A word of warning
 

I had an email today from a friend PollyG who occasionally posts here. Apparently she has a PC with a 64bit AMD processor and they don't like M$ SP2 which her machine tried to download and install. It has completely trashed her machine, which will no longer boot up. She is having to get new Restore discs from Mesh and consequently will lose all her data.

On a similar point, I have yesterday purchased a brilliant backup software system. It is called Goodsync and it does exactly what is says on the box. All my data is quickly and easily synchronized to my external drive. It cost me under £11 and is I think worth every penny. Everytime you run it it will update the files on your backup, deleting files that no longer exist as it goes. You get an exact copy of your current state, fantastic :)

Thanks for the tip, Sorry Polly is having fun with her machine.

That software sounds ideal for backing up photos automatically, something I have been wanted for a while.

Could you please post a link for further information.

There is a free version HERE but if it thinks you are using it too much it prompts you to by a licence. If you do, try using Paypal in USD its cheaper than using GBP

Hi Stephen, What is M$ SP2 out of interest.

Ahh sorry, its Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Windows XP

I have an AMD 64 bit machine and have been running XP sp2 for over a year on it with no problems at all !

Apparently it was the Windows automatic update download of SP2 that the machine did not like. According to Mesh they knew straightaway what the problem was. It seems the system failed to detect the download and presumably take the necessary action. They attempted to shut the door after the horse had bolted, but to no avail

Other than that I know little more, I am only the messenger ;)

I run an AMD 64 machine, downloaded all the updates automatically including SP2, with no problems so don't know what happened but don't think you can blame the AMD 64. More likely a corrupted file in the download. Anyway, bad luck and sooo annoying!

Mmmm, it would seem however after doing a simple Google search that there is a potential conflict with AMD 64bit processors and MS SP2. Check this out

The resultant symptons described in the article were the same as those encountered by Polly

Stephen,

Instead of loosing all of the data, can she not pull the hard drive and slave it to another machine to extract all of her info?

It should only be windows which has been corrupted, not the file structure of the drive.

Cheers
:)

You make a good point, and it is something that had occured to me too. I suspect however that being the canny Geordie lass she is, with a computer savvy son, this may have already been done. However I will pass on the suggestion.

Thanks for the thread,Stephen. Many thanks for the suggestions too. :)

My trashed PC is a 2yr old Mesh with an Athlon processor. I'd been delaying upgrading to sp2
because I knew some people had been having problesm but MS had stuck an icon on the dektop to warn me there's be no further sp1 security updates after October.

The updater did the usual PC scan, listed the service pack for my machine and went ahead as it usually does with the update. When the time came to restart the machine it closed down as normal, started rebooting then went into a loop repeatedly restarting but never fully booting up. It wouldn't go into safe mode - nothing could break the loop.

I'm not very technical but one of my sons knows his way around PCs so he came home to see what could be done. No joy with anything he tried. He phone Mesh technical support and they sussed immediately what was happening. They told us there's an incompatability problem with the processor and sp2 and emailed him a patch that they said may or may not fix the problem. He managed to install the patch but it didn't solve the problem adequately - though we have been able to get into Windows enough to retrieve one important email I didn't have on a backup disc.. managed to read it in wordpad and get what I needed from it.

We phoned Mesh again and let them know it hadn't fixed the problem and apparently it sometimes doesn't work - so they're sending an envelope containing a boot disc and detailed instructions as to how we may get the restore disc working - apparently the original restore disc won't work once this sort of incident occurs and the patch hasn't fixed things .... so I guess we were just very unlucky. :(

My son will be coming home again on Monday to see if he can reformat the PC with the 'fix' discs from Mesh so we'll see how things go and take it from there. They seem to have had quite a few people having the same problems so my son is following their advice as well as trying everything he can do himself - aiming to try every last resort before a reformat.

All my most important stuff is backed up on CD and/or DVD and I only lost maybe 500Mb of photos, the most recent and none especially important - so that's ok.

The incident has also given me the push to go ahead and order a laptop so at least I should be able to get back online again fairly soon - and it also means my son can work on restoring the PC with less pressure as he's also busy at work and lives up some distance from home.

Perhaps it's because my PC and processor date back to 2003/2004 - dunno. However, I do feel the M$ update scan should have detected and incompatible processor and NOT listed it as a recommended and *urgent* update for the PC ...... then stuck an permanent icon in the taskbar with a warning I wouldn't be able to have further security updates unless I installed SP2. But it's done now so I'm just thankful we have a son who can do all the necessary to try to fixed things for me.

See you all again as and when I can - this old PC just ain't up to it. :D

TTFN

Pol

I read on a recent forum that changing the bios settings to basic then restarting the computer may allow you overcome the AMD64/MS SP2 problem and allow you to boot into safe mode, once there you can copy your files to another partition on the hard drive or to a secondary hard drive. If you don't have another partition or a secondary drive, then you will need to save your files to a CD or DVD writer. Make a note of all your bios settings so that you can re-install them before you attempt this procedure.

Incidentally, the AMD64 processors are not incompatible with MS SP2, it may be that you need to upgrade your bios to the latest version.

nirofo.

Polly,

Have you tried using 'system restore' to a date prior to the sp2 instalation?

Cheers,
:)

When I have had a problem like this, I boot from floppy, then go onto c: drive from there I manually rename the windows directory to crash so I know where everything is then reload windows from scratch via the CD. Once I have done that and have everything back I then carefully go through my files until I find the problem one. I have been able in the past to everything back without causing to much hassle.

Tried that, when he eventually managed to get into safe mode - but it didn't work.

P

He did manage to get to the desktop by doing something in the bios (I'm not techie enough to understand all he was doing). He was also able to get into safe mode after installing the patch - but there's no start bar and nothing opens properly. I think he said something about getting there with network prompts, which is an option offered when it's attempting to reboot. he's definitely made some valuable progress so I was able to check if there was anything important that I don't already have backed up on CD. Fortunately - I backed up almost everything a couple of weeks ago and there's not a lot of data stored on the PC. It's the inconvenience that's the worst part of it, though I can at least do the vital things via my husband's old PC.

He's been discussing each stage with Mesh technical support and they say it does sometimes happen this way with my particular model and that's why they're posting another disc and written instructions as to the next possible solutions. Some people found everything came right when the patch was installed - others ended up having to reformat.

I'm very grateful for the various suggestions and I've sent my son a link to this thread, just in case there's anything here that he hasn't already tried - or possible discussed with Mesh technical support.

Thanks again. :)

Pol

That's not an option with this particular PC. there's no boot floppy and they say the original restore disc won't work anyway for this particular problem - so that's why they're sending new discs.

I'm just SO grateful our eldest son knows what's what as I wouldn't know where to start! last time I had a major disaster was 1998 and windows 95 - and that was easily restored with the boot floppy. I must admit i also went nostalgic for my Sureshot70 and cheap film :D

It makes you realise how dependant we are on the PC for processing our own digital photos.

Pol

Anyone contemplating buying a new computer should insist that a full Windows XP operating system disk and any other software disks are included in the purchase price. The restore disk will not do what you need it to do when you have a system problem, you can only restore your system to the condition it was in when you purchased it. Running the restore disk formats your hard drive and removes all your files, photo's etc, it then re-installs Windows XP and any other software your system was originally set up with, end result an original clinically clean PC system. It also means that any software, antivirus, firewalll, Windows updates etc, will have to be downloaded and installed again. Time consuming to say the least!

nirofo.

You are on a seriously wrong tram here, Stephen. There is absolutely no reason to believe that Windows XP SP2 has any compatibility problems with any current processor (or any even vaguely recent one either). That's none, repeat none.

There is, however, very good evidece that the XP SP2 upgrade can trash a system if the system is infected with spyware before the upgrade takes place. This is well-known around the traps, and we have seen it for ourselves from time to time also.

But what on earth was your friend doing installing SP2 now? It's been out for a very long time, and been generally accepted as a good and safe thing to install for almost that long. How did your friend manage to justify not installing it months and months ago? Unless there was a pretty good reason, sounds to me like a simple case of neglecting to maintain the system properly in that respect, which immediately makes me wonder what other things were not maintained properly, and distrust any "conclusion" drawn from that system.

Memo to self: read the whole thread before replying. Nevertheless, failure to install SP2 for this long on a PC running Windows, with it's terrible security problems, is just asking for trouble.

To rescue your data, use another machine with your trashed drive slaved in as a second drive. Any competent computer technician could do that for you in less than an hour.

After rescuing the data, take a Windows CD - it needs to be the same version as the one you hold a liccence for, there are only 4 (XP Home & Pro, both in OEM and upgrade = 4 in total) - wipe the drive, and install off that. Be sure to use your own product key number.

yes true
 

Yes this is true as
Microsoft is now donwloading a licence checker in to your computer and if you have a bad licence it tell microsoft and kill the program

so beware of the hide's of bill gates :(

Not strictly true, it simply stops further updates and keeps nagging you to buy a legit licence. You can still use windows

automatic up

helllo stephen

the can you please tell then how sp2 got in my computer as I did not put it in as I did not what it or put it there
I have norton internet security installed it had turn on microsoft Automatic update which in turn uploaded SP2

AND my computer started going wacky

I try to system restore to remove SP2 but all my back date's had gone
so I had to do it manually remove SP2 and turn off automatic update
now norton keeps nagging to turn automatic update it back on

yours Oillieowlus

It looks as though you've completely trashed your set up, I suggest the only way out of your predicament is to re-boot your computer with Windows XP (Home or Pro edition) and SP2. First of all, you need to back up all your files and photo's, make sure you have all the up to date drivers you need for your hardware, then format your hard drive, re-install Windows along with SP2 and all your other software. You need to install SP2, many software programs now rely on it and may not run properly without it, as you've found out with Symantec Norton, you can of course choose not to install it, but then you will be limiting yourself to only operating with old software. Incidentally, you don't have to run Norton with Windows automatic update swithched on, I have Norton and SP2 on my computer and it runs quite happily without automatic udate switched on!

nirofo.

You can always try to back date the registry to the day before the updates were installed, this may get you out of trouble.

Search - Help - Registry in WXp and follow the instructions.

Brian

It's all fixed now, thanks. My son has sorted things, no data lost.

Pol

hello Nirofo

no my computer has not been trashed
since I have taken SP2 out and switch off auto update's off and taken some update out it's running very nicely and faster
plus I always backup all I wish to keep On dvd as one of my job I had to backup all the days data it made me do it all the time

I am beging to think that auto update are mainly to slow your computer down so so you think something is to old and slow and go out and buy a new one
so BILL GATES get even more filthy rich and we all stay destitute

your ollieowlus

I'm no lover of Bill Gates and the "evil empire" ;) but have to say that I agree with Tannin that to run windows without all the security updates which plug some of the holes is asking for trouble. Good luck!:)

hello miketoll
I did not say take all the patches out but you should check what they do before letting them in
to find out what they do type there number i:e kb828741
to google or your browers address bar there are lot of people out there that will
let you know what it do'se
P.S thats one's a security patch that close's the back on hackers so I keep it.

have fun ollieowlus ;)

I also have found a web page you may wish to read

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06...a_phones_home/