SP2 Nightmare

Hey All,
I just updated my system with SP2 and let me tell ya .. it's a real hog. Not only did it slow my system down to a crawl it deleted my dialup connection and wouldn't let me recreate one. Also the new firewall wouldn't work cause it said it couldn't start a services? Something about ICF I think. I do have a very lean system and have uninstalled various XP componets to try and get a more responsive computer. It's a good thing I imaged my hard drive before the upgrade attempt otherwise I would really have a mess. It appears that the only way I'll be able to do the upgrade is to make the CD with SP2 installed and do a complete system rebuild. Since my computer is working pretty well right now I don't think that will happen anytime soon. I didn't see anything that I really need. The added security would be nice but it doesn't look like its ment to be on my system. Just thought I'd post my experiance and give a word of warning. I would suggest that you have a robust system with lots of resources and do a backup before installing SP2.

Later

 

Hi Rockit,

I'm wondering if the problem is that you installed the "Professional Net Working" 266 MB version which MS has said specifially is not for individual home users, especially those on dial-up. So why did you do that?

I'm quessing, but SP2 should have come with an uninstall - $NtUninstall.. - like SP1 did.

Regards - Charles

 

It came with an $$Uninstall file. It loaded beautifully in my computer. I just decided to do a slipstream and reinstall for a much smaller footprint.

 

I'm wondering Rockit how customised you install of XP is?
Sounds like you have altered the basic install of XP somewhat to get your "very lean system ". I wonder if SP2 may have problems with heavily modified systems?
I have installed it on my second PC an Athlon 1.2G, and apart from no desktop icons after the install of SP2 that required a few forced reboots to clear, everything (including speed) seems to be fairly much normal on this slow (by todays standards) PC.

 

Hi Christer,

Shouldn't have phrased it that way. Didn't mean downloading via dialup!!. I meant on a "simple" home system using dial up. Rockit mentioned that's what he has and that SP2 took it out.

I did use the phrase "I'm wondering ". All this is new and experience ought make one lengthen the odds in one's favor.

Regards - Charles

 

My own personal experience of SP2 so far has been that it does not play nicely with previous updates.
I followed this guide to add SP2 to my original installation CD and re-installed.
Everything's hunky-dory and runs just as well as it did before

 

Sp2

Hey all,
No I didn't try and download SP2 on a dialup connection! I got it from a buddy who has cable modem. And yes my system is tweaked. It has to be you see I'm running a AMD 500 so I'm lucky that windows xp runs at all on it. I do have all the updates prior to SP2 so I thought I'd give it a try. The security center seemed to use allot of system resources and my computer locked up at least 6 times during the one hour trial that I gave it. I wanted to post what the problems were but like I said it deleted my dialup connection and wouldn't let me make a new one? I may try it again since it wasn't to hard to restore my computer from the image I made prior to testing it. It does have a uninstall feature but I find that those never really uninstall everything and I'm better off just restoring from my backup. I did notice that the componets I've removed from my current system setup were replaced after the upgrade. I'll post back after I try it again and let ya know if I encounter the same issues.
Thanks for the feedback
Rockit

 

Hi Rockit,

I didn't think you downloaded via dialup - see my post to Christer.

Your further explanations make the situation a little clearer. It would be interesting to see if installing the smaller release version makes a difference.

The following is my part of an exchange via PM:

Regards - Charles

 

Sp2

Hey all,
No I didn't try and download SP2 on a dialup connection! I got it from a buddy who has cable modem. And yes my system is tweaked. It has to be you see I'm running a AMD 500 so I'm lucky that windows xp runs at all on it. I do have all the updates prior to SP2 so I thought I'd give it a try. The security center seemed to use allot of system resources and my computer locked up at least 6 times during the one hour trial that I gave it. I wanted to post what the problems were but like I said it deleted my dialup connection and wouldn't let me make a new one? I may try it again since it wasn't to hard to restore my computer from the image I made prior to testing it. It does have a uninstall feature but I find that those never really uninstall everything and I'm better off just restoring from my backup. I did notice that the componets I've removed from my current system setup were replaced after the upgrade. I'll post back after I try it again and let ya know if I encounter the same issues.
Thanks for the feedback
Rockit

 

That is my understanding.

 

Sorry about the repost .. don't ya just love the joy's of a dialup connection. So I'm back and did another install. Heres what I have so far.

1) My dialup connection is gone from Contol Panel - Network Connections? It is also not in Outlook Express. I had a shortcut to it in the quick links toolbar but that has been removed also. However the settings are saved in Internet Explorer - options - connections? I would like my shortcut back since I don't use Internet Explorer. It won't let me create one in the control panel. It starts to walk me thru the setup but I only get as far as selecting "I want to setup my connection manually" then it just dissappears?

2) The firewall said it was active and OK on startup but then disabled itself somehow? When I try and enable it I get the error " Windows cannot start the windows firewall/internet connection sharing (ICS) service "

3) My system is very slow and unresponsive. It takes awhile to get the control panel to respond and the icon "Network Connections" does not want to open. It takes a few min. then it finally shows no connections.


So far thats it but I've only had it installed for a hour. I have a few idea's and am going to see if I can fix this mess.

As always any hints or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Rockit

 

Hi Rockit,

Don't know whether you saw my thread on a site collecting experiences w/ SP2 http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=33933

Off-hand I'd say that your system is less than ideal for XP - but since SP2 is so new and only now getting more widespread reports on the interaction between it and running systems, the jury is out.

Regards - Charles

 

Did you have a look in your services list to see if any of ICF's dependencies are disabled?
I don't know if you know how but here it is anyway
Start > Run > services.msc
Browse down to Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing and double-click on it. Look in the dependencies tab and make a note of what is there, see if any of those are set to disabled.

I've just had a look at it, and the firewall depends on the 'Network Connections' service, which also looks after Dial-up connections - so maybe that service hasn't started or has been disabled? Could explain why your dial-up connection isn't listed.

Sorry if you knew all that already.

 

Thanks for the input .. the 'Network Connections" service is indeed not running. And it won't start even though its set to Manual. I get the error " error 126 the specfied modual could not be found" when I try and start it. It's weird cause it was enabled when the computer first rebooted after installing the sp2 update. The security center popped up after the first reboot and it had a green light and said it was enabled? I'm wondering if the missing network connection and the firewall have something in common. I tried copying my quick link shortcut from my image backup to my current setup but when I click on it nothing happens. Also when I connect to the internet I no longer get the two little monitors icon in the tray that shows I'm connected. I checked all my services and they are set to the defaults that they should be. Double checked them at Vipors homepage and they look correct. I checked out that link you posted Charles but didn't see anything that gave me any idea's. Will keep an eye on it though. Well off to google to see if I can come up with anything to get this figured out.

Thanks
Again

 

Okay, let us know how you get on, we'll be deploying SP2 at work soon enough so I'd be interested to see if you fix it.

Cheers.

 

regsvr32 netshell.dll

Ok .. I think I've tracked down part of the problem to the netshell.dll. I tried reregistering it by using this "regsvr32 netshell.dll" to no avail. Also tried SFC /scannow and that didn't help either. If I go into the connection propertys in Outlook Express the connection is now listed there but when I try and create another one I get part of the way thru the wizard and I get the error "an exception occurred while trying to run "netshell.dll,STARTNCW "
Any Idea's?