XP SP2 I just went and had to try it, sigh...

[blobrana]

@StevenJGore

Yeah,
you can tweak/disable those pesky sp2 firewalls...

Have you tried xp-AntiSpy V3.83 is a little utility that let's you disable some built-in update and authetication 'features' in WindowsXP.     (only 39kb! )

updated
Hum, dash in wrong place...sorted now , i hope...

[Holley]

Erm, thats a bad link!

I won't be installing SP2 until I do a fresh install with an XP disc with SP2 included at install time.  Unfortunately the 1st release of that disk doesn't actually boot on any of the Laptops we have, so thats out the window (pun intended) for now.

Longhorn has been pushed back so far that some people recon it'll never get released.  64-bit XP has been rescheduled many times already.  I really don't care about any of this, as I get paid by the hour :-D

I have all the fun of going on a course all about MS SQL 2000 Server next week, thats going to be a riot :-?

[jjans]

It looks like my problem was NOT an XP SP2 issue I am sorry to say. I traced the problem to my ATI Radeon 7000 card.

As with any patch, I faithfully upgraded my catalyst drivers to the latest Sept 2004 release prior to installing SP2.

I restored back tp the old drivers, and SP 1, and my display problem went away, and my custom fonts were drawn to the scale I intended.

I then updated the latest ATI drivers and was surprised to see the screwed up display again! So I installed SP2 again, and then rolled back the ATI drivers (again!), and now I get a proper display in my app.

Damm, I was having fun blaming Micrsoft.

Perhaps I should rename this thread to:

"ATI Radeon I just went and had to try it, sigh..." :-?

Thanks 'adolescent' for your help on this!

[potroast]

is anyone else here experiencing internet exploerer crashing everytime it closes, or is it just me, i only use it for testing purposes(im sorry but firefox 1.0pr RULEZ) but it is really annoying me and it didnt happen before sp2

[Waccoon]

I then updated the latest ATI drivers and was surprised to see the screwed up display again! So I installed SP2 again, and then rolled back the ATI drivers (again!), and now I get a proper display in my app.

I have reason to believe that the ATI Catalyst 4.9 drivers are made of meatloaf.  I'm having all sorts of 2D draw problems and many of my MediaPlayer movies are skipping like crazy.  I'm running Win2K and SP4.  Anyone else have trouble like this, XP SP2 or not?

[Waccoon]

is anyone else here experiencing internet exploerer crashing everytime it closes

That's usually caused by a problem with a registry key.  Take a look under this Regedit tree:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar

...and look for anything weird.  There shouldn't be more than three branches below it, and three or four keys in each branch.  Try also deleting any keys in that branch named "ITBarLayout".  IE will rebuild the toolbar layout the next time you run it.

[bloodline]

I'm wating for "Service Pack 2 - sp1" ;-)

Apparently I'm the only one on the planet (yet again) who had no problem with the service pack.  I had to upgrade Nero, but that's about it.  I was using an old version anyway, so it doesn't bother me.  Working well for me so far (installed it day one of the release) and I like the new features of IE 6.

Wayne

[seer]

No probs here with SP2 either, and thats since SP2 RC2. Even tho that version had a problem with DIVX codecs, I only had very few problems with that.

[Linchpin]

I just installed it and its completley messed up my PC!! Cant even get an IP adress. Well done to microsoft for completley messing things up again.

Time to backup C: and format i guess...

[adolescent]

No problems here either on 2 machines so far.  

@linchpin

Just use the system restore feature to roll things back to before the install.  No reason to rebuild from scratch.

[motrucker]

The biggest offenders seem to be the "name brand" computers (Crapaq, HP, Sony, etc.) and this revolves around driver updates (usually). Some of these machines want you to upgrade certain drives before installing SP2, and some after (hell, some are a mix of before and after!!)
My Asus mobo/AMD 2600+ setup is actually booting and running faster with SP2, and hasn't crashed since the install!

[Waccoon]

I'm wating for "Service Pack 2 - sp1

I miss plain old version numbers.

The biggest offenders seem to be the "name brand" computers (Crapaq, HP, Sony, etc.) and this revolves around driver updates (usually).

Having frequently repaired Compaq and HP machines, I can second this.  *NO* prebuilt system even comes close to the stability and performance of a good custom-built system.  Given all the "hacky" software they put on their machines that do really stupid low-level things (like HP's control panel utilites), it doesn't surprise me that SP2 causes trouble with those machines.

You're better off only installing updates you get from the manufacturer of your computer, so you know their idiotic driver-level tools won't barf all over SP2.

This is also why I hate it when people complain that Windows  is a sluggish lump of crap.  Realisticly, drivers and background apps cause most of the grief.

Time to backup C: and format i guess...

A Windows tradition.  Though, the last time I re-installed Win2K was a month ago when my trusty Western Digital blew up.

With this new Hitachi Deskstar, my system is not only completely silent, but Win2K system boots up in 18 seconds with MySQL and Apache turned off.  Woo!  :-D

[Linchpin]

Just use the system restore feature to roll things back to before the install. No reason to rebuild from scratch.

Tried it. Every system restore failed. I got one to work, from where i 1st installed the OS. But it was soo unstable.

Hitachi Deskstar HDD's Rock! I have one in my PC here its SOO quiet and quick!

[CodePoet]

To be honest, I havent had any problems at all with service pack 2; in fact... I find alot of the updates quite pleasant (cant believe I said that)

Some people I know however, have "cracked" copies of xp... Alot of the cd keys that come with those copies are blacklisted, which wont allow an install of sp1/sp2. a handful of keys seem to be on the borderline though (educational bulk keys that have 'escaped' into public); which would allow an install but then crash and burn after a reboot

..seen alot of oem copies of xp supplied with HP / Dell machines that tend to die after an install of sp1a / sp2 too

[X-ray]

That could be what happened to me. I have an OEM install of XP Pro, but it is on a custom machine, not HP or Compa*.
After I installed SP2 winblows explorer refused to run. At least I have not suffered a complete disaster like others have.
I think I'll wait a while for an updated version.