram, cpu and mobo have been completely replaced.

There's absoutely no reason whatsoever that SP2 should not work.  Yet it doesn't.  I've tried installing XP, then SP1, then SP2 and SP2 causes BSODs.  I've tried creating an XPSP2 cd and installing that with the same results.

All the hardware we have is supposedly compatible with SP2 and all the drivers have been upgraded before installing SP2 (sometimes I waited until after, but after never happened).

Each time the result is the same.  The only solution is to start all over again.

I've managed to get SP2 working on a machine without a legit XP cd and it's worked fine.  The thing is, his PC is an ancient PIII 500MHz with 128MB ram and nothing else.  on board gfx and sound.

Incompatible hardware?  Bollocks
Illegal copy of XP?  Bollocks

Oh yeah, one more thing.  I know two different people with the exact same Dell PCs.  Exactly the same.  SP2 worked fine on one.  Crippled the other and had to use the Dell rescue CDs.

[Vincent]

seer wrote:
Incompatible hardware? Bollocks
Illegal copy of XP? Bollocks

Nobody claimed it was always one of these.. Bad luck may be anther factor..

I was just making a point that hardware and illegal XP are the usual dismissive explanations.

You might want to check your RAM and even your Power supply tho. Maybe the GFX card is failing.

It's not the ram - got new 256MB simms with the new mobo and got the same problems (tested all the ram I have with about 4 different progs and they all say that the 2 new simms are perfect and one of the old ones is defective - but that might've been me not caring about the old mobo and not making sure it was kept clean ;-)).  Tried it with the onboard gfx card on both mobos and got the same results too.  Oh yeah, it's a new PSU aswell.  Everything in the PC has been tested every way I've found and everything is working properly.  I even did that with the Dell machines.

Who told you they were the same ? At work we have 2 PC's "Exactly" the same, the serial has only 1 digit different.. Yet, one came with a WD hardisk, the other a Maxtor.

Nobody - Because I had to reinstall XP after SP2 failing on one I had a good look in both Dell PCs and I can tell you for a fact that they're both the same.  Right down to how many screws are keeping everything in place :-P

a quick google search "SP2 Foxconn"

At first look, I'd say it's your mobo..

http://techrepublic.com.com/
http://channels.lockergnome.com
http://forums.pcworld.co.nz/
Google

From that second link - "Technically speaking, the problem revolves around the machine's BIOS not installing a production level microcode update. To check whether the BIOS is at the correct level, download the Intel Processor Frequency ID utility."  Doesn't apply - I'm using AMD.  AMD, Foxconn and SP2 are compatable (apparently ;-) ).  I did BIOS updates on all the PCs that had the problem and it never made a difference.

Maybe I am just unlucky, but with it happening so often with different hardware (in some cases the same hardwear) I'd say it's a bit unlikely.

[Vincent]

@seer

Nope, I'm not keen on overclocking.  I've played around in the bios, but nothing has made a difference even using the default settings.

@mdma

I can't remember the old one (possibly a Pentium at 1.4ghz), but the new one is AMD Sempron 2600+ 1.83GHz.

On every installation I do (or update) I make sure that I've got everything that's needed for updating - including bios and other mobo stuff.

Nothing has made the slightest difference in installing SP2.  SP2 was installed from the same CD and none of them have reported any errors in the archive, but because of the problems I redownloaded it and tried that one.  The results were exactly the same on the same PCs.

Anyways I'm not touching SP2 with a 200 foot barge pole.  I't be easier to try and hit Bill Gates in the eye with it than install SP2 :-P

[Vincent]

Bear in mind the CPU update driver was only released last week. :-)

Yes, but they would've had an SP2 compatible updated cpu driver avaliable a while back.  I waited quite a while (months) to see what other people were experiencing with SP2 before I decided to try it.  I made sure I checked up on *everything* on all the PCs before even trying it.  If I was unsure about one thing I didn't try it (there are a few people who want it, but I didn't know what problems their h/w or s/w would've caused so I didn't bother).

I forgot about the automatic updates, but yeah I tried them and they caused the same problem.  I couldn't tell from the updater what was causing it either.

There's not much chance of me touching SP2 again.  At a push, if it's really really *really* really really[/b] necessary then I just might get round to doing it :-P