[TechChick]

To recover your computer to a bootable state and remove Windows XP SP2, follow these steps:
Start your computer by using the Windows XP Recovery Console or by using the Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE), depending on your situation. To start your computer by using the Recovery Console, follow these steps:
Insert the original release version of the Microsoft Windows XP CD in your computer's CD drive or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.

Note Your computer must be configured to start from the CD drive or DVD drive. For more information about how to do this, see your computer's documentation or contact your computer manufacturer.
When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.
When the "Welcome to Setup" screen is displayed, press R to start the Recovery Console.
When you are prompted, type the number that corresponds to the installation of Windows that you want to access from the Recovery Console, and then press ENTER. For example, if you have one installation of Windows on your computer, type 1, and then press ENTER.
When you are prompted, type the Administrator password, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt in Recovery Console, type the following lines. Press ENTER after each line.
cd $NtServicePackUninstall$\Spuninst
batch spuninst.txt
exit

Remove the Windows XP CD from your computer's CD drive or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.
Run the Windows XP SP2 Removal Wizard to remove Windows XP SP2. To do this:
Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type the following lines. Press ENTER after each line.
cd %Windir%\$NtServicePackUninstall$\Spuninst
spuninst.exe

Follow the instructions to remove Windows XP SP2.

[TechChick]

iF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE WIN XP INSTALL DISK YOU CAN DOWNLOAD WIN XP SETUP BOOT DISKS FROM THE SITE PROVIDED:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...55-BD5AFEE126D8

Microsoft Windows XP Professional:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...B7-4FED408EA73F

YOU WILL NEED 6 FLOPPY DISKS

When you download the Setup disks, the download contains only one large program file. When you run the downloaded file, it extracts the files. You receive the following prompt:
This program creates the Setup boot disks for Microsoft Windows XP. To create these disks, you need to provide 6 blank, formatted, high-density disks.

Please specify the floppy drive to copy the images to:

Type the drive letter for the floppy disk drive (this is typically drive A). After you type the floppy disk drive letter, you receive the following prompt:
Insert one of these disks into drive drive letter:. This disk will become the Windows XP Setup Boot Disk.

Press any key when you are ready.

When you press a key, the downloaded file starts to extract and copy the files. Continue to insert the blank disks as you are prompted to do so until all six disks are created. If the process is interrupted, you must run the downloaded program file again to create all six disks.

Make sure to label each disk appropriately with the number that is specified by the program. You must use the disks in the correct order during the Setup process.
Use the Setup disks
After you create all six disks, insert the first disk in the floppy disk drive, and then restart the computer. The computer must be configured to boot from the floppy disk drive. You may have to modify the BIOS settings on your computer to do this.

The Setup process starts. Insert the other floppy disks as you are prompted to do so. You must use the Windows XP CD-ROM to finish the Setup process.

[TechChick]

IF YOU COMPUTER IS SLOW AFTER INSTALLING WIN XP SP2 OR IF YOU HAVE NO ICONS OR TASK BAR THIS REQUIRES A REGEDIT:

Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
Go to the following key:
Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RPCSS

ONCE YOU CLICK ON RPCSS, RIGHT CLICK ON OBJECT NAME AND CLICK MODIFY, CHANGE VALUE DATE TO "LocalSystem" AND CLICK OK..THIS WILL RESOLVE THE ISSUE.

[TechChick]

Hey thanx for the reply..The reason people are having issues with sp2 installs is do to problems on there system before installing sp2. If there was spyware on the computer and sp2 was installed it will cause alot of problems, or third party firewalls or anti virus programs will cause errors. If anyone plans to install service pack 2 I would suggest cleaning up their computer first. Do a spyware scan, do anti virus scan, run the system file checker(sfc /scannow) to make sure all windows dll files are in place. Also it is a good idea to unplug any third party hardware which is not needed to boot into windows, to be sure there is not going to be a conflict between sp2 and the device. Sometime after installing sp2 you are unable to boot to the desktop, this could be caused by a driver conflict. if this happens boot into safe mode uninstall service pack 2 and update device drivers and clean the system and sp2 should install fine.

[TechChick]

I took a look at the post you suggested I read and help out with and it seems all those guys are just bashing sp2 because their system was probably unstable to begin with. If they need help they can come in here I will continue to post updated information.

FYI- It is not a great idea to uninstall sp2 unless there are no other options, it could cos more problems then anything. The reason for this is because it is not any old windows update. Sp2 actually is updating windows main files.

That is exactly why when you update to sp2 and your computer does not boot to the desktop you know windows was unstable to begin with. when sp2 is updating files and it comes across a file that is corrupt it will not update this file, it will just bi-pass it, so when windows trys to reboot the first time after the installation it will not boot because it is looking for the updated file and it is not finding it because sp 2 did not update it because it was corrupt.

To everyone who thinks sp2 is not ready for release or is not worth installing maybe you should read up on sp2 and understand how it works before bashing it.

out of the billions of people who installed sp2 there were only .5% who ran into problems!

If you have any questions feel free to post or send an e-mail to Tech_Chick@msn.com

[TechChick]

yes, I am female..lol..an a computer geek I perfer computer chick..lol

[TechChick]

If you find your computer is running slow after installing sp2 it is because the sp2 upgrades your bios. To resolve the issue you will have to make changes to your bios and set it back to the way it was before the service pack 2.

[packman]

Alecstaar,

You seem to be saying that removing spyware is pretty straightforward. Well, I've never found it so and a long time ago I gave up trying to do anything about spyware, as bad as I know it is. It seems to me that all the anti-spyware utilities that are around rely on the user, at the end of the day, to decide on which lumps of spyware to delete and usually, in so doing, the Registry, or Windows generally, gets screwed up. Frankly, I think it's better to just leave it alone.

On the other hand, if you know something that I don't, please educate me!

[Windows 2000 + SP3, shortly to become Windows 2000 + SP4 (after a re-format and re-partitioning)].

[packman]

Alecstaar,

Doesn't use of Firefox, instead of Internet Explorer or any of the other popular browsers, help avoid masses of spyware?

Have you tried Firefox yourself, yet?

[fyrewulf]

Hey there. Ever since SP2 install (on a clean copy of XP and a clean HD ) I am having difficulties running some of my games. In the middle of gameplay my system has a critical error and reboots. I heard a rumor there are problems with SP2, some games and my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. Any ideas?


Athlon XP 2200+ (T-bred)
ECS K7S5A Mainboard
512 DDR Ram
Radeon 9800 Pro


=-=-=-=-=
FyreWulf

[fyrewulf]

Originally posted by fyrewulf:

Quote:

Hey there. Ever since SP2 install (on a clean copy of XP and a clean HD ) I am having difficulties running some of my games. In the middle of gameplay my system has a critical error and reboots. I heard a rumor there are problems with SP2, some games and my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. Any ideas?


Athlon XP 2200+ (T-bred)
ECS K7S5A Mainboard
512 DDR Ram
Radeon 9800 Pro


=-=-=-=-=
FyreWulf

-=Correction, this is now happening while using PhotoShop 7, running WinAmp and mIRC. Could this be a CPU temp issue? It was running at 65 degrees celcius before it rebooted this past time.

[abekl]

Originally posted by techchick:

Quote:

If you find your computer is running slow after installing sp2 it is because the sp2 upgrades your bios. To resolve the issue you will have to make changes to your bios and set it back to the way it was before the service pack 2.

SP2 does NOT modify any of the BIOSs in your system. Please get your facts straight before posting incorrect info such as this.

[TechChick]

ok..lol..it resets your bios!!!

[TechChick]

There is no hard copy I can find online here, but I will check for written proof for you when i go to work!

[TechChick]

btw I work for ms

[ScinteX]

a rewrite? ooo baby thats kinda scary and exciting all at the same time!
Which bit and why? Can't say my overclock disappeared when I briefly tried SP2... but then again I didnt explicitly take note.....

However I cannot feasibly see a way that some MS code can possibly screw with everybody's BIOS chips since there are so many. And doesn't Intel own this microcode issue anyway??

BTW it should be documented since I believe that was one of the big deals re: XP.

Here are some handy links for a BIOS issue, which may have got misheard- a-la-chinese-whispers!

http://cquirke.mvps.org/sp2intel.htm

and loosely:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=842465

If SP2 does some how wipe out my BIOS I will be p1ssed! You know how long it took me to delicatly overclock it and set up my SATA RAID?!!!!!!

hehe looking forward to this one

[adamvjackson]

Originally posted by techchick:

Quote:

out of the billions of people who installed sp2 there were only .5% who ran into problems!

And it's those .5% that complain the loudest, as many know. Of course this can apply to anything...

[ScinteX]

i wonder out of that figure, how many problems were actually down to SP2 and not other factors e.g. spyware, software and ummm user ability (hmmm!)??

That figure could be even smaller.

I might try SP2 again- and actually make the effort to get it to work (and prepare properly). I might change that figure to 0.50000000001%

[TechChick]

I didn't find any hard copy of the bios change at work. I know it does not happen on every install and I am not saying it is suppose to happen on every install. I am saying I have seen it happen.

[Kyguy]