J
Jim Davidson
I was running fine with Win2k Pro with SP2. Bought an external DVD
burner (USB 2.0). Computer is a Gateway E-3200, BX chipset, PII 400
Mhz with only USB 1.1. Bought SIIG USB 2.0 card. Rather than install
the SIIG driver or the separate MS driver, decided to install SP4.
Read a few SP4 experiences on various forums, most all positive. First
SP4 install failed, error about IIS (5) metabase. Found error on some
forum, another user also had the error. Tried again, same error.
Uninstalled IIS, reinstalled IIS, stop services. SP4 install finishes
-- woohoo!! Reboot, uh-oh. Startup now takes maybe 15 minutes, long
pause during startup where screen is just the desktop background color
and the mouse pointer (which moves). Tray icons take minutes to
appear. Et cetera.
After booting, apps are slow to launch. Explorer windows, after being
minimized, are slow to redraw, things like that. But, after a few
minutes of use, everything is back to normal speed (everything
actually feels a little zippier than with SP2!). Slowness seems to be
all gone. But -- shutdown, and PC screen again at one point shows
background color + mouse pointer for what seems like 5 minutes or so
before it shuts down properly. Fortunately I archived the SP2 files.
Although I didn't do any exact timings, I've noted that reapplying SP4
(without uninstalling) and rebooting adds a few extra minutes to my
bootup time. Then repopulating the dllcache with SFC /SCANNOW shaves a
few minutes back from the next reboot. Strange...
Doing some searching found this list of SP4 bugs
http://www.tokeshi.com/modules.php?...e=article&sid=783&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
which contains the greatest number of "real world" issues w/SP4 I
found. Mentioned are "Slow reboots" and "Cannot shutdown." But the
most striking thing to me is that there is a KB article on how in SP4
the behavior of the Heap Manager has changed:
Heap Manager Change in Service Pack 4 and Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];195008
This changes the "heap manager allocation pattern to provide for
better performance and scalability for multithreaded
applications...These changes might expose user-mode, process heap
allocation bugs in some applications." Symptoms of applications that
don't properly comply with the new heap behavior range from "simple
access violation to a more obscure loss of functionality or apparently
corrupted data." A link is given to another KB article that gives a
procedure to make Registry entries for problematic apps for which the
OS will use the pre-SP4 heap allocation methods:
195009 Application Access Violation or Hang After Applying SP4
Whew! From the tone of this article MS is saying that any noncompliant
apps are "badly written" and it's not the fault of the OS if they
misbehave. But I'm wondering how much of the current software we use
is compliant with the new Heap Manager way of doing things? We all
know how badly alot of modern software is written. Betcha SP4 breaks
alot of software and a list of noncompliants will be forthcoming. Also
wondering how much of the SP4 OS *itself* is compliant -- during one
of my reboots, SVCHOST.EXE crashed on me... <G>
The mention of data corruption in the KB article scares me so I'm
going to revert back to SP2 level after I post this. Lotsa entries in
my event log about SCSI errors and my Tekram card...
It's July 18 and I've just read thru all these threads here on SP4.
Nobody has mentioned this Heap Manager thing as the cause of the
slowness -- am I barking up the right tree?
burner (USB 2.0). Computer is a Gateway E-3200, BX chipset, PII 400
Mhz with only USB 1.1. Bought SIIG USB 2.0 card. Rather than install
the SIIG driver or the separate MS driver, decided to install SP4.
Read a few SP4 experiences on various forums, most all positive. First
SP4 install failed, error about IIS (5) metabase. Found error on some
forum, another user also had the error. Tried again, same error.
Uninstalled IIS, reinstalled IIS, stop services. SP4 install finishes
-- woohoo!! Reboot, uh-oh. Startup now takes maybe 15 minutes, long
pause during startup where screen is just the desktop background color
and the mouse pointer (which moves). Tray icons take minutes to
appear. Et cetera.
After booting, apps are slow to launch. Explorer windows, after being
minimized, are slow to redraw, things like that. But, after a few
minutes of use, everything is back to normal speed (everything
actually feels a little zippier than with SP2!). Slowness seems to be
all gone. But -- shutdown, and PC screen again at one point shows
background color + mouse pointer for what seems like 5 minutes or so
before it shuts down properly. Fortunately I archived the SP2 files.
Although I didn't do any exact timings, I've noted that reapplying SP4
(without uninstalling) and rebooting adds a few extra minutes to my
bootup time. Then repopulating the dllcache with SFC /SCANNOW shaves a
few minutes back from the next reboot. Strange...
Doing some searching found this list of SP4 bugs
http://www.tokeshi.com/modules.php?...e=article&sid=783&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
which contains the greatest number of "real world" issues w/SP4 I
found. Mentioned are "Slow reboots" and "Cannot shutdown." But the
most striking thing to me is that there is a KB article on how in SP4
the behavior of the Heap Manager has changed:
Heap Manager Change in Service Pack 4 and Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];195008
This changes the "heap manager allocation pattern to provide for
better performance and scalability for multithreaded
applications...These changes might expose user-mode, process heap
allocation bugs in some applications." Symptoms of applications that
don't properly comply with the new heap behavior range from "simple
access violation to a more obscure loss of functionality or apparently
corrupted data." A link is given to another KB article that gives a
procedure to make Registry entries for problematic apps for which the
OS will use the pre-SP4 heap allocation methods:
195009 Application Access Violation or Hang After Applying SP4
Whew! From the tone of this article MS is saying that any noncompliant
apps are "badly written" and it's not the fault of the OS if they
misbehave. But I'm wondering how much of the current software we use
is compliant with the new Heap Manager way of doing things? We all
know how badly alot of modern software is written. Betcha SP4 breaks
alot of software and a list of noncompliants will be forthcoming. Also
wondering how much of the SP4 OS *itself* is compliant -- during one
of my reboots, SVCHOST.EXE crashed on me... <G>
The mention of data corruption in the KB article scares me so I'm
going to revert back to SP2 level after I post this. Lotsa entries in
my event log about SCSI errors and my Tekram card...
It's July 18 and I've just read thru all these threads here on SP4.
Nobody has mentioned this Heap Manager thing as the cause of the
slowness -- am I barking up the right tree?