SP2 - what the heck???

  • Thread starter Thread starter SuZ
  • Start date Start date
S

SuZ

I'm a TOTAL newbie to XP - but not too bad at the older stuff, so please
bear with me. Upgraded to XP from WinME.

Downloaded and installed the new Service Pack 2 and immediately noticed that
it disabled my (generic) E-IDE 56x CD-ROM - although it didn't bother my
Sony DVD-ROM player or my Plextor CD-RW (which at any rate doesn't seem to
be recognized as a WRITER anyhow - but that's another post...).

Also, both the Primary and Secondary IDE Controllers stopped functioning
(with the little ? in the yellow circle). When I checked out why the IDE
Cont'rs weren't working, it said there weren't enough resources available
and to delete one or more devices in order to let them work properly. Oh
great - what to disable??? >:-) It had already obviously disabled (or
actually stopped recognizing) the 56x already and since my system is sort of
old I NEED all the stuff that it recognized correctly (it still won't
recognize my modem).

At any rate I had luckily done a System Restore Check Point just before
installing SP2 and was able to get my CD-ROM back to functioning and the IDE
controllers back to normal as well.

Has anyone else had this problem? And if so - what the heck do you do about
it? Just NOT use the SP2 or what? I realize that my system is far from
state-of-the art as it is about 3-4 years old - but short of rebuilding it
with all new components has anyone found a workaround??

Thanks in advance, oh wise ones...
Susie
 
SuZ said:
I'm a TOTAL newbie to XP - but not too bad at the older stuff, so
please bear with me. Upgraded to XP from WinME.

Downloaded and installed the new Service Pack 2 and immediately
noticed that it disabled my (generic) E-IDE 56x CD-ROM - although it
didn't bother my Sony DVD-ROM player or my Plextor CD-RW (which at
any rate doesn't seem to be recognized as a WRITER anyhow - but
that's another post...).

Also, both the Primary and Secondary IDE Controllers stopped
functioning (with the little ? in the yellow circle). When I checked
out why the IDE Cont'rs weren't working, it said there weren't enough
resources available and to delete one or more devices in order to let
them work properly. Oh great - what to disable??? >:-) It had
already obviously disabled (or actually stopped recognizing) the 56x
already and since my system is sort of old I NEED all the stuff that
it recognized correctly (it still won't recognize my modem).

At any rate I had luckily done a System Restore Check Point just
before installing SP2 and was able to get my CD-ROM back to
functioning and the IDE controllers back to normal as well.

Has anyone else had this problem? And if so - what the heck do you
do about it? Just NOT use the SP2 or what? I realize that my system
is far from state-of-the art as it is about 3-4 years old - but short
of rebuilding it with all new components has anyone found a
workaround??

Thanks in advance, oh wise ones...
Susie
Click to expand...

Hello,
Which download of SP2 did you get? The "full file" (so-called network file) ? or online update via site at Windows Update?
Most importantly, prior to setup of SP2 , did you disable Antivirus and all *startup* programs?
Do you have any virtual drives?

These are only a few starter questions. Do post back with relevant detail.
Do follow good procedures before you apply "any" service pack.

Look at the Pre-Installation Recommendations
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=45

Windows XP SP2 - FAQ & Best Practices" at Aumha.org
http://forum.aumha.org/index.php?c=16
 
Maurice,
I found your answer to Suz question packed with a lot of great information,
which I saved to read at a later date. I wish I would have found this site a
few hours earlier as I began downloading SP2 at 6:00pm. Right now I'm at 66%
aquired.
My question is this: I did not turn off my Norton Antivirus prior to the
start of downloading this evening, have others like me incurred any know
problems that you or anyone else have heard of? And thanks so much again.
Although I've had XP for over a year, I'm still a novice at the whole
computer thing, I'm very disappointed that on all my reading in preparation
for SP2, Microsoft wasn't as detailed as your answer was.
Thanks,
KarenB
 
hope i am not intruding, but i too started my SP2 installation didn't have a
problem with the download (took about 15 min) however the install was going
into its second hour and had only installed very little according to the
bar, then i remembered reading that i should have done a few things first...
so i aborted the install, disconnected from the internet, turned off the
antivirus and firewall (i have NIS) installed the SP2, it worked like a
charm and it only took a few min... have had no problems so far (got
fingers crossed)... i guess i probably should have turned off the Norton
before the download, but it didn't seem to have been a problem, so i
presumed it was ok...

by the way, i have only had my computer and XP for 5 mos and this newsgroup
has been a *lifesaving* experience for me...
 
Thanks very much to all for responding - (especially Maurice) for the info
and comments. I will carefully read the info at the links you provided
before my next attempt ;-). I used the one available at the Windows Update
site. Should I have used the other one you mentioned?? If by "Virtual
Drives" you mean is my disk partitioned, the answer is yes, but they hold
only 1.) Media (music and pix) and 2.) Game files. What effect does this
have on my IDE Controllers and CD-ROM?

I actually DID have everything turned off (that I know of - should I have
used EndItAll2 to be sure?? because McAfee Virus I've noticed does leave
some files running in the background even when you turn if "off"). I guess
I should have used MSCONFIG to disable all start-up items before the
download - but I didn't.

I had done the backup as suggested in the "things you should know" link
blurb, (and had done the System Restore Point as mentioned).

Looking forward to your response especially about the "Virutal Drives"
having an effect as well as the difference (and possibly advantage of the
"full file" as opposed to the Win Update one.

Take care all and thanks very much again.
~*~ SuZ ~*~
 
KarenB said:
Maurice,
I found your answer to Suz question packed with a lot of great
information, which I saved to read at a later date. I wish I would
have found this site a few hours earlier as I began downloading SP2
at 6:00pm. Right now I'm at 66% aquired.
My question is this: I did not turn off my Norton Antivirus prior to
the start of downloading this evening, have others like me incurred
any know problems that you or anyone else have heard of? And thanks
so much again. Although I've had XP for over a year, I'm still a
novice at the whole computer thing, I'm very disappointed that on all
my reading in preparation for SP2, Microsoft wasn't as detailed as
your answer was. Thanks,
KarenB
Click to expand...

Hello Karen,
Hope it helped somehow. Now then, did your Service Pack 2 setup go OK?
 
SuZ said:
Thanks very much to all for responding - (especially Maurice) for the
info and comments. I will carefully read the info at the links you
provided before my next attempt ;-). I used the one available at the
Windows Update site. Should I have used the other one you
mentioned?? If by "Virtual Drives" you mean is my disk partitioned,
the answer is yes, but they hold only 1.) Media (music and pix) and
2.) Game files. What effect does this have on my IDE Controllers and
CD-ROM?

I actually DID have everything turned off (that I know of - should I
have used EndItAll2 to be sure?? because McAfee Virus I've noticed
does leave some files running in the background even when you turn if
"off"). I guess I should have used MSCONFIG to disable all start-up
items before the download - but I didn't.

I had done the backup as suggested in the "things you should know"
link blurb, (and had done the System Restore Point as mentioned).

Looking forward to your response especially about the "Virutal Drives"
having an effect as well as the difference (and possibly advantage of
the "full file" as opposed to the Win Update one.

Take care all and thanks very much again.
~*~ SuZ ~*~
Click to expand...
Hi SuZ,
Having your disk partitioned is fine. Now, if you have to ask about "virtual drive" , then you most likely do not have it or use it.
There are 3rd party utilities to make "virtual" drives on your system. and you would have to buy them.
Just one example is Virtual Drive (from FarStone Software) which allows putting (copying) CDs into your hard disk, and then assigning "virtual" drive letter to each.
Another example of virtual drive utilities is Daemon-Tools.

Since you do not have virtual drives, this issue is not applicable to your problems.

On disabling startups in MSCONFIG , and disabling antivirus: the thing to do is to disable what you have to, immediately do a shutdown / restart of Windows, so that Windows is loaded up again "in a minimal" way. Then proceed with Service Pack process.

Getting Service Pack from Windows Update website is probably ok for beginners. It only sends to your pc what it needs to update to SP2 level.
The "full file" is recommended for advanced users and for those in corporate-type networks (having many pc's).
Even if you are a beginner, providing you can follow instructions & hopefully know a little about setup of a program, then, you too can make use of the "full file" of SP2.

Did this system come with CD & CDRW & DVD-ROM factory installed? or did you add this hardware to it?
If you added ant of these, How are they cabled physically ---- in terms of hook to IDE channel onto motherboard, and are they set as Master or Slave (physical pins in back of devices) ?
 
Maurice,
I will be able to answer you much better on Sunday. Most of my computer
home time has been spent on reading "how to", and "preparing for", I haven't
spent much time on "learning about". As the mother of 3 grown children,
teaching myself how to use the computer, sometimes the simplist tasks take
can hours... LOL. !st I have to read, go to the help pages for pointers and
tips, and then spend time playing with, and getting to know new data. I can
can you I'm just tickled to have found this page and all the kind,
knowledgeable people on here.
What I can tell you is after installation, I did get confirmation that the
download was successful and that I should restart my computer. I have
incurred some little changes so far tonight, and my computer appears to be
working perfect. Tonight and tomorrow wil be spent on "after the download"
steps, getting to know all the changes, etc. I slao did order the free SP2 CD
from Microsoft which should arrive in 4-6 just in case. I have leanrned one
very valuable piece of information here though, it's OK to get information
from Microsoft and other reliable sources from here and combined them for a
better window of knowledge.
Thanks to all,
 
KarenB said:
I have to read, go to the help pages for pointers and
tips, and then spend time playing with, and getting to know new data.
Click to expand...

That alone puts you higher up the evolutionary ladder than most of the
posters here!
 
KarenB said:
Ahhh, shucks. Miller time always tastes better after hard work.
Click to expand...
LOL. It's many hours later since you posted. I just had my Miller a few minutes ago, when I ran across this. :)
 
I might have to use that Miller as an eye-wash. I'm trying to get through all
91 pages of posts' brfore I start to execute or change any new options. This
can be so additive and challenging all at the same time. All the websites I
saved in the past two days, the scenerios goes something like this: read a
paragraph, get an idea, execute anew cleanup, a new test, empty cookies, etc.
Read another paragraph, flip back to settings and test out some thing
else...etc, etc. Right now I'm testing the theory the beer makes your
retention better. LOL
 
Hi Maurice:

Glad to know the partitions aren't the problem...I definitely don't have a
Virtual Drive.

1.) Where do you get the "full version"? I am assuming I can follow the
instructions (she said with fingers crossed....)

2.) The "factory" was my brother and the cable connections are as follows:
Primary Master - Hard Drive
Primary Slave - Sony DVD-ROM
Secondary Master - Plextor CD-RW
Secondary Slave - (generic) EIDE CD-ROM 56x

I'm pretty sure there are two IDE 'slots' or whatever - but I'm not sure how
they're hooked in.
I guess the bottom line would be that I've never messed with them and
they've always worked fine before, although now that I'm running XP it never
seems to recognize that the Plextor CD-RW is a place to backup to....but
then, neither did WinME - but CD Clone, & Roxio seems to work OK

Thanks again,
SuZ


SuZ said:
Thanks very much to all for responding - (especially Maurice) for the
info and comments. I will carefully read the info at the links you
provided before my next attempt ;-). I used the one available at the
Windows Update site. Should I have used the other one you
mentioned?? If by "Virtual Drives" you mean is my disk partitioned,
the answer is yes, but they hold only 1.) Media (music and pix) and
2.) Game files. What effect does this have on my IDE Controllers and
CD-ROM?

I actually DID have everything turned off (that I know of - should I
have used EndItAll2 to be sure?? because McAfee Virus I've noticed
does leave some files running in the background even when you turn if
"off"). I guess I should have used MSCONFIG to disable all start-up
items before the download - but I didn't.

I had done the backup as suggested in the "things you should know"
link blurb, (and had done the System Restore Point as mentioned).

Looking forward to your response especially about the "Virutal Drives"
having an effect as well as the difference (and possibly advantage of
the "full file" as opposed to the Win Update one.

Take care all and thanks very much again.
~*~ SuZ ~*~
Click to expand...
Hi SuZ,
Having your disk partitioned is fine. Now, if you have to ask about
"virtual drive" , then you most likely do not have it or use it.
There are 3rd party utilities to make "virtual" drives on your system. and
you would have to buy them.
Just one example is Virtual Drive (from FarStone Software) which allows
putting (copying) CDs into your hard disk, and then assigning "virtual"
drive letter to each.
Another example of virtual drive utilities is Daemon-Tools.

Since you do not have virtual drives, this issue is not applicable to your
problems.

On disabling startups in MSCONFIG , and disabling antivirus: the thing to
do is to disable what you have to, immediately do a shutdown / restart of
Windows, so that Windows is loaded up again "in a minimal" way. Then
proceed with Service Pack process.

Getting Service Pack from Windows Update website is probably ok for
beginners. It only sends to your pc what it needs to update to SP2 level.
The "full file" is recommended for advanced users and for those in
corporate-type networks (having many pc's).
Even if you are a beginner, providing you can follow instructions &
hopefully know a little about setup of a program, then, you too can make use
of the "full file" of SP2.

Did this system come with CD & CDRW & DVD-ROM factory installed? or did you
add this hardware to it?
If you added ant of these, How are they cabled physically ---- in terms of
hook to IDE channel onto motherboard, and are they set as Master or Slave
(physical pins in back of devices) ?
 
SuZ said:
Hi Maurice:

Glad to know the partitions aren't the problem...I definitely don't
have a Virtual Drive.

1.) Where do you get the "full version"? I am assuming I can follow
the instructions (she said with fingers crossed....)

2.) The "factory" was my brother and the cable connections are as
follows: Primary Master - Hard Drive
Primary Slave - Sony DVD-ROM
Secondary Master - Plextor CD-RW
Secondary Slave - (generic) EIDE CD-ROM 56x

I'm pretty sure there are two IDE 'slots' or whatever - but I'm not
sure how they're hooked in.
I guess the bottom line would be that I've never messed with them and
they've always worked fine before, although now that I'm running XP
it never seems to recognize that the Plextor CD-RW is a place to
backup to....but then, neither did WinME - but CD Clone, & Roxio
seems to work OK

Thanks again,
SuZ
Click to expand...
Hi Suz,

#1. I am taking liberty of cross-posting into xp.hardware.
I think it's possible the physical order & connections of your devices matter.

#2. To the hardware gurus: Suz's CDRom is not being recognized when she had XP-SP2 (now removed SP2).
Would you recommend a different order for the devices?

#3. To Suz, why do you need the CDRom drive? You could make do with just the CDRW & DVD-Rom.
In that case, I'd have your brother-in-law take out the CDRom, and move the DVDRom over to its place.

#4. On MS Backup program, (if that's what you used), it does not backup to CDRW.
 
See inline comments too ;)

I took the liberty of looking up the original post. Here are my
suggestions:

1) Remove all optical drives (DVD\CD\CDRW) and your IDE Controllers from
Device Manager (Start-Run-Devmgmt.msc)

2) Install the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard. If you
don't know what chipset your motherboard uses or what motherboard you
have, you can use Everest Home (free) from www.lavalys.com to do this.
It will provide you a link to the latest chipset drivers as well.

3) Reboot after installing these drivers and Windows will automatically
reinstall all of your hardware that you removed (IDE Controllers and
Optical Drives).

If the drives still don't work from there, post back :)

----
Nathan McNulty

Hi Suz,

#1. I am taking liberty of cross-posting into xp.hardware.
I think it's possible the physical order & connections of your devices matter.
Click to expand...
Thanks for crossposting as this is a common question throughout these
newsgroups. Technically Windows can handle any configuration you set
the drives on. XP can boot off the slave of the secondary IDE
Controller, you just have to set up your BIOS that way.
#2. To the hardware gurus: Suz's CDRom is not being recognized when she had XP-SP2 (now removed SP2).
Would you recommend a different order for the devices?
Click to expand...
The devices are in a good configuration. I would leave it the way it is
for two reasons. First, it worked before so there is no reason to
change it. Second, you may introduce new problems (most likely not
though) if you were to change their order. It really depends on how the
BIOS takes to the changes.
#3. To Suz, why do you need the CDRom drive? You could make do with just the CDRW & DVD-Rom.
In that case, I'd have your brother-in-law take out the CDRom, and move the DVDRom over to its place.
Click to expand...
I agree with this sentiment. There is no point in having so many
optical drives. They really eat power from your system and there is
really no need for that many of them.
 
Just out of interest why do you need two CD ROM DRIVES?
The DVD-ROM drive reads/plays CD'S
So why have a CD-ROM drive as well?
Also it would be better to not have a DVD/CDRW/CD ROM drive on the same
cable as the HD.
I have two hd's on IDE1 and my DVD-RAM/CD RW drive and DVD ROM drive on IDE2
 
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